By Olga Smith
There are five long and seven short vowels in English. Below is the list with their phonetic symbols:
Long Pure Vowels
[iː] – feet – [fiːt]
[ɜː] – third – [θɜːd]
[uː] – boot – [buːt]
[ɑː] – bark – [bɑːk]
[ɔː] – fort – [fɔːt]
Short Pure Vowels
[ɪ] – pit – [pɪt]
[e] – pet – [pet]
[æ] – mad – [mæd]
[ʌ] – hut – [hʌt]
[ɒ] – box – [bɒks]
[ʊ] – book – [bʊk]
Neutral Vowel (schwa)
[ə] – the – [ðə]
Each vowel has a particular speech organ position and we start all our elocution lessons, apps and books chapters by explaining it to our students and asking them to check it in the mirror when possible. To get the best results with these apps, download the video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.
Many long vowels exist in some languages, and native representatives of these languages have no difficulty pronouncing them, it comes naturally to them.
Whilst in Russian, for example, there are no long vowels, therefore there is a natural tendency for Russians to shorten long English vowels and diphthongs. Instead of “two sheets of paper” they most likely will pronounce “two shits of paper”. Instead of saying “the room is dark”, they are likely to pronounce “the room is duck”. To overcome this difficulty we recommend Russians to first learn long vowels, then short vowels, and finally practise comparisons of long and short vowels. In fact, sometimes it is even better to start with a comparison in order to see a difference between long [iː] and short [ɪ], for example.
Usually, words with long vowels sound prominent and reflect the rhythm of the language.
Certain short pure English vowels are often rare in other languages and therefore it is more difficult and time-consuming for students to master them.
Schwa is very short and unstressed. Very often vowels in unstressed positions are pronounced as a schwa. Schwa is considered to be the most important sound in English, read our blog about it.
Another thing to be aware of is that long vowels are not always long and short vowels are not always short. There is no specific rule for that, it depends on where you wish to put your stress in a phrase or sentence to convey your meaning. To master your English vowels we recommend practising the sounds with apps and books, and booking a few elocution lessons.