vowel
vowel — noun
1. a human speech sound that you create by opening your mouth so air can exit freel
a human speech sound that you create by opening your mouth so air can exit freely, as nothing in the mouth blocks the flow
The vowel sound in 'hat' differs from the one in 'hot', though both are short.
short vowels: 'hat' vs 'hot'
Obi's language teacher asked the class to hold each vowel sound for two seconds.
practicing vowel sound duration
When Esteban said 'thirteen', his vowel sound came out too long and changed the word.
During phonics class, Beatriz compared the five vowel sounds of Spanish with twenty in English.
Nila could hear the vowel sound difference between 'sleep' and 'slip' after weeks of practice.
- vowel sound
more explicit, used to distinguish the sound from the written letter
- monophthong
technical term for a pure vowel with one stable quality; C2 vocabulary
- consonant
a speech sound made by blocking or restricting airflow
用法筆記
Frequently used in phonetics and language-learning contexts. Vowels are classified by tongue height (high/mid/low), tongue position (front/central/back), and lip rounding.
常見錯誤
2. a written character used to represent a spoken vowel, such as the English letter
a written character used to represent a spoken vowel, such as the English letters A, E, and I along with O, U, and occasionally Y
Minho underlined the vowel letter in each word during his spelling quiz at school.
finding vowel letters in spelling practice
Jude listed the five vowel letters on his whiteboard — A, E, I, O, and U.
the five vowel letters
Jabari asked his English teacher why Y becomes a vowel letter in the word 'rhythm'.
Dylan's class learned the vowel letters by singing them to a simple tune.
Adina typed 'queue' into her phone and giggled at four vowel letters in a row.
- vowel letter
explicit term that avoids confusion with vowel sounds
- vowel symbol
more technical; can include diacritics or phonetic symbols
- consonant letter
a letter that represents a consonant sound
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1: this sense refers to the written symbol, not the acoustic sound. In English, Y is considered a vowel letter only when it represents a vowel sound (e.g., 'myth', 'gym'), not a consonant sound (e.g., 'yes', 'yellow').