Understanding English Spelling Patterns: Vowel Edition

English spelling often gets a bad reputation for being unpredictable and irregular, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Did you know that only 4% of all English words are truly irregular? That means 96% of English words follow predictable patterns! Understanding these patterns can unlock new levels of decoding and spelling proficiency for students, and give us better explanations about why a word is spelled the way it is (instead of just saying “because”).

In this issue of Literacy Leaders, we dive into some of the common vowel patterns in the English orthography, or spelling system. We hope the patterns in this newsletter will help you and your students navigate the complexities of English spelling with confidence!

Common Spelling Patterns and Rules Impacting Vowels

1. The Schwa Sound: Any vowel can represent the schwa sound in an unstressed syllable or word. Schwa, represented by the character ?, often sounds like a short i or short u, as seen in words like balloon (b?l-loon), calendar (cal-?n-dar), family (fam-?-ly), and lemon (lem-?n). Dialect can influence schwa pronunciation; for example, cactus might sound like “cac-tis” in some regions.
2. Long Vowels in Open Syllables: Vowels A, E, O, and U are typically long at the end of syllables, as in bā-con, bē-fore, nō, and bū-gle. While Silent E often creates long vowel sounds, open syllables account for approximately 30% of all syllables in English. Teaching this rule explicitly can significantly improve decoding skills.
3. English Words Do Not End in I, U, V, or J: This rule explains why we see Silent E in words like give, clue, and pie. Exceptions include foreign words (e.g., chai, haiku, zucchini) or abbreviations (e.g., flu, improv). Exploring etymology can deepen understanding of these exceptions.
4. Some Vowel Spellings Can’t End English Words: To adhere to Rule #3, the English orthography provides alternative spellings. Here are several examples:

• AI (drain) becomes AY (essay)
• AU (pause) becomes AW (law)
• I (tiger) becomes IGH (high), IE (pie), or Y (fly)
• OI (boil) becomes OY (enjoy)
• OU (about) becomes OW (now)

5. The Many Roles of Silent E: While the most common reason for Silent E is to make the preceding vowel long, that isn’t Silent E’s only job! Here are other purposes for this quiet letter:

• Prevents I, U, and V from ending a word, like in the words pie, clue, and love.
• Softens C to /s/ and G to /j/, like in the words dance and orange.
• Voices TH, like in the words breathe and clothe.
• Adds a vowel to a syllable, like in the words bicycle and purple
• Distinguishes from plural nouns and verb forms, like dens vs. dense and moos vs. moose
• Clarifies meaning, like in the words ore and bye

“The more a teacher understands about how English spelling works, the more likely it is that students will improve their spelling and decoding.” -Kroese, Mather, & Sammons, 2006

By deepening your understanding of English spelling patterns and rules, you can provide your students with powerful tools for success in both reading and writing. Stay tuned for a future newsletter addressing English spelling patterns and rules pertaining to consonants! In the meantime, download our free Spelling Frequencies Resource for Short Vowels!

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