Long Vowel Sounds

Standard English pronunciation has 6 long vowel phonemes:

NOTE – /ɛː/ is represented as a diphthong vowel sound /eə/ in some IPA charts.

Long Vowel Spellings

Common spellings for each long vowel sound are underlined below:

/iː/ sheet, leaf, niece
/uː/ few, mood, two
/əː/ first, burn, worst
/ɔː/ fall, paw, sort
/ɛː/ dare, hair, bear
/ɑː/ far, dance*, palm

*Pronounced with short /a/ in northern English accents.

The Sound of English

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