Short vowel spelling

**Short vowel spelling** consists in the spelling patterns that very often, but not always, represent the so-called short sounds of the vowel letters, as in trap /æ/, dress /e/, kit /ɪ/, lot /ɒ/ [ɒ,*BrE* ɑː*AmE*], and strut /ʌ/. When "a", "o" and "u" are not stressed they sound schwa /ə/. When "e" and "i" are not stressed, they sound /ɪ/ or /ə/.

In their shortest form these patterns are VCC and VC#, where V is a single vowel, C is a consonant and # is the end of the word. This means that a short vowel spelling is a vowel followed by either two consonants, or just one consonants and the end of the word.

A better short form considers the patterns VC1[C1]# + VD# (a single or double consonant, or a digraph at the end of the word) and VCC.

VCC can be broken into VCC...# (two or more consonants after a single vowel), VC2 (a duplicate consonant in the middle of the word) and VC1C2 (two different consonants in the middle of the word).

In the cases of C1[C1] and C2 we consider "ck" to be a double consonant.

In addition, the consonant immediately following the vowel cannot be "r". Finally, the patterns VChe#, VCle# and VCre# are not considered. This means that "ache", "catastrophe", "acre", "title" (and even "bicycle" or "treble") don't have short vowel spelling even if they are followed by two consonants.

## Examples

### VC1[C1]# or VD#

This patterns consist in a single vowel (V) as the last vowel of the word followed by one consonant (C1), by two identical consonants (C1C1), or by a digraph (D = "ch", "ck", "gh", "ph", "sh", "th"). We also consider "tch".

This patterns have very few exceptions.

#### aC1[C1]# or aD#

Conforming words:

* as /æ/: attack, can, that, trap
* as /ə/: human, local, woman

Exceptions:

* as /ɔː/: all, small
* as /ɒ/: wad, watch
* as /ɒ/,*BrE* *AmE* /ɔː/*AmE*: wash
* Only in BrE as /ɑː/,*BrE* /æ/*AmE*: photograph, staff

So-called long sound with short sound spelling:

* /eɪ/: bass *(music)*

#### eC1[C1]# or eD#

Conforming words:

* as /e/: dress, egg, fresh, get, hotel, stretch, when
* as /ə/: even, level, problem

* Plural as /ɪ/: buses, gases
* Third person as /ɪ/: focuses, forces
* Past tense as /ɪ/: avoided, marketed

Superseding rules

* Plural as /iː/: analyses, theses
* Silent past tense: stopped, lived

#### iC1[C1]# or iD#

Conforming words:

* as stressed /ɪ/: did, fill, kit, this, until
* as unstressed /ɪ/: tennis, victim, visit
* as /ə/: council, pupil

#### oC1[C1]# or oD#

Conforming words:

* as /ɒ/: job, lot, not, upon
* as /ə/: bottom, person, symbol

Exceptions:

* as /ʌ/: son
* Only in AmE, as /ɔː/,*AmE* /ɒ/*BrE*: across, alcohol

So-called long sound with short sound spelling:

* /əʊ/: control, gross, roll

#### uC1[C1]# or uD#

Conforming words:

* as /ʌ/: but, luck, run, strut
* as /ə/: focus, minimum, useful

Exceptions:

* as /ʊ/: full, put

### VCC

This pattern consists in a single vowel followed by two (or more) consonants.
This pattern has many exceptions, but the conforming words are in the majority. The next three patterns are equivalent to it, and they have different degrees of reliability.

#### aCC

Conforming words:

* as /æ/: and, angry, battle, c**a**lculator, trapped
* as /ə/: account, admire, important

Exceptions:

* as /ɔː/: also, walk
* as /ɒ/: wander, wasp
* as /ɒ/,*BrE* *AmE* /ɔː/*AmE*: want
* as /ɑː/: palm, father
* Only in BrE as /ɑː/,*BrE* /æ/*AmE*: giraffe, last

So-called long sound (/eɪ/) with short sound spelling

* Magic e with two consonants: strange
* Others: ancient, April, chamber

### VCC...#

Two or more consonants at the end of the word (excluding a double consonant or a digraph).

 Exceptions

#### aCC...#

Conforming words:

* as /æ/: and, exact
* as /ə/: important, thousand, thousandth

Exceptions:

* as /ɔː/: talk, walk, warm, warmth
* as /ɒ/: wasp
* as /ɒ/,*BrE* *AmE* /ɔː/*AmE*: want
* as /ɑː/: palm
* Only in BrE as /ɑː/,*BrE* /æ/*AmE*: command, last

#### eCC...#

This pattern (probably) does not have exceptions. In the few cases that "e" can be pronounced /ɪ/ it also can be pronounced /e/ or /ə/.

Conforming words:

* as /e/: attempt, help, next, project
* as /ə/: different, eleventh, government

Partial exceptions:

* /ɪ/ or /ə/: forest, honest
* /ɪ/ or /ə/ or /e/: interest

#### iCC...#

Conforming words:

* as /ɪ/: conflict, drink, exist, film, lift, link, list, mint, politics, print, risk, think
* as /aɪ/: behind, child, design, find, high, kind, mind, pint

### VC2

Here a double consonant follows the vowel, but not at the end of the word, because that situation is considered in VC1[C1]#.

This pattern has very few exceptions.

#### aC2

Conforming words:

* as /æ/: battle, rabbit, traffic, trapped
* as /ə/: accept, affect, machine, totally

Exceptions:

* Only in BrE as /ɑː/,*BrE* /æ/*AmE*: giraffe
* Silent "a": basically, typically

#### eC2

Conforming words:

* as /e/: intelligence, professional, reckon, tennis
* as /ə/: excellent, intellectual, necessary
* as /ɪ/: dessert, eccentric, effect, essential

Exceptions:

* stressed /ɪ/ (spelling anomaly): pretty

### VC1C2

Here the vowel is followed by two different consonants, but we don't consider words ending in "he" (as "ache"), "le" (as "title") or "re" (as "acre").

 Unstressed vowel
 Silent letter |  | something

#### aC1C2

Conforming words:

* as /æ/: angry, c**a**lculator
* as /ə/: admire

Exceptions:

* as /ɔː/: also
* as /ɒ/: wander
* as /ɑː/: father

So-called long sound (/eɪ/) with short sound spelling

* Magic e with two consonants: strange
* Others: ancient, April, chamber

#### eC1C2

Conforming words:

* as /e/: Dec**e**mber, method, question, sel**e**ction
* as /ə/: abs**e**nce, concentration, frequ**e**ncy, suddenly
* as /ɪ/ or /ə/: acknowl**e**dge, cel**e**brate, impl**e**mentation, pass**e**nger
* as /ɪ/: d**e**cline, **e**xceed, respond

So-called long sound with short sound spelling:

* /iː/: secret

Silent e:

* something

### Summary

This table shows all the patterns that are part of the short vowel spelling.