Tenseness: vowels can be tense or lax- Tense vowels tend to have the position of the tongue body slightly higher than the corresponding lax vowels.French, for instance, has four nasalized vowels. Nasalization: like consonants, vowels can be nasalized.Length: vowels may contrast by length, as in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Old English Estonian has three degrees of length.We also don't have (say) an unrounded u, but Russian, Korean, and Japanese do. English doesn't have front rounded vowels, but French and German do (Fr. Roundedness: whether the lips are rounded (u, o) or not (i, e).Vowels can vary along other dimensions as well: To get a feel for these distinctions, pronounce the words in the diagram, moving from top to bottom or side to side, and noting where your tongue is and how close it is to the roof of the mouth. The bottom of the grid is usually drawn shorter because there isn't as much room for the tongue to maneuver as the mouth opens more. You can arrange the vowels in a grid according to these two dimensions.

Thus, vowels can be classified into front (i, e), central (a, or the indistinct vowel in 'of'), or back (o, u). The tongue can be moved to the front, centre or back ( Frontness/Backness). There may be two middle steps in the ladder, usually called closed and open. Vowels can be produced by raising the tongue high, keeping it in the middle, or low in the mouth ( Height, or Closeness/openness). English has more than a dozen different vowels. The positioning the tongue and the lips allow for a great amount of variation, enabling us to voice many more vowels than the familiar five vowels a, e, i, o, u. While consonants are produced with the help of many organs, vowels depend only on the position of the tongue and the lips. U is a vowel, N is a consonant, I is a vowel, C is a consonant, O is a vowel, R is a consonant, N is a consonant.In contrast to consonants, where voice, manner and place of articulation serve as descriptive categories, vowels are differentiated by their position of the tongue and the lips. P is a consonant, I is a vowel, E is a vowel Examples of vowels and consonants in wordsĭ is a consonant, O is a vowel, G is a consonant.Į is a vowel, A is a vowel, T is a consonantĬ is a consonant, A is a vowel, K is a consonant, E is a vowel Sometimes Y is a consonant (has a consonant sound) and sometimes a vowel (has a vowel sound). There are 26 letters in the English Alphabet:Ī, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, ZĪ letter can represent a vowel OR a consonant.ī, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z

What are the vowels in english