Pronunciation rule for 90 % of 1 syllable word

Did you know that all English vowels have 2 sounds? All vowels (a, e, i, o, u) either have a short sound or long sound.  The long sound is the way you say the English alphabet letter. The short sound is the relative sound of the vowel. For example the short sound of the vowel “a” sounds like “uh”.

Rule : 1 syllable words that only have 1 vowel in the word will be pronounced with the SHORT vowel sound.

Example: Sit
• The word has only 1 vowel so the “i” has a short sound

Rule : 1 syllable words that have 2 vowels in the words : pronounce the first vowel with a LONG sound and the second one IS NOT pronounced.

Example: Site
• The word has 2 vowels (i and e) so “i” has a long sound and the “e” is not pronounced.

This rule can be very effective for second language readers, but be careful it is for 90 % of 1 syllable words. The other 10 % are words that we commonly use.