i = |ē|

I REVIEW the spelling and pronunciation pattern for the letter i where it says |ē|, as in taxi and trio. Once the ie and ei spellings have been introduced in Lessons 74 and 76, respectively, most of the spellings for the |ē| sound will have been introduced. These spellings include ing (boxing), the silent e (Pete), ee (free), ea (seat), open syllable (veto), unaccented y (lady), i (taxi), ie (field), and ei (ceiling).

[See Lessons 31, 33, 35, 36, 61, 62, 70, 74, and 76, respectively.]

o, oe, and ou = |ü|

II LEARN the o, oe, and ou spelling patterns found in do, shoe, move, and soup. (We encountered this sound in Lesson 51 in the words broom and too.) English words are not supposed to end with the letter v, so words like move and prove have a silent e at the end. [See Lesson 89] The sound of a vowel changes slightly when the letter r follows it, as seen in the word tour.

The word wound with the |ü| sound is usually a noun. However, wound can also be a verb (ou = |ow|), as in “Eva wound her clock.” In context, these words will not be mixed up. “Dustin wound [verb] the bandage around Lance’s wound [noun].”
[See Lesson 68]

REVIEW the |h| sound for the wh spelling, as in who and whose.
[See Lesson 51]

u and ou = |ů|

III LEARN the |ů| pronunciation for the spelling patterns u and ou, as in put and could. (This sound was discussed some in Lesson 51, where we talked about the oo in book and good.) Roman numerals II and III introduce words with an ou spelling, e.g., soup and could. The ou pattern has at least seven sounds [see Lesson 86]. The words could, would, and should have a silent l. [See Lesson 82]

Review: i = |ē| o and ou = |ü| o and ou = |ů|

IV – VI REVIEW the spelling and pronunciation patterns for |ē|, |ü|, and |ů|, as in taxi and trio, do and soup, and put and could, respectively.

Vowel Sounds

Each of the five vowels has a short and long sound. We commonly refer to the sounds introduced in this lesson as the third sounds for i (|ē|), o (|ü|), and u (|ů|). Regarding the third sounds of a (|ä| or |ô|) and e (|ā|), these are covered in Lesson 55 (ball, quad), Lesson 76 (veil), and Lesson 77 (great), respectively. All of the vowels can make a schwa sound.