For building a house we need walls, and for mending the walls we need bricks. Similar to that, to speak and write any language we need to form sentences, and to form sentences we need words. To form words we need letters.
As we all know the English language has 26 letters in its alphabet. On the basis of pronunciation, these letters are divided into two categories, Vowels and Consonants. There are 5 Vowel and 21 Consonants in the English language.
NOTE: There are 2 semi-vowels in the English language which we will discuss later in this article.
What Are Vowels?
Vowels are the only letters that are said with an open mouth. A, E, I, O and U letters are Vowels.
Words with Vowel A
| cat | bat | man |
| bag | tap | rat |
| van | mat | map |
| sad | dad | cab |
Words with Vowel E
| bed | leg | red |
| wet | net | ten |
| den | hen | gem |
| gel | pen | jet |
Words with Vowel I
| pig | pin | bin |
| kid | sip | lip |
| win | big | fit |
| sit | zip | sip |
Words with Vowel O
| top | dog | dot |
| hot | pot | mom |
| cop | job | row |
| box | fox | bow |
Words with Vowel U
| bug | nut | gun |
| cup | jug | gum |
| mug | sun | sum |
| tub | bus | hut |
What Are Consonants?
The letters which are not Vowels are Consonants. You use your lips or tongue to say consonants sound. B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, and Z are consonants.
Words with only consonants.
| fly | fry | gym |
| sky | spy | cry |
| dry | shy | try |
| by | lynch | myths |
What are Semi-Vowels?
Letters W and Y are known as Semi-Vowels. In certain words, W and Y sound like vowels. Consider the following example.
Try and pronounce Work and Bowler. In bowler, you will notice that ‘W’ sound like ‘O’ which is a Vowel. Another example, pronounce Yellow and Busy. In busy ‘Y’ sound like the vowel ‘E’.
Word with Semi-Vowels
| law | snow | buy |
| lady | happy | family |
| cow | story | try |
| bowler | power | shown |
In most cases, you will find that if ‘W’ and ‘Y’ are the first letters of the word. they will act as Consonants, and if they appear last or in between of a word they act as Vowels.
Vowels and Consonants Poster
The following posters you can use in your classroom or in your kid's room to remind them about Vowels and Consonants.
Missing Vowels Worksheets
In the following worksheets, kids need to enter the correct vowel to complete the word. To help kids identify the word, we have given pictures of the objects. It is recommended to start with the easy worksheet where kids have to only enter a single vowel.
