English pronunciation: rules, exceptions and practice

A final e often makes the earlier vowel say its name; the e itself is usually silent. This is a useful pattern, not a guarantee.

Examples: cap → cape · bit → bite · hop → hope · cut → cute

Other pronunciations and limits: have · give · love · some · done

Example sentence: I made a cake at home.

EA often sounds like /iː/, but common words use /ɛ/, /eɪ/ or another vowel. Learn frequent word families.

Examples: eat · sea · teacher · clean

Other pronunciations and limits: bread /brɛd/ · head /hɛd/ · great /ɡreɪt/ · break /breɪk/ · heart /hɑːrt/ (US), /hɑːt/ (UK)

Example sentence: We eat fresh bread by the sea.

OO often represents /uː/, but many familiar words have /ʊ/ and a few have other sounds.

Examples: food · moon · school · room

Other pronunciations and limits: book /bʊk/ · good /ɡʊd/ · foot /fʊt/ · blood /blʌd/ · flood /flʌd/

Example sentence: The good cook brought food to school.

In many common words, AI represents /eɪ/. Several frequent words use a different vowel.

Examples: rain · train · wait · paint

Other pronunciations and limits: said /sɛd/ · again /əˈɡɛn/ (common US variant) · plaid /plæd/

Example sentence: The train came in the rain.

OA commonly represents /oʊ/ in American English. A small group of words does not follow this pattern.

Examples: boat · road · coat · soap

Other pronunciations and limits: broad /brɑːd/ (US), /brɔːd/ (UK) · abroad /əˈbrɑːd/ (US), /əˈbrɔːd/ (UK)

Example sentence: The boat passed the broad road.

OU is a spelling family with several productive pronunciations. Use the word and its family to predict the sound.

Examples: out /aʊ/ · soup /uː/ · young /ʌ/ · could /ʊ/ · four /ɔr/ (US)

Other pronunciations and limits: No single sound covers all common OU words.

Example sentence: The young boy could find some soup.