Identification of Short and Long Sounds

Target Audience: Polytechnic English teachers and students in Tamilnadu.
Subject: Communication English-1, M scheme, I semester
Question pattern in Exam: Identify short and long sounds and write "short" or "long" next to each word. (3 marks)

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Grammar Question No: 2

Identify short and long sounds and write "short" or "long" next to each word. 

Guidelines:
Long and Short sounds refer to long and short vowel sounds.

'A long vowel' sounds like the name of the letter whereas a short vowel sound doesn't do that.
For example, read aloud the word "Feel".  Here the long vowel sound /i:/ sounds like the name of the letter "E".
Now read aloud the word "Fill".  Here the short vowel sound/i/ does not sound like the name of the letter "E"

How to Identify the difference?

Hint 1: The easiest way to identify the difference between long and short sound is to read aloud the given word and watch the duration of the vowel sound.

Hint 2: When two vowels come one after another, the word usually makes a long sound.  For example, seek, leak, peak, loose, pool, maid, boat and so on.

Hint 3: When a word ends with the letter 'e', generally it makes a long sound.  For example, lute, bike, she, bake, we and so on.

Examples:

Short  /i/ and Long  /i:/ Sound

sit, seat
live, leave
fit, feet
it, eat
bit, beat
kill, heal
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Short /u/ and Long  /u:/ sound

pull, pool
foot, food
good, goose
book, hook
look, boost
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Short /æ/ or /ʌ/ sound and Long /ɑ:/ sound

fat, father
am, arm
stud, start
pump, palm
at, art
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Short /ɒ/  sound and Long /ɔ:/ sound

pot, abroad
cot, call
fog, false
lot, lawn
tot, thought
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Short /ə/ sound and Long /ə:/ (also known as /ɜ:/ ) sound


align, earn
attend, turn
us, nurse
at, learnt
about, earth
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Model Question (as in the Exam):

Identify short and long sounds and write "short" or "long" next to each word. 

lease, list, fool, wool, father, rat

Answer:  
lease - long sound
list  - short sound
fool- long sound
wool- short sound
father- long sound
rat - short sound
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More exercises for you to practice: (write short or long after that word )

seed
kid
need
cup
soup
tall
raw
firm
rim
sad
saw