Vowel and Consonant Letters

English words are made of vowels and consonants. The vowels are a, e, i, o and u and are more commonly used. They have longer phonic sounds than the rest of the letters, which are called consonants. Vowels are mainly used to string words together, they generally have a longer stress in words, whereas consonants are shorter and understressed.

Here are two difficult questions for you!

1. Can you name an English word that has 7 consonants and uses no vowels?

2. An English word that has 5 vowels in continuous order (plus 3 consonants)?

(answers below)

Answers:

1. Rhythms

2. Queueing

Steve Etherington is the head teacher at Stanton Eigo Gakuin (スタントン英語学院) in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. Steve has been teaching English in Japan for the last 5 years in elementary schools, junior high schools and eikaiwa.