Sound to Phonogram Mapping

I. Long Vowels

1. Long E Sound: /iː/ (as in see)

• e (at end of open syllable): we, he, she, me, be, zero, meter, secret, recent, concede
• ee: tree, see, free, knee, bee, meet, feet, deep, sleep, keep
• y (at end of multi-syllable word): happy, sunny, funny, candy, party, story, pretty, city, twenty, busy
• ea: eat, meat, clean, dream, teach, reach, speak, leave, please, cheap
• ie: piece, chief, field, believe, relieve, achieve, siege, grieve, brief, thief
• ei (after c or specific words): ceiling, receive, conceive, perceive, deceive || seize, leisure, either, neither, weird
• i (specific words/loanwords): machine, police, pizza, marine, magazine, caprice, antique, unique, fatigue, regime
• ey (in unstressed final syllables): money, honey, journey, valley, chimney, abbey, medley, donkey, hockey, turkey

2. Long A Sound: /eɪ/ (as in say)

• a_e: bake, cake, make, take, face, game, name, plate, shade, grape
• a (in open, stressed syllables): able, basic, nation, paper, lady, favor, major, sacred, vacant, baby
• ai: laid, paid, maid, rain, train, stain, plain, faint, paint, braid
• ay: play, day, say, way, may, stray, spray, pray, display, okay
• ea (exception): steak, great, break, yea, dearth
• ey: they, obey, survey, grey, prey, convey, disobey, purvey, trey, hey
• ei: rein, feisty, veil, weigh, heinous, obeisance, inveigle, surveillance, neighbor, freight
• eigh: eight, weight, sleigh, neighbour, freight, reighn, feighn, skeighn, inveigh, deighn
• eaux (French origin): bureaux, plateaux

3. Long I Sound: /aɪ/ (as in my)

• i_e: bike, time, kite, like, fine, rise, tribe, slide, spine, stride
• i (open syllable or before nd/ld): lion, tiger, wild, child, find, kind, mind, bind, grind, rind
• y (at end of one-syllable word): my, fly, sky, try, dry, cry, why, ply, spy, shy
• igh: night, light, high, sigh, thigh, fight, right, might, bright, tight
• ie: pie, lie, die, tie, cried, fried, tried, denial, supplier, appliance
• eigh (exception): height, sleight
• ui (exception): guide, disguise

4. Long O Sound: /oʊ/ (as in go)

• o (at end of open syllable): go, no, so, hero, zero, photo, piano, tomato, potato, banjo
• o_e: bone, home, nose, vote, rope, pose, rose, globe, chose, broke
• oa: coat, boat, road, toad, load, goal, foam, loaf, float, toast
• ow: snow, grow, know, low, throw, mow, row (As in boat), show, tow, pillow
• oe: toe, foe, woe, roe, doe, goes, hoes, aloe, oboe, cycloe
• eaux (French origin): bureaux, plateaux
• ou (exception): soul, shoulder, boulder, mould, poultry
• ough (exception): though, dough, although, thoroughly, furlough

5. Long OO Sound: /uː/ (as in moon)

• u_e/u (with yod-dropping): rule, rude, crude, prune, flute, glue, assume, sue, abuse, confuse
• o (specific words): who, move, prove, tomb, gloom, groom, spoon, choose, lose
• oo: food, moon, spoon, room, cool, stool, school, tool, pool, broom
• ew: flew, grew, blew, chew, drew, crew, threw, screw, strew, brew
• oe (specific words): shoe, canoe, manoeuvre
• ui: fruit, suit, bruise, juice, cruise, nuisance, recruit, pursuit, ruin, fluid
• ough (exception): through
• ou: group, soup, routine, coup, toucan, souvenir, wound (Injury), youth, route, accrue

6. Long U/Yoo Sound: /juː/ (as in cute)

• u_e/u (without yod-dropping): cute, huge, muse, cube, duke, fume, mute, pure, lure, compute
• u (initial/open syllable): unite, unicorn, uniform, usual, utility, unique, university, union, unit, usurp
• ew: few, new, pewter, jewel, shrewd, yew, spew, view, eskew, enew
• iew: view, preview, review, interview, purview, viewpoint, overview, worldview, reviewing, interviewee
• ieu: lieu, adieu, bieux, milieu
• eau (exception): beautiful, bureaucracy, queue, curcuit

II. Short Vowels

1. Short I Sound: /ɪ/ (as in sit)

• i (in closed syllable): sit, pig, fish, swim, thin, dish, clip, trip, wink, knit
• y (in closed syllable): myth, lynx, gymnast, system, mystery, crystal, symbol, lyric, rhythm, syntax
• e (in unstressed prefixes): because, begin, believe, decide, define, demand, develop, exact, examine, example
• ui: build, guilt, circuit, linguist, squid, fluid, cushion, quick, quit, quiet
• ie (exception): friend

2. Short E Sound: /ɛ/ (as in bed)

• e (in closed syllable): bed, red, pen, hen, leg, web, net, desk, best, left
• a (specific words/suffixes): many, any, said, says, library, primary, necessary, ordinary, military, arbitrary
• ea: bread, dead, head, instead, spread, ready, steady, heavy, wealth, health

3. Short A Sound: /æ/ (as in cat)

• a (in closed syllable): cat, fan, map, sad, bag, ran, jam, hand, lamp, tack
• a (in arr/ar+vowel): marry, carry, barrel, carrot, harrow, parrot, barracks, marrow, parent, apparent

4. Short U Sound: /ʌ/ (as in up)

• u (in closed syllable): run, sun, cup, bug, nut, mutt, jump, duck, truck, fun
• o (exception): come, some, love, money, month, front, none, ton, son, worry
• oe (exception): does
• ou (exception): country, young, touch, double, trouble, couple, cousin, rough, tough, enough

5. Short OO Sound: /ʊ/ (as in put)

• u (before ll or sh): bush, pull, full, push, sugar, cushion, bullet, pulpit, bully, butcher
• oo: took, good, book, foot, wood, hook, shook, crook, look, cook
• ould: could, would, should

III. Other Vowels, Diphthongs, and R-Controlled Vowels

1. Broad A Sound: /ɑː/ (as in father)

• a (in ar, before lm/lf, or certain clusters/loanwords): car, far, star, park, dark, arm, barn, palm, calm, father
• o (AmE alternative for Short O): dog, hot, box, top, frog, stop, lock, rock, pond, cross

2. Short O Sound: /ɒ/ (as in on) (BrE/some AmE)

• o (in closed syllable - BrE/some AmE): dog, hot, box, top, frog, stop, lock, rock, pond, cross

3. "AW" Sound: /ɔː/ (as in law)

• a (before l combinations, war, or quar): ball, call, fall, talk, walk, salt, water, warm, warn, quart
• or: corn, fork, horse, north, story, port, short, worn, more, score
• aw: saw, paw, raw, claw, draw, straw, law, yawn, crawl, brawl
• au: author, daughter, vault, launch, haunt, gaunt, autumn, laundry, fault, audience
• ough: thought, bought, brought, cought, fought, nought, sought, fraught, distraught, rough (Some dialects)

4. Diphthong /aʊ/ (as in cow)

• ow: cow, how, now, brown, down, town, crowd, drown, flower, power
• ou: house, out, loud, sound, round, found, ground, mouse, mouth, cloud
• ough: drought, slough
• our: our, sour, flour, hour, dour, cower

5. Diphthong /ɔɪ/ (as in boy)

• oy: boy, toy, joy, enjoy, annoy, destroy, loyal, royal, convoy, employ
• oi: boil, oil, soil, coil, join, point, voice, choice, noise, moist

6. R-Controlled: /ɜːr/ (Stressed) /ər/ (Unstressed)

• er: her, term, person, serve, certain, learn, work, teacher, water, broker
• ir: bird, girl, first, shirt, dirt, third, stir, firm, squirt, skirt
• ur: burn, turn, fur, curl, hurt, blur, purple, surf, nurse, curb
• ear: learn, heard, early, earth, search, pearl, journey, dearth, forbear, smear

7. R-Controlled: /ɛər/ (as in care)

• are: care, share, dare, stare, rare, square, compare, prepare, glare, ware
• air: hair, chair, fair, pair, stairs, dairy, repair, despair, airport, fairy
• eir: their, heir, heirloom, their’s, deign, feign, rein, feisty, unveil, weigh
• ear: bear, pear, wear, tear (As in rip), swear, dearth, forbear, air, lair, f**

8. R-Controlled: /ɪər/ (as in here)

• ere: here, mere, sphere, sincere, adhere, austere, sere, serene, chere, persevere
• ear: ear, hear, clear, fear, tear (As in crying), near, year, dear, gear, dreary

9. R-Controlled: /aɪər/ (as in fire)

• ire: fire, tire, wire, require, desire, inspire, admire, suspire, pyre, spire

10. R-Controlled: /ɔːr/ (as in corn)

• or: corn, fork, horse, north, story, port, short, worn, more, score
• oor: door, floor, poor, moor, boor, hooray, indoor, outdoor, pooh, coo
• our: four, mourn, court, course, gourd, porous, resource, source, contour, tourism

11. R-Controlled: /jʊər/ or /ʊər (as in pure or sure)

• ure: pure, cure, lure, sure, tourist, figure, future, capture, picture, measure

12. Schwa Sound: /ə/ (Unstressed)

• All vowels (A, E, I, O, U): about, dozen, animal, cotton, circus, banana, element, family, color, upon