The Vowel A (1971)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do you remember the vowels can you say them [Music] why acts like a vowel too sometimes do you remember that each vowel has a short sound and a long sound what's the short sound of the vowel letter A A did you say a the short sound of a is a and what's the long sound a a that's easy the long sound of the letter a is a it's the same as its name now let's listen to these sounds in some [Music] words at8 do you hear the difference between the short sound and the long sound of a at8 [Music] mat mate pan pain tap tape let's see what we can discover about these four pairs of words well in each pair both words have the vowel letter A but in one word the a has a short sound in the other word the letter A has the long sound the words in each pair almost look alike except for one thing what do you see that is different about the second word of each pair the second word has the vowel letter e at the end it's called a final e because it comes at the end of a word it does something special to the sound of the letter A that comes before it let's say these words again listen for the long a sound in each word that has a final e ready say the word as soon as you see it at eight at8 notice that the final e has no sound of its own pan pain pan pain now be careful of this one mate Matt mate mat tap tape tap tape let's see what other pairs of words we can think [Music] of what about hat [Music] [Applause] [Music] and [Music] hate what about glad [Music] [Applause] and a Glade where flowers [Music] grow and what about s [Music] [Applause] and [Music] sail now let's see if we can read some words what is this girl wearing she's wearing a cape and what is the boy wearing he's wearing a cap I'm going to show you a word that names one of these which one is it did you say cap that's right C A P CAP and what is this word yes it's c a p Cape it has a final e the vowel a comes before it the final e gives a the long sound what is this it's a can and what is this yes it's a cane now here's a word that names one of these what is it did you say cane spell it with me c a n e cane it has a final e the vowel a comes before it the final e gives a its long sound and what is this word yes it's can there is no final e so a has the short sound spell it with me c a [Music] n let's talk about two more [Music] words this is a pan of water and this is a pane of glass what is this word did you say pan pan has the short sound of the letter A spell it with me p a n and when you add a final letter e what is the word that's right it's pain with the long a sound let's spell it p a n e with some words you have to be careful because there is another word that sounds just the same pain but it is spelled differently spell it with me p a i n pain p a n e is the window Paine and pain p a i n is something that hurts it won't hurt you to remember that when you see the letters a i together in a word they usually have the long a sound where are these people going they're going for a sail in a sailboat and what are these people doing they are having a sale but it's a different kind of a sale s a l e sale and s a i l sale both words have the long a sound say them out loud and listen to the long a sound in both words saale and saale there's another way to make the long a sound what are these letters yes they are a y and if you find them at the end of a word they will have the long a sound you probably use a lot of words like this every day ready for more words let's put some together in a sentence you may say day quite often B gay hey gray play stay so if you hear a word with a long a sound at the end it's probably spelled with the letters a y before we finish let's play a game with some words the picture will give you a hint then say the word out loud as soon as you see it Mad May cap now be careful here comes a different way to spell the long sound of a main py pale pale pal now let's see if we can remember some ideas that we learned about the short and long sounds of a we learned that when a word has a final e that has a consonant before it and there is a vowel a before that the vowel a has the long sound we learned that the final e has no sound of its own we learned that the letters a I give a the long sound and we learned that when the letters a y appear at the end of a word they also give a the long sound did you pay for the pale pale pal [Music] [Applause] [Music]