--- title: Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosing the spelling — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosing the spelling», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A silent e at the end of a word reaches back over one consonant and makes the vowel say its name: hop becomes hope, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosi… # Vowel teams, split digraphs and choosing the spelling Lesson 4 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/0/) — A silent e at the end of a word reaches back over one consonant and makes the vowel say its name: hop becomes hope, kit becomes kite, cub becomes cube. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/2/) — English often has several spellings for one sound. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/3/) — Tom in Newcastle grumbles that «boat», «snow», «home» and «toe» all say /oa/ and are all spelled differently; he is right, and it is still learnable. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/4/) — Some choices follow where the sound sits: «ai» usually in the middle of a word (rain, train), «ay» at the end (play, day). - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/5/) — It works the other way too: one spelling can make more than one sound. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/6/) — «ea» says /ee/ in «eat» but /e/ in «head»; «ow» says /ow/ in «cow» but /oa/ in «snow»; «ear» says /ear/ in «hear» but /air/ in «bear»; «oo» is long in «moon» and short in «book». - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/7/) — A good reader tries one sound, and if it makes no real word that fits the sentence, tries the other. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/8/) — The letter y is a shape-shifter. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/9/) — At the start of «yes» it is a consonant; in «my» it says /ie/ and in «happy» it says /ee/, so there it works as a vowel. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/11/) — Accents shape what we hear. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/13/) — The trick is to learn words with the same sound in groups: an «igh» family (high, light, night), an «ew» family (new, flew, chew), a «ue» family (blue, glue, true). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/14/) — In a split digraph (a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e) the silent e makes the vowel say its name: hop/hope, kit/kite, cub/cube. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/15/) — «ai» usually comes in the middle of a word (rain) and «ay» at the end (play). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/16/) — The /oa/ sound has several spellings: oa (boat), ow (snow), o-e (home), oe (toe). - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/18/) — «ea» has two common sounds: /ee/ in «eat» and /e/ in «head». - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/19/) — «ow» can say /ow/ as in «cow» or /oa/ as in «snow»; the sentence tells you which. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/20/) — «oo» has a long sound in «moon» and a short sound in «book», and accents differ in how they say «book». - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/21/) — «ew» (new) and «ue» (blue) can both say /oo/; which one a word uses is learned word by word. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/22/) — «ear» says /ear/ in «hear» and /air/ in «bear», «pear» and «wear». - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/24/) — «ir», «ur» and «er» make the same sound (bird, burn, her), but each word has its own usual spelling. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/4-vowel-teams-split-digraphs-and-choosing-the-spelling/26/) — Slang in this lesson: «howay» means come on and «canny» here means quite (North East England); «proper job» means well done and «my lover» is a friendly greeting (West Country); «heaps» means a lot (Australia); «can or not» means «is it allowed?» in Singapore English. - ← previous: [Tricky words and common exception words](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/3-tricky-words-and-common-exception-words/) - next →: [Handwriting: holding the pencil and joining up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/5-handwriting-holding-the-pencil-and-joining-up/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)