There are several ways of spelling the long sound of A.
The letter A is a vowel. A by itself can be pronounced as long a, such as, I will go on a hike. The letter a is also a word. The only other letter that is also a vowel and a word, is the letter i.
AI
A common letter pattern for long a, is the letter a, followed by a consonant, followed by a silent e; such as cake, made, grapes, and mate.
The letter pattern AI is also another common spelling for long A; such as train, aim, paid, and grain.
The AI pattern is found in the middle of the syllable or single syllable word.
An exception for the sound is found in the word said, the AI pattern represents the sound of short E in the word said.
Keep in mind that when the AI pattern is immediately followed by the letter R, that the sound is R-controlled. The pattern AIR is also a word when used by itself. It also represents the same sound when used as part of other AIR words, as in hair and fair.
AY
AY is another long A pattern, as in lay, play, stay. and gray.
AY is used mainly at the end of the word or syllable. An exception to this is the word crayon where the A is actually at the end of the first syllable and the Y is the first letter of the next syllable.
EA
EA represents a variety of sounds, one of them is long A, as in break, steak, and great. The EA pattern for long A is found in the middle of the syllable.
EI
The letters EI also represent the sound of long A, as in vein, weigh, weight, and neighbor.
The EI pattern is found in the middle of the syllable
EY
EY can also represent the sound of long A, as in prey and they. EY also represents long E, as in the word, key.
The EY pattern for long A is found at the end of the word or syllable.
You can find this type of information, and more, in The Phonics Guide. If you have found this information helpful, or know someone who would, then you and/or they would probably benefit from reading The Phonics Guide: A guide to reading and spelling patterns. The text link will take you to Amazon where you can order it.
It is not a lesson book, but a reference book, guide, that one can refer to, to look up common spelling patterns, alphabetically.
Cheryl Paton
Cheryl Paton was a literacy tutor for over 12 years. She wrote The Phonics Guide based on the types of questions her adult literacy students were asking her. Cheryl receives income for qualifying items purchased through links on this page.
