Vowel letters
There are five vowel letters in the English alphabet. These are: a, e, i, o, u.

 Vowel sounds and symbols
There are twelve vowel sounds in English represented by phonemic symbols. There are seven short sounds: /æ/, /e/, /ʊ/, /ә/, /Ι/, /Λ/, /ɒ/ * as well as five longer sounds, /α:/, /i:/, /ɔ:/, /з:/, /u:/ - a long sound in often indicated by.
Note: Some varieties of North American English do not use the vowel sound /ɒ/ as in the word ‘hot’; The short /ɒ/ is replaced by the longer sound /ɒ:/ making ‘hot’ sound like ‘heart’.

Schwa
The most frequently used of all English vowel sounds, is the unstressed sound /ә/. The sound and symbol /ә/ are called ‘schwa’.

 Diphthongs.
Diphthong sounds ae made from two vowel sounds put together. There are eight dipthongs: /ei/, /αi/, /ɔi/, /ʊә/, /ʊә/ and /ʊә/ (also shown as /oʊ/). For examples of words containing these sounds see the phonemic chart.

Consonant letter:
The letters in the English alphabet which are not vowel are called consonats. These are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

Consonant sounds:
Additional consonant sounds (represented by the fllowing symbols) are: /ð/,/θ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /tʃ/, /ŋ/.