Step025.htm/19DEC2001

Step 25

Learn the letter y.

The sounds from the letter Y are both a consonant and vowels. Y and W are the only letters which are both a consonant and a vowel. At the beginning of a word or syllable (as in yes, yellow, beyond, crayon) Y is a consonant. There are very few words like this. As a vowel it can make the same two sounds that i makes, the long sound in fly, cry, satisfy and the short sound in happy, system.

Most schools teach the consonant Y (Y says yer), and this does not work with the many words ending in y: happy, funny, quickly. You can change happy to happiness, and it makes life easier for learners if the last sound in happy is like a short i. It is safer at first, for spelling, to teach the vowel 'y' as far as we can. When children learn only "yer" for y, they end up sounding happy as happ‑yer, etc., and do not get the meaning. For practical purposes, if you sound out YELLOW as i‑ELLOW (short sound of i), the blended result is the way we usually say YELLOW, and this means that children only have to learn two sounds for y, the same two (long and short) that they learn for i. While hardly any words start with y (consonant), hundreds of words have the vowel y in the middle and end. It also exchanges with i in ai (ay) and oi (oy). (See Steps 56‑60)

If you are teaching a class, you may be able to find names ending in short y among your pupils: Harry (pronounced Harri, not Harr‑ee) Henry Polly Billy Sandy Betty Jenny Patsy.

Point out that five of the letters in the alphabet are underlined with red, and say "These letters give you the vowel sounds, ay ee I oh you". The other letters give us sounds called consonants. This is useful knowledge for them if/when you wish to make them aware of CVC or VCCV patterns (consonant ‑vowel‑con s onant as in CAT, VCCV as in RABBIT).

Have the pupil practice writing the letter y, first, using the dot to dot guide above, then on lined paper.

Set out the alphabet card, and add y, making 25 letters. Choose Activities from the Contents page.