CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH ALPHABET: "Vowels, Consonants, Semi-vowels"

CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH ALPHABET: "Vowels, Consonants, Semi-vowels" English Alphabet can be divided in three ways - 1. Vowel 2. Consonant 3. Semi Vowel

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

- By Amit Manna

11/27/20242 min read

CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH ALPHABET:

English Alphabet can be divided in three ways -

1. Vowel

2. Consonant

3. Semi Vowel

Vowels

The letters that can be pronounced without any help of any other letter are called vowels. A, E, I, O and U - these 5 letters are called Vowel. These letters can be pronounced without any help of other letters. Vowels are pronounced with an open mouth, and use pitch, volume, accent, and duration to differentiate their sounds.

Consonants

The letters that are pronounced with the help of vowels are known as consonants. B, C, D, F, G,H,J,K,L,M,N,P,Q,R,S,T,V,W,X,Y,Z. These 21 letters are called consonant. They cannot be pronounced independently. They need the help of vowels to be pronounced correctly. Consonants are pronounced with a closed mouth, and require more precise articulation than vowels.

Semi-Vowels

‘W’ and ‘Y’ – these two letters can be used both as Vowel and consonant according to their placement in a word. As they can be used in two ways, they are called semi- vowels. The letter Y can sometimes act as a vowel and sometimes as a consonant.

When ‘w’ and ‘Y’ are placed at the beginning of a word, they are called consonants.

Such as…

‘Walk’ ------ here ‘W’ is used as consonant.

‘Year’ ----- here ‘Y’ is used as consonant.

When ‘w’ and ‘Y’ are placed at the end or in the middle of a word, they are called vowels.. Such as…

‘Cow’ ----- here ‘W’ is used as a vowel.

‘Boy’ ------ here ‘Y’ is used as a vowel.

Things to remember:

Dependent Letter in English Alphabet:

‘Q’ is called dependent letter in English Alphabet. This letter can not be used without ‘U’. So, ‘Q’ is always dependent on ‘U’. Such as Queen, Quick, Quarrel, Quake etc.

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

a) There is no word in English Grammar without vowel or semi vowel. But there are a few words without consonant like ‘I’ , ‘A’, ‘O’ etc.

b) Some words without vowels are – ‘cry’, ‘by’, ‘try’ etc.

c) Longest English word without vowel – ‘rhythm’.

d) 'Education', 'Favourite' 'Queueing' and 'Cauliflower' - all these three words have five vowels together.

e) 'Abstemious' and 'Facetious' have all five vowels. But the fun is that all the vowels are in proper order: a-e-i-o-u.

Vowels and consonants are important for communication, reading, writing, vocabulary, and clear speech.

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