Unit 7: Short vowels, Part 1: a and e
Page 2 of 12
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/ā/ as in ape. |  |
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How to spell the long /ā/ sound: |
Some words need just the letter a, for example:
| acorn | apron | alien | agent |
| basic | basin | data | fatal |
Sometimes, we need to add another letter somewhere in the word:
 |
 |
 |
 |
| a-e as in snake. | ai as in train. | ay as in pray. | ei as in reindeer. |
| We use a split digraph a-e: add an e on the end (to make the a say its name). |
Or, we use ai. |
Or, we put ay on the end of a word. |
Rarely, we use ei. See Unit 21 for more on these words. |
Some examples: ale |
Some examples: aid |
Some examples: day  grey  prey* they obey convey survey |
Some examples: reins* |
Notes:
1) Words marked * are homophones. See page 6 of this unit.
2) Words ending in -ace are in Unit 20.
You have not completed Learn the Words activities for each word list on this page.
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Take a test in spelling the long /ā/
sound.
The Spellzone interactive course is intended to be used online and may not be printed.
One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.
Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College
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