3 Tips for reading English

Learn key advice to understand spelling rules as you learn English

English spelling can be very weird. Silent letters, confusing patterns, changing sounds... but don't worry! There are some useful tricks you can use to understand spelling patterns as you learn English. Here are 3 useful tips for reading in English.

Tip #2 Identify short vs. long O sounds

English has 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U). But those vowels can make around 20 different sounds! This is more than other languages. For example, Spanish and Tagalog have just 5 distinct vowel sounds, while Arabic has around 6.

So how do you know which sounds to use? There are a few spelling patterns to look out for. For this English lesson, let's focus on 2 important vowel sounds: long O vs. short O.

Long O sounds

The letter O can make a long sound, like in the words go and snow. There are three spelling patterns that indicate you should use a long O sound:

1. ow

2. oe

3. oa

Short O sounds

The letter O can also be short, like in the words hot and slot. Many short O words are 1 syllable:

• Dog

• Drop

• Dock

• Rock

Tip #3 Practice simple past verb sounds

In English, the simple past tense includes words like walked and bought.

She walked to the store and bought a cake yesterday.

Often, simple past verbs end with -ed, as in cleaned and cooked. Depending on the word, -ed can sound like D or T.

When to use a D sound

-ed is pronounced like a D when the infinitive ends with a voiced consonant. Voiced consonants are sounds produced by your vocal cords vibrating. 

Voiced consonants are different from aspirated consonants, which are produced by an extra puff of air instead of vibration.

To identify a voiced consonant, put your hand on your throat and pronounce the sound. For example, say clean. You will feel vibration in your throat when you pronounce the N at the end of the word.

Since clean uses a voiced consonant (vibration), the simple past version is pronounced clean-d, with a D sound.

When to use a T sound

-ed is pronounced like a T when the infinitive ends with an unvoiced consonant. Unvoiced consonant sounds are made by air, not vibration.

To identify an unvoiced consonant, put your hand on your throat and pronounce the sound. For example, the K in cook is unvoiced. You won't feel vibration at the end of the word.

Since cook used an unvoiced consonant (no vibration), the simple past version is pronounced cook-t, with a T sound.