1. Diphthongs au, aw, ew *vowel teams ow

The dash in front of ew means it comes at the end of a syllable.

A syllable is an individual segment (a piece) of the word, it is the sound which is formed by opening and closing the mouth to form vowels. *You count syllables by how many vowels you hear. Some syllables have 2 vowels that make one sound like in the word: meat.

Here are some examples:

chew (1 syllable)

threw (1 syllable)

flew (1 syllable)

new (1 syllable) new

interview (3 syllables) (in-ter-view)

nephew (2 syllables) (ne-phew)

view (1 syllable)

​When you hear the /ȯ/ sound at the beginning or middle of a syllable then it is usually au.

If you hear the /ȯ/ sound at the end of a syllable or word then it is is usually going to be aw.

Let's look at some examples on the next slide.

​AU

aunt

August

fraud

pause

** because

​Read the words aloud. Where do you hear the /ȯ/ sound?

beginning, middle or end

​AW

saw

draw

claw

seesaw

jaw

​Seems simple enough, right? Let's do a few practice words and then I'll tell you another rule you need to learn.

When the / ȯ / sound is followed by just an n or just an l, it is usually spelled with aw.

pawn lawn

shawl brawl

Of course, there are always a few exceptions...

/ ȯ/ is spelled aw outside of these circumstances as in the word family hawk, gawk and squawk.