III. Reading of vowel combinations (part 1)

Letter combination	Pronunciation	Examples	Exceptions
ea	[ i: ]	lead, meat	great [ greit ], break [ breik ], steak [ steik ]
	[ e ]	bread, ready
ei / ie / ee	[ i: ]	receive, field, see	friend [ frend ]
ai / ay / ey	[ ei ]	Spain, day, grey
au / aw	[ ɔ: ]	because, awful	aunt [a:nt], laugh [ la:f ]
eu / ew	[ ju: ]	neutral, few	Europe ['juərəp]
oi / oy	[ ɔi ]	point, boy
air	[ eə ]	air, chair
eer / ear	[ iə ]	engineer, near	wear [ weə ], bear [ beə ], year [ jeə ]

Exercise 35. Write down the phonetic symbols and practice reading the words.

[ ] pleasant, health, spread, wealth, bread, breath, weapon, dreamt, great;

ea

[ ] read, lead, weak, breathe, sea, dream, please, ease, weak, disease, steak;

ei [ ] receive, receiver, receipt, conceive, bein, ceil, ceiling, seize;

ie [ ] field, bield, wield, grief, grieve, kief, niece, mien, lief, believe, relief;

ee[ ] fee, feet, meet, beef, bee, sleeve, fleet, greed, street;

ai / ay / ey [ ] main, pain, fail, aid, vain, train, saint, bay, nay, say, grey, they, obey;

au / aw [ ] August, cause, Paul, autumn, pause, saw, awful, crawl, laugh;

eu / ew[ ] few, new, knew, stew, neutral, Europe;

oi / oy[ ] join, loin, foil, joy, coin, voice, rejoice, oyster;

air[ ] air, chair, fair, hair, pair;

eer, ear [ ] beer, cheer, queer, sheer, dear, clear;

Exercise 36. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Meal, feed, weather, vain, bee, mean, street, pea, obtain, chair, applaud, May, awful, health, seat, fault, air, aunt, news, coin, seize, tree, great, leader, mew, grain, fee, Europe, defeat, grieve, steel, brain, fauna, strain, grey, please, green, wealth, ceiling, paw, fair, conceive, remain, reach, pause, agree, beast, oil, niece, Austria.

Exercise 37. Practice reading the following tongue-twister. Explain the reading of the vowels in bold.

Three grey geese in the green grass grazing,

Grey were the geese and green was the grazing.

To graze – щипать траву; the grazing – пастбище

IV. Reading of vowel combinations (part 2)

Letter combination	Pronunciation	Examples	Exceptions
oo	[ ʊ ]	book, wood	blood [ blʌd ], flood [ flʌd ]
	[ u : ]	moon, too
oor	[ ʊə ]	poor, moor	door [dɔ: ], floor [ flɔ:]
our	[ ɔ: ]	your, course
	[ aʊə ]	our, flour
ou	[ aʊ ]	ground, count
	[ ʌ ]	double, young
ow	[ aʊ ]	brown, now, how
	[ əʊ]	flow, window

Exercise 38. Write down the phonetic symbols and practice reading the words.

[ ] good, wood, foot, book, took, blood;

oo

[ ] moon, stool, food, soon, hoot, broom, flood;

oor [ ] boor, moor, poor;

[ ] our, flour, sour, sour cream;

our

[ ] your, four, source, course, pour, tour;

[ ] out, loud, bout, account, foul, house, blouse, round, around;

ou

[ ] touch, cousin, rough, tough;

[ ] cow, owl, row, fowl, allow, town, gown, frown;

ow

[ ] flow, yellow, blow, grow, row, rainbow, widow, willow, window.

Exercise 39. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Cook, poor, wool, throw, soon, double, spoon, blouse, stood, follow, blood, frown, food, allow, zoo, ground, boot, power, found, hook, fellow, mood, below, wool, swallow, taboo, cousin, floor, meadow.

Exercise 40. Read the text. Find the words with vowel combinations and transcribe them.