Long A Sound
e:(say, pain, make)

English Pronunciation, Lesson 15

The long A sound (IPA symbol: e) can be found in English words such as: 
pray, may, take, date, weight, gain, and rain.

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

The Long A sound is a long vowel sound. Long vowel sounds are vowel sounds pronounced the same as the name of the letter. Each vowel has a long vowel sound (Long A, Long E, Long I, Long O, Long U).

Watch this video to review all long vowel sounds.



In English, long vowel sounds are usually the easiest vowel sounds to learn.

Now watch this short video to hear the long A sound:



Have you watched it? Good! Let's practice...

Common long A spellings

There are four common ways to spell the long A sound:


1. a / consonant / e

In root words, when you have this pattern


the vowel is a long vowel sound, and the final "e" is silent.

Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):

1) bake

2) rate

3) late

4) ate

5) cake

6) trade

7) made

8) date

9) name

10) grade


2. ai

Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):


1) wait

2) pain

3) drain

4) tail

5) stain

6) pail

7) nail

8) snail

9) rain

10) jail


3. ay

Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):

1) way

2) say

3) may

4) day

5) lay

6) ray

7) Monday

8) play

9) stay

10) away



4. eigh

Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):

1) eight

2) weight

3) neighbor

4) freight

5) eighteen

6) sleigh

7) eighty

8) neighborhood



There are a few other less common spellings of the long A sound. Here are some more long A words. (The long A sounds are in bold.)

1) rein

2) angel

3) Asia

4) apron

5) apricot

6) April

7) radio

8) patient

9) lazy

10) fatal


Now say these sentences out loud (the long A sounds are bold):

1) Stay away from the crazy neighbor!

2) I may travel to Asia in the month of April.

3) She ate eighteen grapes today.

4) Yesterday, I waited in the rain.

5) Did you say you had a date tonight?

7) Nick baked a cake for Thursday.

8) I listen to the radio on my way home from work each day.

9) I am afraid of pain.

10) Please put your name at the top of the paper.

Have you finished them all? Great job! 

Well done! You have completed the long A sound lesson.

Let's move on...

Your next lesson: Lesson 16, P and B sounds (pull, bull)

List of Lessons

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