What about in the middle of a syllable? In words like “rhythm,” Y represents a vowel, specifically the short I sound. When Y and W Are in the Middle of a Syllable

And there are no syllables beginning with W in which W represents a vowel. I see in the dictionary that there are few more borrowed or archaic words with Y representing a vowel at the beginning of a word, but they’re not worth mentioning here. The only examples I can think of are the elements yttrium and ytterbium, and the French name Yves. If a syllable begins with Y and the next letter represents a consonant, then the Y represents a vowel. In “yo” and “woe,” for example, Y and W represent consonants. Now that I’ve given the simple answer, let’s deal with the real question: When does W, and for that matter Y, represent a vowel? If a syllable begins with Y or W, and the next letter represents a vowel, then Y or W almost certainly represents a consonant. It goes against what I learned in school, too, but unless you’re playing Scrabble or Wheel of Fortune, it really is more sensible to think about vowels and consonants this way. I’m sorry if that goes against what you learned in school. So various letters or combinations of letters are used to represent vowels or consonants, but in and of themselves, letters are neither vowels nor consonants. As a result, countless speakers have needlessly second-guessed themselves wondering opens in a new windowwhether they should write “a university” or “an university” “a unicorn” or “an unicorn.”Ī lot of confusion could have been avoided if generations of kids had just learned that U represents a vowel in words like “umbrella” and “put,” and that it represents the sequence of the consonant “yuh” and the vowel “oo” in “university” and “unicorn”! For example, we’re used to thinking of the letter U as a vowel. This may seem like a picky distinction, but if you’re not clear on whether you’re talking about orthography or phonetics, things can get confusing. The short answer is that vowels (and consonants, too) are the actual sounds we make when we talk, and that A, E, I, O, and U, and all the other letters of the alphabet represent those vowels and consonants. So how can I possibly claim that A, E, I, O, and U are not vowels? Sounds Versus Letters

What is vowel words