Elementary question...when is the letter Y considered a vowel?

[Disney1fan2002]

The saying A,E,I,O,U and sometimes Y.

I don't think I ever retained this lesson.

I play Who's Smarter Than a 5th Grader on facebook. I got a question that asked how many vowels are in the word mystery?

I said 1, but the answer was 3.

I got another question a couple of days later...how many vowels are in the word yellow?

Now, not being sure, I put 3...the answer was 2.

I know I am not smarter than a 5th grader, so please help me understand this.

 

[bethbuchall]

I know when; I'm just not sure I'll explain it right. It acts as a vowel when it makes one of the vowel sounds in the word. In your example, mystery, the first y sounds like an i and the second sounds like an e. It's a consonant when it makes the traditional "y" sound, as in your second example, yellow.

 

[abdmom]

It's a vowel if it sounds like a short "i" or long "e". When it has the "yeah" sound, like the "wuh" sound of w, it's a consonant.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We homeschool and use All About Spelling. We only have the first 4 books though and I checked it quickly for you.

In the level 2 book, they include using Y for the vowel i for the following rule:
"Most English words do not end in i". So the Y is used in its place.

Examply: Try, rely (But then you get alibi...I guess it is a root word from some foreign word.)

The only other rule that relates is that all words contain at least 1 vowel. So if you see none and just a Y, then the Y is a vowel as in the word "Try" above or the word "gym".

I could not find a rule for the use of Y as an e, so it may be in level 5 or 6.

Y behaves as a short or long I or long E when it is behaving like a vowel making such 5th grader questions a bit tricky for those who went on spelling auto pilot long long ago.

The only consonant sound for Y is the sound you hear at the start of the word yellow.

 

[Sparx]

This is going to be a terrible answer, but its true. Its a vowel when it acts like a vowel (making a vowel sound.)

In the word "yeah" Y is not a vowel (Makes the yuh sound)
In the word "Any" Y is a vowel (Makes the short I sound)
In the word "Yes" Y is not a vowel (makes the yuh sound)
In the word "Shelby" Y is a vowel (Shelby is my name and it makes the short I sound)

If a Y is standing in place for an I, it is a vowel.

 

[cornflake]

We homeschool and use All About Spelling. We only have the first 4 books though and I checked it quickly for you.

In the level 2 book, they include using Y for the vowel i for the following rule:
"Most English words do not end in i". So the Y is used in its place.

Examply: Try, rely (But then you get alibi...I guess it is a root word from some foreign word.)

Confetti, broccoli, etc.

Alibi is straight from Latin, I believe, so nope on the foreign word.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Confetti, broccoli, etc.

Alibi is straight from Latin, I believe, so nope on the foreign word.

Confetti and Broccoli end in the "e" sound, which doesn't change what I said.

We are discovering that words that are derivatives of Latin and Greek have minds of their own. So while it is used in English, its roots are foreign. We study Latin as well and notice that a bunch. That is why most of our spelling rules usually don't contain the word "never".

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

This is going to be a terrible answer, but its true. Its a vowel when it acts like a vowel (making a vowel sound.)

In the word "yeah" Y is not a vowel (Makes the yuh sound)
In the word "Any" Y is a vowel (Makes the short I sound)
In the word "Yes" Y is not a vowel (makes the yuh sound)
In the word "Shelby" Y is a vowel (Shelby is my name and it makes the short I sound)

If a Y is standing in place for an I, it is a vowel.

And long "e".

as in "City", "any"

 

[cornflake]

Confetti and Broccoli end in the "e" sound, which doesn't change what I said.

We are discovering that words that are derivatives of Latin and Greek have minds of their own. So while it is used in English, its roots are foreign. We study Latin as well and notice that a bunch. That is why most of our spelling rules usually don't contain the word "never".

I was just pointing out that there are a fair number of words that end in 'i', though sure, most don't. Most don't end in 'y' either.

As for the word's roots being foreign because it's from the Latin - if that's how you're going to classify it, I don't think you're going to find any word in English without 'foreign' roots, at which point having foreign roots loses all meaning.

 

[Sparx]

And long "e".

as in "City", "any"

I was never very good at phonetics and sometimes I have a hard time picking out the difference in a short I and long E.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I was just pointing out that there are a fair number of words that end in 'i', though sure, most don't. Most don't end in 'y' either.

As for the word's roots being foreign because it's from the Latin - if that's how you're going to classify it, I don't think you're going to find any word in English without 'foreign' roots, at which point having foreign roots loses all meaning.

I get it-but what I posted from the spelling curriculum was that most don't end in the long I sound. You provided 2 words with a long "E" sound. Or at least I think you did. I don't go around saying Broccoli as Broccol-eye.

And I am not classifying anything. I posted "Most" and last I checked, most is not a synonym for all.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Here is a much easier explanation to remember:

http://www.phonicsontheweb.com/y-roles.php
Sometimes, the letter y is a consonant, and other times it is a vowel. The rule for telling the two apart is simple: The letter y is a consonant when it is the first letter of a syllable that has more than one letter. If y is anywhere else in the syllable, it is a vowel.

 

[kamik86]

Lol everyone elses answer were better then mine. I know mystery has 3 vowels becasue there has to be a vowel in each syllable and if the y's weren't vowels there wouldn't be.