2 Vowels: Explore digraphs, rime, rhyme, homophones and more with 10 fun books

Learning to read the English language can be challenging for some people with so many words having 2 letters with 1 vowel sound (vowel digraphs), made by either 2 vowels or a vowel and consonant. Teachers usually bring out the flashcards, word lists, posters, videos and songs to make lessons fun and easy for these words.

Unfortunately, with so many vowel digraphs to learn in English, it is hard to cover most of these words in short sessions. The solution to this problem is to use a series of books called Improve Spelling and Reading Skills with hundreds of words with vowel digraphs used in short stories.

Note that even though the books focus on words with 2 vowels as digraphs, as in “head”, “boat”, and “troupe”, they also explore many words that include the 2 vowels with other letters making them trigraphs as in “hear” and “boar“, and tetragraphs as in “through” and “eight”.

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The books are packed with entertaining stories and colourful images for anyone who enjoys rhyme and light reading. Readers can become familiar with words and their meanings in Study Zone’s:

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Here are 10 lessons to learn using the series Improve Spelling and Reading Skills:

10 Lessons to learn using books with 2 vowels making 1 sound

1. Digraph

Digraph is the combination of 2 letters that makes one sound. These useful books carry many words with vowel digraphs. Note that although some of the vowel digraphs are made with a vowel and a consonant, the combination makes one vowel sound.

Examples:

ai – wait, mail, pain
ea – beat, meal, clean
ee – meet, feel, seen
ey – key, they, money
ie – tie, movie, cookie
ei – veil, rein, heist
oa – goat, loan, coal
oo – pool, foot, blood
ou – you, group, soup
ow – tow, low, show

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2. Trigraph

Trigraph is the combination of 3 letters that makes one sound. The trigraphs used in this series include the 2 vowels named in each book with ‘r’ ending. This combination of 3 letters makes one sound and is called trigraph.

Examples:

air – hair, fair, pair
ear – hear, fear, pear
eer – beer, peer, steer
eir – their, weird, weirdo
ier – pier, tier, soldier
oar – oar, boar, soar
oor – door, poor, floor
our – tour, pour, four

3. Tetragraph

Tetragraph is the combination of 4 letters that makes one sound. These books have tetragraphs that include the 2 vowels named in each book and other letters that remain silent. Together they make one vowel sound.

Examples:

aigh – straight
eigh – eight, height
ough – dough, through

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4. Rime

Rime is the vowel and letters that come after the onset in a syllable. Onset is the letter or blend before a vowel in a syllable. With the rime -ain, the onset can be one consonant ‘rain’, two consonants ‘train’, or three consonants ‘strain’. In each book in this series, the words with the same rimes are grouped together in the stories.

Examples:

-aid, -ail, -ain, -air, -ait
-ead, -eaf, -eak, -eal, -eam, -ean, -eer
-eed, -eef, -eek, -eel, -eem, -een, -eep, -eer
-eif, -ein, -eir, -eis
-ief, -ier
-oaf, -oam, -oan, -oal, -oat
-ood, -oof, -ook, -ool, -oom, -oon, -oop, -oor, -oot
-out, -ound, -ouch

5. Rhyme

Rhyme is the close similarity in the final sounds of two or more words. In poems, rhyme is commonly used at the end of the lines. In these books, you see how words with the same rime may or may not rhyme. Also, you see how words can sound the same (rhyme) but look differently (rime).

Example:

‘paid’ and ‘said’ have same rime and do not rhyme
‘said’ sounds like ‘red’ and ‘head’ and have different rimes
‘head’ and ‘bead’ have same rime and do not rhyme
‘bead’ sounds like ‘seed’ and have different rimes
‘food’, ‘flood’ and ‘wood’ have same rime and do not rhyme

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6. Homophones

Homophones are words with the same sound. The books in this series cover numerous same sound words. Reading all 10 books makes you aware of the spelling of each homophone as you see it in context with pictures.

Examples:

hair and hear; fair and fear; pair and pear; stair and steer
meat and meet; bear and beer; dear and deer; pear and peer
tier and tear; pier and pear
wait and weight
weigh and whey
poor and pour

7. Homographs

Homographs are words with the same spelling. There are many homographs to learn with these books that have 2 vowels with 1 sound.

Example:

fair – pretty; carnival; equal; light coloured hair or skin
bear – animal; to carry weight; to endure pain
rear – back; to raise or breed
bow – bend over; tie a knot; weapon with arrow

8. Spelling

Spelling involves knowing all the letters that make up particular words and the many rules that go with them. Spelling words is a regular activity in schools as part of class sessions, tests, final exams, and national competitions. Using these 10 books is extremely beneficial for improving spelling fast as words with difficult spellings are learned easily in short fun stories.

Example:

i before e except after c rule – ‘field’, ‘receive’, and the exceptions – ‘ancient’, ‘neighbour’, ‘height’, ‘weird’
ey says long e rule – ‘key’, ‘monkey’, and the exceptions – ‘they’, ‘prey’, ‘grey’
ai says long a rule – ‘pain’, ‘wait’, ‘maid’, and the exceptions – ‘again’, ‘plait’, ‘said’
oo says many sounds – ‘food’, ‘wood’, ‘blood’ and with ‘r’ ending – ‘door’

9. Grammar

Grammar is a set of rules that tells how a language works. There are 8 basic types of words called parts of speech. By reading these books, you can clearly see how words with the specific 2 vowels are used in sentences. During a grammar session, students can name the parts of speech for particular words in these books.

Example:

Noun – maid
Pronoun – our
Verb – eat (action), look (linking), would (helping)
Adverb – again
Conjunction – although
Interjection – ouch
Preposition – instead of
Adjective – beautiful

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10. Meaning

Meaning is the explanation of a word. You can learn the meaning of words in a dictionary but you really understand them when they are used in sentences. These books clearly show you the meaning of words in fun stories.

Conclusion

Use these 10 fun books in many educational settings. Help young children who are learning to read, struggling readers in a reading intervention programme, adults in a literacy class, and learners of English as a second language.

These books explore many English words that have 2 letters with 1 vowel sound and words that include the same 2 letters but are not digraphs. Readers see words with digraphs, trigraphs and tetragraphs, and those that are homophones and homographs. This collection of stories with 2 vowels is the perfect reading material for any English class.

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