what are the rules of saying the words: a and the when do you say tha and when do you say a(long sound)..?
79221
The long sounds are generally used in two situations:  1) When the word the modifier precedes (or is modifying) begins with a vowel sounds, and 2) when to pronounce the modifier in the conventional (i.e., short vowel/schwa sound) way would lead to confusion.
789858
with = con \n\nor you can say "acompañado con" which is accompanied with.. depends on what you're trying to say :) but in most cases just leave it at "con"
870923
The sentence is correct.\nThe 'two vowel' rule is a rule of thumb for the beginning of French.  It's basically only the 'e' that disappears and then only on two letter words. (me, de, se,)  Que is the only three letter word (that I know) that elides (loses the e) and you lose the 'a' in la, ma, ta, sa...  In longer words (notre) or with other letters at the end (tu, stylo), you don't lose the vowel.
1112499
1. pray\n2. shwa-zee\n3. na-see-o-nahl\n4. ah-tahnd-ruh (with French clearing-throat sounding "r")\n5. boo\n6. speck-ta-teurh (with French clearing-throat sounding "r")\n7. doo-vahn toor (clear throat)\n8. es-pahr (clear throat r)\n9. ah-drah (means "in front")\n10. crah\n\nThese are rough. Pretend you're in a French movie while saying them and they'll come out right. :)
58818
Teaching English reading using phonics involves relating certain rules about English pronunciation:\n\n\nBasic rules\nEach letter is like an animal, which has a name and the sound(s) that it makes. e.g. A cat says "meow". \nEach vowel has two sounds: one long and one short. The long sound is the same as its name. The long sounds are in Ape, Eat, Eye, Oh, and You. Their short equivalents are A (a as in at), E (e as in elm), I (i as in it), O (o as in hop), and U (u as in up). (A criticism of this statement would be that in fact every vowel has a third sound -- the schwa -- the sound of a vowel that is unstressed in an unstressed syllable. The schwa is the most frequent vowel sound in English. Additionally, the 'a' in 'father' is different from the 'a' in 'cat'. \nEach syllable is made by blending the sounds of each component. e.g. reading the word by adding one sound at a time, as in -e, -ed, bed. \nWhen a single vowel letter is in the middle of a word (or syllable), it usually says its short sound. e.g. "Got", "Bed". But there are many exceptions to this rule. See irregular vowels below. \nWhen a single vowel letter is in the end of a word (or syllable), it usually says its long sound (or its name.) e.g. "Go", "Be". \nWhen two vowels go hand in hand in the same word (or syllable), the first vowel usually says its own name (long sound) and the second vowel stays silent. e.g. "Bake" (Ay sound + silent E), "Goal" (Oh sound + silent A), etc. But there are many exceptions to this rule. See irregular vowels below.
180736
No, you don't pronounce it in the word "et", I can assure you. French is my mother tongue and I speak it and write it very well. The word "et" is pronounced "ay". If you pronounce the "T", it may sound like the word "est", which mean "is".  In that case, you would be saying "A man IS a woman". But I don't think that's what you mean. ;)\n\nFor other french words ending by the letter "T", it depends. French is full of exceptions and rules... Most of the time you should pronounce it but it is accepted in common language to let it go.
670882
wHAT ARE THR RULES...?
890533
make yr ques clear.you want it written in it or its phonetic equilivent or something other
656060
My vote:  TSKTSKS\n\nEXPLANATION\n\nFIRST, what IS a vowel?\n\nbostonianinmo is correct - in words like "sky" the "y" IS a vowel.  The very fact that "bi-" and "by" rhyme, or that you sometimes find "rimed" instead of "rhymed" is evidence of this.\n\nThe idea that ONLY a,e,i,o and u (or even "sometimes y") are vowels in based on oversimplified definition they gave us in grade school.  In fact, a vowel is, before all else, a type of SOUND rather than a type of LETTER.  We call specific letters "vowels" because these letters are the ones TYPICALLY used to indicate the vowel sounds.\n(compare http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxword00.html)\n\nRemember that SPEECH has the primacy and that a word is, first of all a SPOKEN thing.  Writing systems were created as a means to make a record of speech.\n\nNote that the three sounds indicated by the letters "h" "w" and "y" are all weak "semi-vowels" which can easily become vowels or even disappear (as "h" at the end of a syllable).  The basic rule is that, whenever "y" or "w" BEGIN a syllable they mark consonants; at the middle of end of a syllable they mark VOWELS.  (In the case of "w", except for words from the Welsh, like "cwm" [pronounced "coom"!] w is only used for vowels in diphthongs, e.g., "How now brown cow?"     It's even easier to see that they are functioning vowels if you note that final "oy" is pronounced exactly like the "oi" in the middle of a word, and "ow" is pronounced like "ou".)\n\n(Of course, one of my favorite words in all this is "why", made up ONLY of semi-vowels.)\n\n------------------------\n\nThere ARE words without vowel SOUNDS (and in which none of the letters indicates a vowel).   They are various "interjections", such as the following:\n\nbrr(r)\ngrr(r)\ntsk\nshh(h) \npsst\nhmm\nmm-hmm\n\nThis last one might be the longest all by itself.  (It is true we might add extra letters to many such words, e.g., h's to "shh" or r's to "brr".  But that would be cheating. And where would you stop?!)\n\nI think the longest bona fide word of this sort is "tsktsks" used as a verb, the equivalent of "utters a tsktsk" or "expresses disapproval", e.g., "he tsktsks her suggestions".
205418
Get a dictionary and start reading until you come across a word that is new to you, write it down and use it in a sentence. Once you have about 10 or 20 words, try and write a little story using all the words. You don't have to start at the A's, you can skip around in the dictionary. \n\nThere are also rules such as i before e except after c. Rules have exceptions, like for that one.. if the sound is an ae sound.. it's ei. examples: experIEnce recEIve nEIghbor\n\nBelow are some sites with more rules, look online and see if you can find your own.
1179985
N and Ñ are two entirely different letters, with entirely different sounds. N sounds as in English, but Ñ sounds like NY in canyon, or NI in onion. Also, "new" (British pron.) sounds like "ñu" to us, Spanish speakers. It's like N and Y spoken together. So it would depend on what you want to say.\n\nADDED LATER:\n\nI'm afraid there is no such rule as the one you're asking for. Of course if you know how to pronounce the word, you'll know which letter to use, and reversely, if you know how to spell it, you'll know how to read it. But if you don't have a clue, and you want to predict from the original English word, which one you will have to use, I'm afraid there is nothing you can do to know which letter is required in each specific case. You know for us, N and Ñ are not just as A and Á (i.e.: a letter with or without accent). We take N and Ñ to be two independent letters, just as M and R, to say any example. So, knowing which one to use of these two has never been an issue. They are two different letters, and each has a place. And you don't wonder, in English, why is it that "month" is spelt with an M rather than with an R. They are two independent letters.
100658
Good question.  It's because of the consonant sound that the vowel "u" makes in both words ("yu", consonant sound of "y-").  You already know the rule for articles that preceed a word - use "a" if the word starts with a consonant (or consonant sound), and "an" if the following word begins with a vowel or womel sound.\n\nThat's why.  English is bizarre.
715045
[`ja: - ne - gava`riu: - po - ang`lisski]\n1) I - [ja:] (like in "yard" - [ja:d])\n2) don't speak - [ne] (or it may sound like [ni]) [gava'riu]\n3) English [pa - ang`lisski]  ([g] like in grass, not gym)\n\nI'm Russian  :)
742229
Depends on what you mean:\n\n1) If you mean fewest letters there are THREE (not two, as many suggest):not just a and I, but also O (as used in addressing someone, e.g., in prayer -"O Lord") \n\n2) If by shortest you mean the length of the PRINTED word, than "I" wins out over "a" and "O".\n\n3) I you mean shortest in SOUND, that is, in the length of TIME it takes to speak it, "a" in expressions like "a man" (sounding like "uh") is the shortest/quickest to say.   "O" and "I" take a bit longer because they actually each have a combination of TWO vowel sounds (a 'diphthong') -- "O" in English adds a quick u-sound to the end; "I" is pronounced "ah-ee".   (When "a" is emphasized it is also a diphthong - "eh-ee".)\n\nActually, by this last measure "uh" and the exclamations "ooh!" and "ah!" and  are as short as "a", and "oh" is the same as "O".
974931
I do but in Spanish you add an F after a vowel and repeat the vowel like this Carlos is Cafarlofos maybe it is the same rule in English?
30067
British English - privacy with a short I (priv a see)\nAmerican English - privacy with a long I (pr-eye va see)\n\nAs for private, I think BE and AE are similar with a long I, but BE has a softer t sound at the end. (a glottal stop... if that means anything to you.)
532381
How to speak in proper sentences???