Long vowel (phonetics)

A long vowel is a monophthong vowel sound that has longer duration than a short vowel. In pedagogy the term long vowel is often also applied to certain diphthongs.

In English the long vowels are triangular colon. They are /i:/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, /ɑ:/

In regular spelling they are (1) vowel letter plus R; er for /ɜ:/, “or” for /ɔ:/ and ar for /ɑ:/. In non-rhotic accents the /r/ is often not pronounced unless it precedes another vowel sound, when it’s pronounced as linking /r/. In rhotic accents the /r/ is pronounced but the vowel tends to be shorter; these are known as R-coloured vowels.

/i:/ is often spelt "ee,” "ea” or "i[C]e,” while /u:/ is "oo" or "u[C]e.”