Editing When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking

'''"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking"''' is a rule used when teaching English-speaking children that says that when there are two vowels in a word the first one has the so-called "long" sound of the vowel (or alphabet name), and the second one is not pronounced.

For example, in ''train'' the ''a'' has the [[so-called “long a”|so-called “long ''a''”]] sound and ''i'' does not sound. The same happens for ''each'', ''die'', ''goat'', and ''rescue''.

Unfortunately, this rule is false 60% of the time.<ref name="allabout">All about ''Learning Press'', [http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/when-two-vowels-go-walking/ When Two Vowels Go Walking]</ref> Counterexamples: ''pause'', ''head'', ''chief'', ''out'', ''biscuit''.

==The first one does the talking==

*"ai" /eɪ/: {{"ai" as /eɪ/}}
:Exceptions: said /s{{e}}d/ - again /əˈɡen, əˈɡeɪn/ ; 
*"ee" /iː/: agree - between - deep - degree - fee - feed - feel - free - green - indeed - keep - meet - need - screen - see - seek - seem - sleep - speech - speed - street - tree - week
*"oa" /əʊ/: {{"oa" as /əʊ/}}
*"oe" /əʊ/: goes - heroes - potatoes - toe - tomatoes
:Exceptions: shoe - does ''(verb)'' - canoe
*"ue" [[IPA phonetic sequence /juː/|/(j)uː/]]: blue - clue - continue - due - value

==Mixed results==
*"ea"
**/iː/: {{"ea" as /i:/}}
**/e/: {{"ea" as /e/}}
**/eɪ/: break - great - steak
*"ei" 
:/iː/: ceiling - conceive - receipt
:/eɪ/: eight - neighbour - weigh 
*"eo"
:/iː/: people
:/e/: leopard
:Both vowels do the talking: video - theory
*"ie" 
:/aɪ/: lies - fried
:/iː/: chief - field
*"ui"
:/(j)uː/: bruise - fruit - suite
:/ɪ/: biscuit - circuit
:/uːɪ/: altruism - fluid - ruin - suicide
:/wɪ/: anguish - liquid - penguin - quick

==The rule doesn't work==
*"au" 
:/ɔː/ cause - author
:/eɪ/ gauge
*"oo"
:/uː/ school - goose
:/ʊ/: foot - good
*"ou" /aʊ/: about - mouth
:Exceptions: soup - through; could - should - would; country - double
:Rule works for ''soul'', but it is better to teach "ou" as a [[phonogram]],<ref name="allabout"/> and therefore ''soul'' is an exception.

==Both vowels do the talking==
With a little imagination, instead of exceptions the following patterns are examples of rules for [[diphthong]]s.

*"ew" [[IPA phonetic sequence /juː/|/(j)uː/]]: few - flew - new
*"oi" [[IPA phoneme /ɔɪ/|/ɔɪ/]]: choice

==References==
<references/>[[category:index]]

==See also==
{{template:When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking/table}}

[[category:decoding written words]]