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

"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" is a spelling 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 sound and i does not sound. The same happens for each, die, goat, and rescue.

Unfortunately, this rule is false 60% of the time. Counterexamples: head, chief, pause, out, biscuit.

The first one does the talking

• "ai" /eɪ/: aid - train - wait
• "ea" /iː/: beach - clean - dream

Exceptions:

/e/: bread - health - leather

/eɪ/: break - great - steak

• "ee" /iː/: fee - keep - sleep
• "ue" /(j)uː/: clue - due - blue

Miked results

• "ei"

/iː/: ceiling - conceive - receipt

/eɪ/: eight - neighbour - weigh

• "ie"

/aɪ/: lies - fried

/iː/: chief - field

The pattern doesn't work

• "au" /ɔː/: cause - author
• "oo"

/uː/ school - goose

/ʊ/: foot - good

• "ou" /aʊ/: about

Both vowels do the talking

With a little imagination, instead of exceptions the following patterns are examples of rules for diphthongs.

• "ew" /(j)uː/: few - flew - new
• "oi" /ɔɪ/: choice