What are the types of vowel sounds?

The two basic types are long vowels and short vowel sounds.

-- Long vowels "say their name" and sound like AY, EE, eye, OH, or OO (also YOO).

-- Short vowel sounds are ah (Apple), eh (get), ih (sit), aah (stop), and uh (rut). There is also a short OO sound, as in good and foot.

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There are special sounds such as the caret O (OR or AW sound) and the OU pair sound (OW), and the OI pair sound (OY) as in coin and boy. The OI sound is created by the sounds O-I-E, blended together.

Besides the OR, other vowels also have slightly different sounds when stressed and paired with an R : the umlaut A (car), caret I (ear, beer) and caret U (er and ur). When unstressed, the ar, er, ir, and ur are all schwa sounds that have about the same sound.