Editor's Corner

How do you know when Y is a vowel and when it is a consonant?

In 1983, a group named Ebn Ozn had a hit song about vowels. Here’s a little something about vowels from page 36 of The Grammar Devotional (by Mignon Fogarty) that you might find more helpful than their song, but probably not as funny or as danceable.

Sometimes Y

Many people learned that the English vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y…

The reason for the “sometimes y” qualifier is that the letter y can be both a vowel and a consonant—it depends on the sound that y represents in the word. When y sounds like a vowel, it’s a vowel; when it sounds like a consonant, it’s a consonant.

Y is a vowel in mystery, family, and dynamo.

Y is a consonant in yolk and beyond.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

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