There are twenty vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of England (R.P.). These include twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs, belonging to different phonemes. They are illustrated with the following sets of words:
Pure Vowels (Monothongs):
- even, see, teach, field, receive, machine, key, people
- bit, ink, rich, begin, effect, matches, city, village, coffee
- head, bed, nest, breath, feather, measure, many, bury, said
- axe, cat, fan, tax, had, sad, rank, band, man, bag, lack
- arm, part, car, hard, pass, dance, bath, staff, calm, aunt, laugh
- got, hot, ox, box, God, bottle, borrow, quality, want, cough, gone
- all, corn, horse, morning, four, bought, door, law, walk, warm, daughter
- put, book, good, room, wood, woman, cushion, full, sugar, bush, should
- boot, two, shoe, rude, juice, music, food, tooth, lose, you, new, beauty
- up, cup, gun, much, uncle, bundle, month, country, young, blood
- fur, earn, word, girl, hurt, curse, serve, thirst, journey, surface
- ago, about, forget, human, problem, liberty, drama, beggar, bigger,
Dipthongs (Vowel Glides):
- aim, pain, play, day, gate, age, waste, rain, eight, they, great,
- home, open, go, gold, blow, window, boat, soap, though
- ice, bite, high, write, tidy, cry, cycle, five, die, child, buy
- out, loud, cow, how, allow, shout, house, mouth, round,
- oil, boil, boy, annoy, join, coin, noise, point, voice
- ear, fierce, near, real, cheer, zero, here, hear, severe
- air, chair, care, share, bear, wear, prayer, their
- poor, sure, surely, tour, during