English Vowels. The Unpredictable Pair: “OU” (Oh no!)

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This might be the most confusing part of English spelling. When two vowel letters are together, sometimes they make two separate sounds, such as “EA” in “idea” (a vowel sequence) or sometimes they make just one sound, such as “EA” in “each” (a vowel pair).

For vowel pairs, the pronunciation is mostly predictable. Generally, the first letter of the pair is the one that is…