lesson
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What happens when two vowels stand side by side in the middle of a word?
Most of the time, they team up to make one single vowel sound.
Meet the Vowel Team Digraphs
A vowel team digraph is a pair of two vowels that work together to make one vowel sound, usually the long vowel sound of the first letter.
For example, in oa you hear long O, in ai you hear long A, and in both ee and ea you usually hear long E.
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These vowel teams are easy to spot in short words, but what happens when you meet a long, multi-syllable word?
The Golden Rule for Syllables
Every single syllable in English must have exactly one vowel sound.
Because a vowel team makes only one sound, you must never split the team apart when dividing syllables.
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Let's test this rule on some longer words step by step.