Telugu/Alphabet and Pronunciation/ఎ ఏ ఐ - ఒ ఓ ఔ

ఎ, ఏ, ఐ, ఒ, ఓ, ఔ

The letters above are called e, ay, ai, o, oo au.

'e' (ఎ) makes the short /e/ sound, as in everest or may, similar to the Spanish vowel 'E'.
'ay' (ఏ) makes the long /eː/ sound, as in ancient or angel, similar to the Spanish vowel 'É' (with the diacritic).
'ai' (ఐ) makes the /ai/ sound, as in bright or might.
'o' (ఒ) makes the short /o/ sound, similar to the Spanish vowel 'O'.
'oo' (ఓ) makes the long /oː/ sound, as in moat and hole, similar to the Spanish vowel 'Ó' (with the diacritic).
'au' (ఔ) makes the /au/ sound, as in vouch or bowl.

Exercises

Read out the following combinations of the letters as practice.