Let’s look at some general information regarding the vowel sounds.

What is referred to as the ‘vowel space’ (or the part of the mouth and throat which is
used in the production of vowels) is shown by the following diagram:

The dot on each diagram represents the height of the tongue, and also the part of the tongue which is raised.

Phonemic symbols from the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) are used. The characteristics of the sound are described by referring to the tongue and lip positions. This illustration shows the basic lip positions which are used in describing the articulation of vowel sounds. You can think of this as a sort of ‘snapshot’ view of lip positions.

Finally, example words are given with respective audio recordings in order to illustrate the spelling / sound relationships.