Ends with a vowel.

[Devlyn]

Jell-O. Ends with just a vowel. Gimme those Beans back!

[bethany]

Olive

[ZoeM]

Pea

[Devlyn]

Too bad pi has already been used, I like cherry.

[ZoeM]

Cheesecake

So many vowels...

[Devlyn]

Key lime pie. Trifecta.

[bethany]

Wine

[Devlyn]

Wine

Or vino.

[Devlyn]

Gouda.

[ZoeM]

Gyro. Shawarma.

[Devlyn]

Frappe.

[Jamie D]

Jell-O. Ends with just a vowel. Gimme those Beans back!

Not so fast

Lauwiliwilinukunukuoioi - the longnose butterfly fish

Lau wili wili nuku nuku ku oi oi - eight words ending in vowels

Longest entry as one word,  with 14 vowels!  Count'em ... 14

They get to be 0ver 8 inches long, but they ain't good eatin'

(By the way, longer than Humuhumunukunukuapua'a)

[Devlyn]

Not so fast

Lauwiliwilinukunukuoioi - the longnose butterfly fish

Longest entry as one word,  with 14 vowels!  Count'em ... 14

(By the way, longer than Humuhumunukunukuapua'a)

<Handing over crown and beans>  I can't beat that, not with a stick.

Ravioli.

[Jamie D]

Okay I have a mind blower!

Cow

Yes, cow.  When "w" ends a syllable, it can be a vowel.  Remember, it is double "U" - U U

Don't believe me?

GrammerGirl:

When Y and W Are at the End of a Syllable

Last, let's talk about Y and W at the end of a syllable. In one-syllable words such as "by" and "fly," Y represents the vowel commonly known as long I. As an aside, long I is actually two vowels run together. Say it slowly enough, and you can hear that it consists of "ah" plus "ee." The phonetic term for two vowels run together this way is diphthong, which sounds like an insult, and has actually been used as an insult by people who don't know better.

Getting back to Y at the end of a syllable: In longer words such as "sorry" and "friendly," it represents the vowel of long E (or maybe short I again—speakers vary). In words like "hey" or "day," we run into complications. On the one hand, you could say that Y represents a vowel, because without it, we'd pronounce the words with different vowels. Instead of "hey," we'd say "he," and instead of "day," we'd say "da." But by that reasoning, you could also conclude that G and H in "fight" are vowels, too, because without them, the word would be "fit." That way lies madness. The most sensible thing to say is that the letter combinations of E-Y and A-Y together represent the long A sound in these words.

What about the Y at the ends of words like "boy"? Well, "oy" is another diphthong, consisting of an O-like vowel followed by long E or short I. So you could say that Y represents one of those vowels. On the other hand, it might sound to you like the diphthong "oy" ends with the consonant "yuh," so Y represents a consonant. Even phoneticians don't all agree on this, so I recommend just saying that the letter combination O-Y represents the diphthong "oy," and leaving it at that.

When W occurs at or near the end of a syllable, it's often part of yet another diphthong. Words like "brow" and "cow," end with two vowels run together. First you have "aa" [as in "cat"] or "ah," and then you have "oo." So in these words, you could argue that W does indeed represent a vowel. On the other hand, maybe to you the word "cow" sounds like it ends with the consonant "wuh" instead of the vowel "oo." Just as with the diphthong "oy," phoneticians disagree. So my recommendation is just to say that the combination O-W represents the diphthong "ow," and stop there, just like we did for the O-Y and the diphthong "oy."

W also occurs at the end of words like "saw" and "drew." These words don't end with diphthongs; they end in the vowels "aw" and "oo." By the same kind of reasoning we've already been using, it's best not to call W a vowel or a consonant, but just to say that the letter combination A-W represents the vowel "aw," and the combination E-W represents "oo."

So to sum up, the only time you can truly say that W represents a vowel is in those rare Welsh borrowings, such as "cwm." Y, on the other hand, gets to represent a vowel in many more words. It represents short I in words like "gym," and either short I or long E in words like "happy." It represents a diphthong in words like "by."

And that's our look at when Y and W represent vowels and consonants. Wow! Yay!

This podcast was written by Neal Whitman, who blogs about linguistics at literalminded.wordpress.com and is a regular columnist for the online resource Visual Thesaurus.

[Jamie D]

I will also add "brew" to the list!  And "stew".

Please don't disqualify me for being a smart asse.

(Which, of course, is a Cape Fox.  Don't know if I'd want to eat one though.  If I caught it, it would be a dumb asse.)

[ZoeM]

Stew

Fondue

[Jamie D]

Hey!  That's my word!

[Devlyn]

I will also add "brew" to the list!  And "stew".

Please don't disqualify me for being a smart asse.

(Which, of course, is a Cape Fox)

Have I ever accused you of being smart about anything?

Gravy.

[ZoeM]

Hey!  That's my word!

DARNIT

Tofu!

Wait... That's not a food...

[Devlyn]

DARNIT

Tofu!

Wait... That's not a food...

Oh, no! You fell for the tofurkey!