单元音（
monophthong）共12个：其中/ɑ:/ /ɔ:/ / ɜ:/ /i:/ /u:/为
长元音；/ ʌ/ /ɒ/ /ə/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /e/ /æ/为
短元音。长短元音有对应关系。
发音方式
单元音发音时可按
舌面隆起的位置分为
前元音，
后元音和中元音三类。发前元音时舌的最高点在口腔的前部；发后元音时，舌的最高点在口腔的后部；发中元音时舌的最高点在口腔的中部。
元音单词
以英语元音为例
后元音: [ɔ] [ɔ:] [u:] [u] [a:]
[i:] sea, he, see, piece, ceiling, street, beef, these,
week, meat, agree
[ɪ]sit, build, miss, myth, palace, between, if, give, busy, gym
[e] bed,
desk, head, anything,
many, again, special, heavy,
weather,
whether, friendly
[æ] bad,
land, bank, stamp, pal,
Canada, taxi
[a:] car, fast, class, plant, calm, aunt
[ ɔ] hot, want,
wallet, wash, what
[ ɔ:] door, more, sport, ball, warm, author,
court,
bought, caught
[u] look,
put, woman, could，good
[ʌ] cup, come, blood, rough
[ə:] girl, work,
serve, nurse
[ə ] cadre, ago, forget,
polite,
dollar,
doctor, famous, Saturday
单韵母
拼音：a o e i u ü er
e[ɤ] 在i和ü后的实际发音为[ê]
i 在声母jqx后的实际发音为[ɩ]，而在声母zh ch sh r后的实际发音又为[ɿ]
关于韵母er，虽然由两个字母组合而成，但却是卷舌的单元音[ə˞]（
舌位没有变化）
[i:] sea, he, see, piece, ceiling, street, beef, these, week, meat, agree
[ɪ]sit, build, miss, myth, palace, between, if, give, busy, gym
[e] bed, desk, head, anything, many, again, special, heavy, weather, whether, friendly
[æ] bad, land, bank, stamp, pal, Canada, taxi
[a:] car, fast, class, plant, calm, aunt
[ɔ] hot, want, wallet, wash, what
[3:] skirt，bink，girl,person,purple,learn
[u:] good, who, blue, soup,
[u] look, put, women, could
[ʌ] cup, come, blood, rough，up
[ə:] girl, work, serve, nurse
[ə] cadre, ago, forget, polite, dollar, doctor, famous, Saturday