Which of the following words contains a vowel digraph?

Which of the following words contains a vowel digraph?

• A. mouth
• B. ate
• C. lawn
• D. sweep

Answer: (D)

A vowel digraph is two vowels next to each other that together produce one vowel sound. In sweep, the pair ee creates the long e sound /iː/ as a single, sustained vowel, which is the clearest example of a vowel digraph you’ll see in many phonics resources. The other words either don’t have two adjacent vowels making a single, simple sound in the same way (ate has vowels separated by a consonant, and mouth and lawn involve vowel pairs that form different kinds of sounds like diphthongs or other vowel teams), so sweep stands out as the most straightforward instance of a vowel digraph in this set.

A vowel digraph is two vowels next to each other that together produce one vowel sound. In sweep, the pair ee creates the long e sound /iː/ as a single, sustained vowel, which is the clearest example of a vowel digraph you’ll see in many phonics resources. The other words either don’t have two adjacent vowels making a single, simple sound in the same way (ate has vowels separated by a consonant, and mouth and lawn involve vowel pairs that form different kinds of sounds like diphthongs or other vowel teams), so sweep stands out as the most straightforward instance of a vowel digraph in this set.