The letter "Yy" can have 5 sounds - the long "Ii", the short "Ii", the long "Ee", the long "Uu", and a blend of the long "Ee" into the vowel that follows it.

These words have the regular "Yy" sound:

  • yes, yellow, yell
  • young, yesterday, yard

These words have the long "Ii" sound:

  • sky, fry, by, rhyme
  • bye, rye, my, unicycle

These words have the long "Ee" sound:

  • anyone, silly, quickly (many words ending with "ly")
  • happy, family, lazy, baby

These words have the short "Ii" sound:

  • myth, cyst, crystal
  • gypsum, abysmal, syrup

These words have the long "Ee" sound that blends into the following vowel:

  • canyon, beyond
  • lanyard, banyan

These words have the long "Ee" sound, using the letter "Ii", that blends into the following vowel, they do not use the letter "Yy":

  • onion, companion
  • junior, behavior

These words start with the letter "Uu" which blends into the following consonant, they do not use the letter "Yy", this is also the Long "Uu", but it is pronounced similar to "yiu":

  • union, unicorn, unit
  • usual, use, ukulele
  • unique, unite, utility

Practice
Practice reading the following sentences out loud, concentrate on pronunciation of the "Yy" sounds.
The red letters are pronounced with the long "Ii" sound.
The green letters are pronounced with the long "Ee" sound.
The blue letters are pronounced with the short "Ii" sound.
The purple letters are pronounced with the blended "Ee" sound, begin with "Uu", or normal "Yy" sound.

  • Yesterday I rode my unicycle in my yard.
  • My family quickly said "bye" and left for the canyon.
  • I have a young Banyan tree and that makes me happy.
  • Joe Junior wanted to fry his hamburger his usual way - with onions.
  • Anyone who likes syrup on his rye is silly, but unique.
  • His companion said crystal can be found in gypsum, but that is a myth.