Short Vowel Words - Printable Worksheet (A, E, I, O, U)

1. What is a short vowel word?

A short vowel word has a short vowel sound in the middle (A, E, I, O or U) and is often a CVC word: consonant – vowel – consonant (for example: cat, bed, sit, hop, cup).

2. Core CVC word families

A – short /ă/ (as in “cat”)

Family	Words
-at	at, cat, hat, mat, sat
-an	an, man, can, pan, ran
-ap	cap, map, tap, lap, nap

E – short /ĕ/ (as in “bed”)

Family	Words
-et	pet, net, jet, vet, met
-en	pen, ten, men, hen, den
-eg	leg, peg, beg

I – short /ĭ/ (as in “sit”)

Family	Words
-it	it, sit, hit, fit, bit
-in	in, pin, fin, win, bin
-ig	pig, big, dig, wig

O – short /ŏ/ (as in “hot”) & U – short /ŭ/ (as in “sun”)

Family	Words
-op	hop, mop, top, pop
-og	dog, log, fog
-ut	cut, hut, nut
-ug	bug, hug, rug, mug

Tip: Master 3–5 word families per vowel before moving on to long vowels.

3. Quick practice

A. Read and circle the short vowel

Circle the vowel in each word.

cat bed pig hop sun

B. Match the picture (teacher/parent adds pictures or says words)

Draw a line from the word to the correct picture or say the word aloud.

cat pen cup dog

C. Fill in the missing vowel

Write a, e, i, o or u to complete each word.

c__t p__n b__g h__p s__n

D. Build your own CVC words

Choose a consonant + vowel + consonant and write 3 new words.

____ ____ ____

4. Extra practice

For more short vowel practice, download the full word list and worksheets from AreVowels.com > Short Vowel Words or use:

/downloads/short-vowel-words-list.pdf