Vowel Sounds Of The Letter Y There are so many phonics rules! Amazingly, most of our little ones are able to break the code and become fluent readers. After students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet, we kind of rock their world a bit by teaching them that certain letters can have different sounds depending on where they are in the word or by the letters that surround them. The letter “y” is one of those tricky letters. The “y” can be a consonant or a vowel. Consonant or a Vowel? The consonant sound of “y” is /y/ as in the word “yellow.” Typically, “y” at the beginning of the word makes the consonant /y/ sound. The “y”