Question

Which vowel sound is used in all three of the following words?

meat, gear, tear

A) short e
B) long a
C) long e
D) short i

Answer 1

Answer: Meat is (c), Gear (c) tear (c)

Reason why is because you would introduce ee with the word tree, and ea with the word meat. Then when your students ask which spelling to use for a long e word, you can say '/ee/ like tree/meat'. Some teachers also group them as wet/meal words (ea) and nature words (ee).