When is a vowel said to be a long vowel?

Answer 1

Some "long" vowels "say their name."

examples:

• ape (long a)
• evil (long E)
• ice (long I)
• over (long O)
• use (long U)

Some long U vowels do not "say their name," for example the long U in dune or Flute,and the long U (OO) of choose and lose.

Answer 2

A long vowel is when the "vowel says its name". That means when we pronounce that vowel, it pronounces the same as the name of that letter. Long vowels happen in some situations like the vowel at the end of on open syllable can sometimes be long but not always, the VCe ending words usually have a long vowel sounds, vowel team digraphs can make long vowel sounds, I or O can sometimes be long when they come before some 2 consonants bonds, but not all, especially in a same syllable.

Sometimes rule-breaker exceptions might occur, so please be careful. For example, "bass", "Cambridge", "angel", "ancient", have a long A sounds although the vowel does'nt fall into the long situations. For other example, "have", "live", "give", "love", "bread", "head", "are", "come", "famine", "ravine", "determine", "machine", "discipline", "chlorine", "wolverine", have short vowel sound although the vowel falls into the long situations. Technically, English words don't end with V, which could be why they add an E although a short vowel sound is required.