It says Y is considered a consonant when it starts off a word or syllable, as in yard, lawyer, or beyond. The letter is in the middle of a syllable: system, borborygmus.The letter is at the end of a word or syllable: candy, deny, bicycle, acrylic.It says Y is considered to be a vowel when: “What is special about the letter Y is that it can represent both kinds of speech sounds – depending on its position and the letters surrounding it in a word.” Merriam-Webster explains: “Technically, the terms vowel and consonant (from Latin vocalis, meaning “vocal”, and Latin consonare, “to sound together”) refer to particular speech sounds: a vowel is one made with your mouth open and your tongue in the middle of your mouth not touching your teeth, lips, etc. It is the most unique letter in the alphabet, in that it can act as both a consonant and a vowel.

There is some debate over whether Y is considered a vowel. There are very few words in the English language that do not have any vowels – and all of these include the letter Y (other than short, onomatopoeic words like brr and shh).

What are words without vowels