AU and AW Words

AU and AW Grouped by Position

Spelling	Where it typically appears	Words
aw	End of a word, or before n or l	saw, draw, lawn, crawl, hawk
au	Middle of a word	cause, author

Haul is deliberately left out of this table — see below.

Reading each row aloud shows the same vowel sound in every word — a sound that’s neither short nor long — with only the spelling and its typical position changing.

What Are the AU and AW Spellings?

AU and AW are two-letter spellings for one vowel sound: the sound heard in saw and cause, distinct from any short or long vowel sound taught earlier. Neither letter is silent and neither is sounded separately — together the two letters spell a single vowel sound, the same way other vowel teams do.

Why AW Tends to Appear at the End (or Before N/L) and AU in the Middle

In the high-frequency words taught here, aw is typically found at the very end of a word, as in saw and draw, or immediately before n or l, as in lawn, crawl, and hawk’s close relatives dawn and shawl. Au is typically found in the middle of a word followed by a consonant other than n or l, as in cause and author. This is a genuinely useful tendency for choosing a first guess — but it’s a tendency, not an absolute rule, and it’s worth naming the words that break it rather than pretending they don’t exist.

A Genuine Exception Worth Knowing

Haul uses au directly before l — exactly the position where the tendency predicts aw. Fault and vault do the same thing. These aren’t rare or obscure words; they’re common enough that a learner will meet them, so the honest version of the tendency is “aw is common before n or l, but not guaranteed,” not “aw always comes before n or l.”

That’s an exception of position — au shows up where aw was expected, but the sound is still the target sound. A different, more fundamental exception exists in laugh: there, au doesn’t spell the target sound at all. Laugh rhymes with half, not with haul, so it’s not a case of predicting the wrong spelling for the right sound — it’s a completely different sound wearing this page’s letters. Because laugh is such a common, early word, it’s worth naming directly rather than letting a learner discover the mismatch on their own.

What Should the Learner Notice?

• AU and AW spell the exact same vowel sound — the difference is spelling only, not sound.
• Aw is the better first guess at the end of a word or right before n or l; au is the better first guess elsewhere in the middle of a word.
• Haul is a genuine exception to the n/l tendency and needs to be learned as its own word rather than worked out from the pattern.
• Laugh is a different kind of exception: the letters au are there, but the target sound isn’t — it needs to be learned by sight, not sounded out.
• Augh, as in caught and taught, is a related but separate spelling, and isn’t even consistent with itself (compare caught with laugh) — a further reason it’s left for its own lesson rather than folded into this page.

How to Practice AU and AW Words

1. Say the target word aloud and confirm it has the saw/cause vowel sound.
2. Listen for whether the sound is at the very end of the word, right before n or l, or somewhere else in the middle.
3. Choose aw for the end or before n/l, or au elsewhere — then check the word against ones already known, since a small number of words (like haul) don’t follow the tendency.
4. Write or type the letters in order, then read the result back exactly as written.

If a learner spells haul as hawl, that’s the tendency working exactly as expected — not a mistake in reasoning. Confirm the guess was reasonable, then treat haul as one to learn by sight alongside the regular pattern, the same way any genuine exception gets learned.

Signs the AU/AW Pattern Is Becoming Secure

Signs the pattern is becoming secure include:

• Reading a new au or aw word aloud with the correct vowel sound.
• Choosing au or aw correctly for an unfamiliar regular word based on its position.
• Spelling a representative word from dictation, including recognizing haul as a word to learn by sight rather than by the tendency.
• Explaining, in their own words, why author uses au even though it isn’t right next to n or l.