AU Vowel Team: Word List & Practice
AU Vowel Team words follow one repeating pattern, so a child who can read one of them has most of what they need to read the rest. This list has 14 grade 2-level words plus 4 decodable sentences. Practice them out loud — the most common error is sounding out a and u separately.
- haul
- maul
- author
- autumn
- auto
- August
- sauce
- cause
- pause
- launch
- laundry
- haunt
- fault
- vault
Practice these words out loud
Have your child read these sentences to Word Wiz AI. It listens and shows exactly which sounds they missed, not just whether the word was right. Free, no sign-up needed to try.
Try these out loudDecodable Sentences
Every word in these sentences uses sounds your child has already learned, so they can be read by decoding rather than guessing.
- The author will pause in August.
- Haul the laundry to the vault.
- The sauce was not my fault.
- Autumn winds haunt the launch.
How to Teach AU Vowel Team Words
'Au' makes the /aw/ sound heard in 'haul' and 'sauce.' Depending on regional accent this may sound identical to the short o in 'hot' or noticeably different, and both are correct - if your family says 'caught' and 'cot' the same way, do not try to teach a distinction your child does not hear.
'Au' sits at the beginning or middle of words and hands off to 'aw' at the end, which is the same positional pairing seen in ai/ay and oi/oy. Since this is the fourth time that structure appears, most children can predict the rule before being told, and asking them to guess is a better use of the moment than explaining it.
Common Mistakes to Watch For
- Sounding out a and u separately
- Writing 'au' at the end of a word instead of 'aw'
- Confusing 'au' with 'ou'