发前元音时舌的最高点在口腔的前部；发后元音时，舌的最高点在口腔的后部；发中元音时舌的最高点在口腔的中部。
以英语元音为例
1、[i:] sea, he, see, piece, ceiling, street, beef, these, week, meat, agree
2、[ɪ]sit, build, miss, myth, palace, between, if, give, busy, gym
3、[e] bed, desk, head, anything, many, again, special, heavy, weather, whether, friendly
4、[æ] bad, land, bank, stamp, pal, Canada, taxi
5、[a:] car, fast, class, plant, calm, aunt
6、[ ɔ] hot, want, wallet, wash, what
7、[ ɔ:] door, more, sport, ball, warm, author, court, bought, caught
8、[u:] who, blue, soup,
9、[u] look, put, women, could，good
10、[ ʌ] cup, come, blood, rough
11、[ ə:] girl, work, serve, nurse
12、[ə ] cadre, ago, forget, polite, dollar, doctor, famous, Saturday
扩展资料：
单元音（monophthong）共12个：其中/ɑ:/ /ɔ:/ / ɜ:/ /i:/ /u:/为长元音；/ ʌ/ /ɒ/ /ə/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /e/ /æ/为短元音。长短元音有对应关系。
单韵母
拼音：a o e i u ü er
这几个元音音位还有各自的音位变体
e[ɤ] 在i和ü后的实际发音为[ê]
i 在声母jqx后的实际发音为[ɩ]，而在声母zh ch sh r后的实际发音又为[ɿ]
关于韵母er，虽然由两个字母组合而成，但却是卷舌的单元音[ə˞]（舌位没有变化）
参考资料：百度百科-单元音
/i:/:be me
/i/:it bit fit
/e/:get debt yet
/ae/:cap map fat
/a:/arm art cart hard
/o/:top shop what
/o:/saw law ought bought
/u/put foot cook
/u:/too do
/A/:(短音a ) uo cuo bud
/e:/（长音 e) fur sir
/e/(短音e)ago again among
