system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is the letter "Y" sometimes a vowel?
gpt
Even though we label *letters* as consonants or vowels, it's really only *sounds* that are consonants or vowels. And thanks to English's screwy writing system, "y" can be either - at the start of "you", it's a consonant, and at the end of "try", it represents a vowel (well, a diphthong, so it's sort of two vowels strung together quickly - aah to eee). In the word "tray", "ay" represents a diphthong, as well, but you can say that the "y" is just one vowel of the pair. That's also why "w" is sometimes included as a vowel, in words like "how", where the "ow" is a diphthong that goes from aah to ooo.