Y is a consonant for its general pronunciation and in thephonetic alphabets. Y is a consonant when it begins a word likeyellow, yell, year, yearn, yes, yarn, yard, etc. or if it begins asyllable like mayor, layer, kayak, etc. However, although Y isgenerally a consonant, it can sometimes behave like a vowel, so Ycan be considered as a semi-vowel, but not a real vowel. The realvowel includes, A, E, I, O and U. If the Y ends a word like cry,try, fly, hay, pay, day, may etc., it's through a syllable likebyte, hymn, Lyn, lynx, type, krypton, dye, symptom, etc., if itends a syllable like Tyler, Taylor, hyper, dynamic, python, maybe,tyrant, hybrid, hypothesis, pylon, etc., or if it begins a word ora syllable but the following letter is a consonant like yttrium,ytterbium, etc. then the Y behaves like a vowel.