When do you pronounce a as long a?

You pronounce "a" as a long "a" sound (like the "a" in "day") in a few different situations:

1. When it's at the end of a word and followed by a silent "e":

* Examples: "make", "bake", "take", "rate", "fame"

2. When it's in a word with a single vowel and a consonant at the end:

* Examples: "ate", "game", "name", "same", "plane"

3. When it's in a word with two vowels together (a digraph), and the first vowel is "a":

* Examples: "wait", "rain", "sail", "train", "paint"

4. When it's in a word with "ai" or "ay":

* Examples: "rain", "stay", "play", "paint", "sail"

5. When it's in a word with "ei" or "ey" and the sound is not like the "e" in "get":

* Examples: "neighbor", "weigh", "they", "grey"

6. In certain words that don't follow the typical rules:

* Examples: "says", "says", "was"

It's important to remember that these are general guidelines. There are always exceptions, and the best way to learn the pronunciation of a word is to look it up in a dictionary.