Silent e

**Silent e** or **silent final e** is a spelling pattern in English that has 5 uses that can be exemplified with *lake* (a as /eɪ/), *office* (c as /s/), *love* (words don't end in v), *handle* (at least one vowel per syllable), and *goose* (to mark the word as a singular noun).

## Magic e

**IPA consonants**

*See main article Magic e*

English vowel letters AEIOU can be classified as having "a long sound" and "a short sound". See So-called “short” and “long” vowels. They also have more sounds, but the convention is as follows.

In the first line each vowel has its "normal" sound, a short monophthong. In the second line each vowel has the same sound as the name of the letter in the English alphabet. The sounds of the second line are longer than the ones of the first line.

"Magic e" (silent e at the end of the word) makes the vowel "say its name", or "makes the vowel long", which should be understood as moving in the table from the first row to the second, and not as lengthening the vowel. What is meant by “long E” is not that /iː/ is a long version of /e/, but actually "the long sound of the letter E".

Similarly, what is meant by “short I” is not that /ɪ/ is a short version of /aɪ/, but actually "the short sound of the letter I".

Therefore, "the long vowels" actually means "the long sounds of vowel letters", and "the short vowels" are "the short sounds of vowel letters".

Note that in phonetics "long vowel" means literally a vowel that is long, i.e., /ɑː, iː, ɔː, uː/ or /ɜː/.

Examples:

rat *vs* rate - cap *vs* cape - can *vs* cane
bed - hotel - stem - then - get *vs* theme - scene - complete
bit *vs* bite - quit *vs* quite
dog - alcohol - shop - lot *vs* code - smoke - home - phone - suppose
cub *vs* cube - cut *vs* cute
The pattern *vowel + consonant* + “e” = *long sound of the vowel* is reliable enough to be taught. Examples of exceptions are: have - college - machine - gone - lettuce.

The converse pattern *vowel + consonants* = *short sound of the vowel* is less reliable, but should also be taught.

Magic e exceptionally works in other situations:

* more than one consonant: able - change - paste; title; noble;
* no consonant: Mae - sundae
* no consonant (redundant): bee - fee; lie - tie; doe - toe; clue - issue

## Make c and g soft

At the end of a word "c" sounds /k/ and "g" sounds /g/. A silent e makes "c" sound /s/ and "g" sound /dʒ/.

* "ce": choice - experience - lettuce - office - once - police - service - since

Combined silent e and magic e: advice - face - price - place
Silent e and magic e with two consonants: scarce
* "ge": charge - knowledge - language - large - manage - vegetable

Combined silent e and magic e: age - page - stage
Silent e and magic e with two consonants: change - range - strange
## Keep u and v from being the last letter in a word

There are very few English words that end in "u" or "v". Most (if not all) words that end in /v/ are spelled with "ve". Many words that end in /uː/ are spelled with "ue".

* /v/: above - believe - curve - give - have - improve - involve - leave - live /lɪv/ - love - move - naive - receive - serve

Magic e: arrive - brave - drive - live /laɪv/ - save - shave - wave
* /uː/:argue - blue - continue - due - issue - pursue - rescue - revenue - tissue - true - value

Exceptions:

* /v/: mazel tov - of - perv - rev
* "u": emu - flu - gnu - guru - haiku - Hindu - menu - Peru - snafu - tofu - you

## Keep a syllable from having no vowels

* article - couple - example - handle - little - middle - people - simple - single - trouble

Magic e with two consonants: able - acre - bible - cable - cradle - fable - idle - maple - noble - stable - table - title
* all words with suffixes "able" and "ible": available, possible

* UK spelling: centre - litre - theatre

Magic e with two consonants: fibre - metre
Exceptions. The following examples have a syllable with no vowel letters:

* rhythm
* some contractions: couldn't - doesn't - hasn't - isn't - shouldn't - wouldn't
* all words ending in "sm": enthusiasm - mechanism

See also
IPA phonetic symbol [l̩]

## Keep a singular word from ending in s

* Words that follow this rule

* ending in /s/: goose - house - mouse - promise /ˈprɒmɪs/ - purchase - purpose - release

magic e: abuse - case - excuse - use
* ending in /z/: cause - cheese - disease - noise - pause

magic e: nose - phase - phrase - rose - surprise
* Words that don't follow this rule: alias - bonus - bus - canvas - chaos - Christmas - focus - gas - genius - plus - status - tennis - versus - virus

See also: Advanced decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/

## Other function or no function

In these words, the silent e does not affect the pronunciation. Most of these have short vowels instead of long.

* are - determine - gone
* breeze - freeze - maize - sneeze
* cheque - colleague - dialogue - giraffe - league - programme*BrE* - tongue

Silent e changes the vowel, but it doesn't make it long.

* come - private

Silent e makes the vowel long but it isn't a magic e because it doesn't make the vowel say its name.

* magazine - unique

See more examples in section Misleading final e – Other cases

## Misleading final e

In this section we show words in which the pattern *single letter vowel* + *single consonant letter or digraph* + *letter e* (VCe) does not make the vowel say its name.

### Misleading final e to keep a word from ending in v

"ave" doesn't sound /eɪv/

* /æ/: have

"ive" doesn't sound /aɪv/

* /ɪ/: active - alternative - competitive - conservative - effective - expensive - executive - give - initiative - live *(verb)* - native - negative - objective - perspective - positive - relative - representative

"ove" doesn't sound /əʊv/

* /ʌ/: above - love
* /uː/: approve - improve - move - prove - remove

### Misleading final e to make c and g soft

"age" doesn't sound /eɪdʒ/:

* /ɪ/: advantage - average - coverage - damage - encourage - garbage - image - manage - message - mortgage - package - passage - percentage - storage - village

"ace" doesn't sound /eɪs/:

* /ɪ/: surface

"ege" doesn't sound /iːdʒ/:

* /e/: allege
* /ɪ/: college, privilege, sacrilege

"ice" doesn't sound /aɪs/

* /ɪ/: justice, notice, office, practice, service
* /iː/: police

"uce" doesn't sound /uːs/ nor /juːs/

* /ɪ/: lettuce

### Misleading final e to keep a word from ending in s

"ase" doesn't sound /eɪs/ nor /eɪz/

* /ə/: purchase

"ise" doesn't sound /aɪs/ nor /aɪz/

* /ɪ/: premise, promise

"ose" doesn't sound /əʊz/ nor /əʊz/

* /ə/: purpose

### Other cases

"a" doesn't sound /eɪ/ nor /eə/

* /ɑː/: are
* /ə/: climate - corporate - estimate *(n.)* - purchase - private - separate *(adj.)*

"e" doesn't sound /iː/ nor /ɪə/

* e//: cheque
* /eə/: there, where
* /ɜː/: were

"i" doesn't sound /aɪ/

* /ɪ/: determine - discipline - engine - examine - famine - favourite*BrE* - imagine - medicine - opposite
* /iː/: antique - gasoline - machine - magazine - submarine - technique - vaseline - unique

"o" doesn't sound /əʊ/

* /ʌ/: become - come - done - income - none - one - some
* /ɒ/ or /ɔː/*AmE*: catalogue - dialogue - gone
* /uː/: lose - whose
* /ə/: welcome

"u" doesn't sound /uː/ nor /juː/

* /ɪ/: minute *(60 seconds)*

Pronounced final e
As this page shows, normally final e is silent. However there are words in which it has a sound.

* as /iː/ or /ɪ/: apostrophe - catastrophe - Chile - coyote - karate - machete - recipe - sesame

## Magic e in the middle of the word

Magic e is defined at the end of the word. In the middle of the word it works in the following cases:

Suffixes
* like + -ed = liked; wide + -er = wider; wide + -est = widest; hope + -ful = hopeful; care + -less = careless; like + -ly = likely; state + -ment = statement; face + -s = faces;

Compound words
* note + pad = notepad; sale + s + person = salesperson; time + table = timetable

Exceptions
Some compound words don't have a magic e. Some words look compound but they are not.

* dromedary /ˈdrɒmədəri/ is not *drome + dary* in English (it comes from Greek and Latin)
* pomegranate /ˈpɒmɪɡrænɪt/ is not *pome + granate* in English (it comes from Old French)
* sovereign /ˈsɒvrɪn/ is not *sove + reign* in English (it comes from *soverain* in Old French)
* vine + yard = vineyard /ˈvɪnjərd/

## References

1. ↑ All About *Learning Press*, How to Teach Silent E. They list 4 uses, and then "keeps a singular word from ending in s".
2. ↑ DailyWritingTips, Five Spelling Rules for “Silent Final E”

## See also

* Decoding the letter E
* Silent letter