IPA phoneme \e\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American the IPA phoneme /e/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "dress", "net" and "head".

In a narrow notation the correct IPA phonetic symbol for /e/ is **[ɛ]** in many accents. However the very influential Oxford dictionaries selected **/e/** for this phoneme. Most American dictionaries (when using IPA) prefer /ɛ/. At the advice of Clive Upton the *Concise Oxford Dictionary* altered the British tradition and now uses /ɛ/; later *Oxford Dictionaries Online* followed the same convention. This has been referred to as "a perfectly acceptable relatively narrow transcription of the mainstream GB phoneme", and also "an alteration [...] from /e/ to /ɛ/ is probably on balance better not adopted".

There is no risk of confusion if /e/ is used instead of /ɛ/. The only care that must be taken is realizing that in many accents /eɪ/ as in "face" is not the combination of /e/ as in "dress" and /ɪ/ as in "kit". However, in Southern England FACE is pronounced with [ɛj], beginning like the monophthong of DRESS [ɛ].

Informally this phoneme is the so-called “short e”.

## Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /e/ include the following:

* with "**e**": accept, bell, bend, best, bet, correct, desk, egg, end, **e**ngine, **e**ngineer, exp**e**ct, forget, get, hell, help, hotel, jet, leg, lend, let, met, neck, next, pen, protect, rent, requ**e**st, sell, send, set, spend, suggest, tell, theft, well, went, wet, when, yell, yes

* with "**"ea"**": ahead - already - bread - breakfast - breast - breath - cleanse - dead - deaf - dealt - death - dread - dreadful - feather - head - header - health - heather - heavy - instead - jealous - lead *(metal)* - leapt - leather - meadow - meant - measure - pheasant - pleasant - pleasure - read *(past tense and past participle)* - ready - spread - steady - sweat - thread - threat - threaten - treachery - tread - treadmill - treasure - wealth - weapon - weather

* homophones: bred - bread; led - lead *(metal)*; lent - leant; red - read *(past tense)*; sent - cent - scent; whether - weather;

## Spelling

/e/ is always followed by one or more consonants. In derived words a single consonant is usually doubled (get, getting; wet, wetter).

## Spelling anomalies

* with "**a**": any - ate*BrE* - marshmallow*AmE* - many
* other: \*again /əˈɡen, əˈɡeɪn/ - friend - leisure*BrE* - leopard - said - says

## Variant pronunciations

* again /əˈɡen, əˈɡeɪn/
* catch /ˈkætʃ, ˈketʃ*AmE*/
* marshmallow /ˈmɑːrʃmeləʊ,*AmE* ˌmɑːrʃˈmæləʊ*BrE*/

## These words don't rhyme

* Betty - pretty; eleven - even; header - leader; never - fever; said - paid; says - pays;

## Heteronyms

* lead /liːd/ *(guide)* /led/ *(metal)*
* read /riːd/ *(present)* /red/ *(past)*

## /erV/

Both in Received Pronunciation and in General American when /e/ is followed by /r/ in the same syllable, a diphthong is pronounced: IPA phoneme \eə\. *Square* is [skwɛər].

In Received Pronunciation but not in General American there is a difference between /eərV/ and /erV/, i.e. when the /r/ is followed by a vowel: *Mary* is [ˈmɛəriː]*BrE* and *merry* is [ˈmɛriː].*BrE* In General American there is no difference: some people pronounce [ˈmɛəriː] in both cases and others [ˈmɛriː]. Since the difference between [ɛər]*AmE* and [ɛr]*AmE* is predictable, phoneticians say that in American English there is no phoneme /eə/, only phoneme /e/.
See also Mary-marry-merry merger.

### With "e"

*See also: Decoding exercises: "erV" and "errV"*
The sequence "erV" (where V is any vowel) can be pronounced /er/ or /ɪər/. The sequence "errV" is reliably pronounced /er/ in most words and /ɜːr/ in derived words (from "prefer" we get "preferring").

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

While **/e/** as in "dress" (more precisely [ɛ]) is very similar to the Spanish letter "**e**", many Spanish speakers have difficulty remembering that many other words with different spellings may also have the same pronunciation in English. This is particularly true of "said" /sed/ and "says" /sez/ which are often heard as \*/seɪd/ and \*/seɪz/.

Practically all Spanish speakers know that "head" is pronounced /hed/. However many of them pronounce "header" as \*/ˈhiːdər/, rhyming it with "reader" and "leader".

## References

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries Online, Key to pronunciations (British and World English dictionary). See ɛ as in b*e*d.
2. ↑ IPA vowel symbols for British English in dictionaries, Section 5. /ɛ/ versus /e/.
3. ↑ Geoff Lindsey, The British English vowel system, 8 March 2012.
4. ↑ Merriam-Webster's learner's Dictionary, catch.

## See also

* Decoding the letter E
* Decoding and spelling exercises: /e/ vs /iː/
* Decoding and spelling exercises: /e/ vs /ɪ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /eə/ vs /e/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation