Decoding the letter E

The **letter E** (lowercase **e**, pronounced **/iː/**), as most vowel letters in English, has four main pronunciations:

* So-called “short e”, IPA phoneme /e/, as in *dress, get, getting, second* or *merry*
* So-called “long e”, IPA phoneme /iː/, as in *he*, *region* or *scene*
* Long "er" monophtong (short vowel spelling), IPA phoneme /ɜː/, as in *term*, *def**e**r* or *def**e**rred*
* Long "er" diphthong (long vowel spelling), IPA phoneme /ɪə/, as in *here* or *period*

It also can be pronounced /ɪ/ as in *b**e**lieve* — plus other, less common pronunciations, sometimes in combination with other letters, and, of course, it can be used as schwa. Its use as a final, silent e should also be pointed out. Plus the two pronunciations of the English definite article, *the* (usually, /ðiː/ before a vowel sound and /ðə/ before a consonant sound).

**IPA consonants**

## As /iː/

*See main article* IPA phoneme /iː/

*See also* So-called “long e”

* at end: be, he, me, she, we
* as stressed syllable: appr**e**ciate, equal, **e**ven, **e**vening, evil, f**e**male, fr**e**quent, imm**e**diately, legal, m**e**ter, m**e**tre*BrE*, previous, proc**e**dure, r**e**cent, region, s**e**cret, senior, s**e**quence, sp**e**cies, v**e**hicle

* with magic e: athlete, Chinese, compete, complete, concede, concrete, extreme, Japanese, Lebanese, Portuguese, scene, Steve, theme, these
* Plurals of Greek words: analyses, crises, oases, theses
* Male Greek names: Achilles /əˈkɪliːz/, Archimedes /ˌɑːrkəˈmiːdiːz/, Diogenes /daɪˈɒdʒəniːz/, Hercules /ˈhɜrkjəliːz/, Sophocles /ˈsɒfəkliːz/, Ulysses /ˈjuːlɪsiːz,*BrE* juːˈlɪsiːz*AmE*/

## As /e/

*See main article* IPA phoneme /e/

*See also* So-called “short e” and Word stress § The letter e

* ending in *e* + consonants: accept, bell, bend, best, bet, correct, desk, egg, end, 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

* eCV: b**e**nefit, credit, dev**e**lopment, el**e**ven, **e**loquence, **e**very, **e**vidence, exit, g**e**neral, l**e**vel, n**e**ver, pr**e**sent, pr**e**sident, second, special, sev**e**ral, very
* other: b**e**tter, c**e**nter, **e**dge, **e**lse, **e**nter, **e**ntrance, envy, identity, inv**e**stment, l**e**tter, m**e**mber, question, section, s**e**ntence, tog**e**ther, wh**e**ther

## As /ɪ/

*See main article* IPA phoneme /ɪ/

* As a stressed syllable: England, English, pretty
* As an initial unstressed syllable, especially, but not exclusively, in two-syllable verbs:

* verbs: believe, defeat, defend, receive, rehearse, release, repeat, respect, retrieve
* others: defence, eleven, enough

See also Word stress § The letter e
* as past tense of regular verbs finishing /t/ or /d/: accepted, arrested, awarded, loaded, offended, recorded, repeated, sorted, suggested, tempted, wanted

## As /iː/ or /ɪ/

As a final unstressed vowel. See also Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/ § Unstressed syllable and Decoding exercises: "é".

* Common words: apostrophe, catastrophe, coyote, karate, karaoke, machete, maybe, recipe, sesame
* Uncommon words: abalone, aborigine, adobe, anemone, Apache, apocope, epitome, Comanche, guacamole, hyperbole, simile, synecdoche, syncope, tamale
* Proper names: Chile, Gethsemane, Jesse, Yosemite
* Female Greek names: Antigone /ænˈtɪgəniː/, Aphrodite /ˌæfrəˈdaɪtiː/, Ariadne /ˌæriːˈædniː/, Berenice /ˌberəˈnaɪsiː/, Calliope /kəˈlaɪəpiː/, Chloe /ˈkləʊiː/, Circe /ˈsɜːrsiː/, Daphne /ˈdæfniː/, Eurydice /jʊˈrɪdəsiː/, Euterpe /juːˈtɜːrpiː/, Hebe /ˈhiːbiː/, Hermione /hɜːrˈmaɪəniː/, Irene /aɪˈriːniː/, Melpomene /melˈpɒməniː/, Mnemosyne /niˈmɒsəni, niˈmɒzəni/, Nike /ˈnaɪkiː/, Penelope /pəˈneləpiː/, Persephone /pərˈsefəniː/, Phoebe /ˈfiːbiː/, Selene /sɪˈliːniː/, Terpsichore /tɜrpˈsɪkəriː/, Zoe /ˈzəʊiː/

## As schwa

*See main article schwa.*

*See also "er" below*

* at end: business, current, different, eleven, even, government, happen, investment, interest, item, level, listen, model, moment, often, open, parent, president, problem, recent, seven, statement, student, system, travel

## Words of French origin

* As /ɒ/: **e**ntrepreneur

* As /eɪ/: café, fiancé, resumé

See also Decoding exercises: "é"
* As /eɪ/ or /ɪ/: **e**lite

## Silent e

### Silent final e

*See main article Silent e.*

In addition to magic e (next section) we have examples like dance, horse, giraffe, little and have.

### Magic e

The pattern VCe#, where V is any vowel, C is any consonant and # is the end of the word, is known as magic e.

Magic e is silent but not redundant, as these examples show:

* /æ/ - /eɪ/: rat - rate; /ɑː/ - /eə/: car - care;
* /e/ - /iː/: get - scene; /ɜː/ - /ɪə/: her - here;
* /ɪ/ - /aɪ/: quit - quite; /ɜː/ - /aɪə/: sir - fire
* /ɒ/ - /əʊ/: hop - hope; /ɔː/ - /ɔː/: north - more
* /ʌ/ - /juː/: tub - tube; /ɜː/ - /jʊə/: fur - cure

Many compound words and words with suffixes have a silent e in the middle of the word

* careless, extrem**e**ly, evening, fireproof, forecast, lively, moreover, pipeline, precisely, rarely, safety, shareholder, statement

### Past tense of regular verbs

*See main article Past tense pronunciation.*

* grabbed, liked, played, trapped

### Other

* "er" as /r/: different, interest, preference, several
* improvement, lovely, movement, relatively, somebody, something, sometimes, vineyard

See also Varisyllabic words.

## Combinations

### ea

*See main article Decoding exercises: "ea".*

* as **/iː/**: beach - bead - beat - bleach - breathe - cheat - clean - cream - creature - deal - dream - each - easy - eat - feature - heal - heat - increase - jeans - lead *(verb)* - leader - leaf - lean - leave - meal - mean - meat - pea - peach - peak - please - reach - read - repeat - reason - reveal - scream - sea - seal - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - treat - weak - weasel

* as **/e/**: 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

ear
* as **/ɪə/**: clear, dear, ear, fear, hear, near
* as **/eə/**: bear, wear
* as **/ɜː/**: early, earn, earth, heard, hearse, learn, pearl, rehearsal, rehearse, search

### ee

*See main article* IPA phoneme /iː/.

* /iː/ agree, between, breed, breeze, deep, eel, fee, feel, free, greed, green, guarantee, knee, leek, meek, meet, need, reed, see, seed, seek, sleek, steel, steep, tee, teeth, tree, weed, week
* /iː/ or /ɪ/. See Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/ § Word\_final: coffee, commitee

"ee" is a very reliable spelling pattern. Probably the only exception is the word "been".

* been /biːn*BrE*, bɪn*AmE* *BrE*/

eer
* /ɪə/: career, deer, engineer, peer
* /iːə/: freer

### ei

*See main article Decoding exercises: "ei"*

### ey

*See main article Decoding exercises: "ey"*

### eu

*See main article Decoding exercises: "eu".*

* As /juː/: eucalyptus, euphoria
* As /juː/ or /uː/: neuter, neutral
* As /iːə/: museum

eur
* As /jʊə/: euro, Europe, European
* As /jʊə/ or /ʊə/: neuron
* As /ə/: amateur

### ew

*See main article IPA phoneme /uː/.*

* As /uː/: brew, chew, crew, jewel, screw

Past tense: blew, drew, flew, grew, threw
* As /juː/ or /uː/: knew, new, stew
* As /juː/: few, nephew
* Anomalies: as /əʊ/: sew, sewn

### er

Main article: Decoding exercises: "er"

* /ɜː/: defer, fern, her, herd, person, prefer, sperm, stern, term, tern, were
* /ə/: butter, ever, never, summer, teacher, water, weather

ere
* /ɪə/: here, mere, severe, sphere
* /eə/: there, where

err
* /e/: deterrent,*BrE* error, Jerry, territory, terrorist
* /ɜː/: deferred, deferring, deterrent,*AmE* preferred, preferring

### Other

* /aɪ/: eye
* "eo"

*Main article:* Decoding exercises: "eo"
* /iː/: people
* /e/: jeopardise,*BrE* jeopardize, leopard
* /ɪ/ or /ə/: pigeon
* /ə/: surgeon

Two syllables:
* /iːɒ/: neon
* /iːəʊ/: rodeo, Romeo, stereo, video

## Homophones

*See main article Homophone.*

* blew - blue; hear - here; he'd - heed; heel - he'll; leak - leek; meat - meet; read *(present)* - reed *(tall grass-like plant from wet places)*; read *(past)* - red; sea - see - C; steal - steel; tern *(bird similar to a gull)* - turn; threw - through; weak - week; we'll - wheel; we'd - weed;

## Respellings

Def Leppard, Deftones, Led Zeppelin, Megadeth

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

Many Spanish speakers will try, instinctively, to pronounce it as /e/ which is very similar to the letter "e" in Spanish, forgetting that very often "e" sounds as /iː/. This is particularly true of cognates, such as previous *(previo)* pronounced as \*/ˈprevjəs/, region *(región)* pronounced as \*/ˈredʒən/ or worse \*/ˈredʒjən/, or decent *(decente)* pronounced as \*/ˈdesənt/.

The same situation arises when the sequence "er" is sounded /ɪər/. For example, they tend to pronounce \*/ˈperjəd/ instead of /ˈpɪəriːəd/ (English "period", Spanish *período* or *periodo).*

## See also

* Decoding exercises: "é"
* Decoding exercises: "er"
* Decoding exercises: "err"
* Decoding exercises: "erV" and "errV"
* Decoding exercises: "ie"
* Decoding exercises: "oe"
* Decoding exercises: "ue"