✨Creating an account only takes 20 seconds, and doesn’t require any personal info.
If you’ve got one already, please log in.🤝
Template:Magic e summary
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.
| A | E | I | O | U | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Short sound | trap /æ/ | dress /e/ | kit /ɪ/ | lot /ɒ/ | strut /ʌ/ |
| 2.a Long sound or "name sound" | face /eɪ/ | theme /iː/ | price /aɪ/ | bone /əʊ/ | cute /juː/, flute /uː/ |
| 2.b Long sound before "r" | care /eə/ | here /ɪə/ | fire /aɪə/ | store /ɔː/, /oə/ in some accents | cure /jʊə/ |
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",[1] 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
References[edit source]
- ↑ DailyWritingTips, Five Spelling Rules for “Silent Final E”
See also[edit source]
This template is used in the following articles:
