Ea

eɪ

steak /steɪk/

e

head /hed/

iː

eat /iːt/

IPA vowels

æ	ɑː
trap	father - start
e	eɪ	eə
dress	face	square
ɪ	iː	ɪə
kit	fleece	near
ɒ	əʊ	ɔː
lot	goat	taught
ʊ	uː	ʊə
foot	goose	mature
	juː	jʊə
	cute	cure
ʌ	ə	ɜː
strut	comma	nurse
aɪ	aʊ	ɔɪ
price	mouth	choice

IPA consonants

Normal sound: /b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z/
ʃ	tʃ	ŋ
show	church	sing
ʒ	dʒ	j
usual	judge	you
θ	ð	s
think	that	see

IPA	Stress
ˈ	Primary stress hotel /həʊˈtel/
ˌ	Secondary stress understand /ˌʌndərˈstænd/

IPA	Syllabification
.	nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/, night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/

Together with the article on decoding difficulties, this page sets out some common (or not...) words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of how they can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "ea", mainly /iː/, /e/, /eɪ/, /ɪə/, /ɜː/ and /eə/.

Depending on their mother tongue (L1), students may have difficulty distinguishing between these two sounds. More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

Don't forget that intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence stress, are also, of course, of vital importance in speaking better English.

/iː/

• 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

• Homophones: bean - been; beat - beet; feat - feet; heal - heel; jeans - genes; meat - meet; pea - pee - P; peace - piece; read - reed; sea - see - C; steal - steel; tea - tee - T; team - teem; weak - week;

/e/

• 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

• Homophones: bred - bread; led - lead; lent - leant; red - read; whether - weather
• Minimal pairs (only the last consonant is different): dead - debt; head - hell; sweat - swell; tread - trek;
• These words don't rhyme: /iː/ vs /e/: leader - header; leaf - deaf; seat - threat; bead - dread;

/eɪ/

• as /eɪ/: break - great - steak

Ronald Reagan (American president) - W B Yeats (Irish writer)

• Homophones: brake - break; grate - great; stake - steak

Three columns

A spelling and decoding exercise is to arrange "ea" and /e/ words in three columns as in the following example.

"e" = /e/	"ea" = /e/	"ea" = /iː/
get	head	mean
well	already	leave
yes	health	each
help	measure	increase
next	death	reason

Others

• /ə/: ocean
• /ɔː/: Sean /ʃɔːn/
• /eə/: yeah
• /ɪ/: mileage
• "eau" as /juː/: beauty - beautiful

Silent e + "a" as /ə/: enforceable - knowledgeable - noticeable

Two syllables

• /iːeɪ/: create - creation
• /iːæ/: preamble - react - reaction
• /iːɪ/: lineage
• "crea" as /kərɪ/: acreage

"ear"

/ɪə/

• as /ɪə/: appear - beard - clear - dear - ear - earring - fear - gear /gɪər/ - hear - near - rear - tear (teardrop) - year

• Homophones: dear - deer; hear - here

/ɜː/

• as /ɜː/: early - earn - earth - heard - hearse - learn - pearl - rehearsal - rehearse - search;

• Homophones: urn - earn; herd - heard;

/eə/

• as /eə/: bear - pear - swear - tear (verb) - wear

• Homophones: bare - bear; pair - pear; where - wear;

Two syllables

• /iːə/: linear - nuclear

Spelling anomalies

• as /ɑː/: heart - hearth (the floor at the bottom of a fireplace)

Heteronyms

• lead /liːd/ (v. guide) - /led/ (n. metal)
• read /riːd/ (present) - /red/ (past)
• tear /teər/ (v. damage) /tɪər/ (n. liquid)

Irregular verbs

Some irregular verbs and pronounced /iː/ become /e/ in the past. Many of them are spelt "ea".

• "ea": deal - dealt; dream - dreamt; eat - ate^BrE; lead - led; lean - leant; leap - leapt; mean - meant; read - read;
• "ee": feel - felt; keep - kept; sleep - slept;

See also

• Correcting mistakes