Rules for silent 'e' - English In A Minute

Some words end with an 'e'

and this can affect their

pronunciation.

We're going to look at

two common examples

of this today.

Firstly, an 'e' at the end

of a word can change

the pronunciation

of the vowel before it.

'Bit' is a short /i/ sound

and 'bite' is a long /ai/ sound.

'Mat' is a short /ae/ sound

and 'mate' is a long /ei/ sound.

However, there are many

exceptions to this rule.

'Love', 'come', 'some' and 'have'

all have e's at the end,

but the vowel sound is short.

Here's another rule -

when a word ends with

consonant plus 'l' + 'e',

we add an 'ul' sound to

the word: 'little', 'circle', 'able'.

These are two easy rules for

pronouncing words ending

with a silent 'e'. They should

make things simple for you

when reading new words.