Pronunciation Tricks - The Magic E

He thinks he's so special. There, give him some horns, a little tail and a beard. Oh, hi.

James, from EngVid. I was just getting ready for the lesson. Hi. This is a Mr. E Special.

There he is, all perfect again. He's doing a special because his name is E. He thought

he would do the "Magic E".

When you're learning English, and for many people learning English, here's something

I've always said when I teach: English is a very stupid language. You must say everything.

The problem with that is English is not a phonetic language, which means just because

you write it, it doesn't mean you say it. We're going to do some lessons, and this is

one of them, where I try to help you with spelling, because you won't be able to get

it from the words. It's not like Spanish.

One of things is you can use markers. These are markers. Markers help us find things.

In the English language, we use markers to tell us something about whether this letter

will make a sound, whether it changes the sound, or what sound the letter should make.

In this case, we're going to work with the "Magic E". We have it here. "Markers are letters

that don't represent sounds." They don't say this is the sound, "...but tell us the sounds

of the other letters in the word." "E" does that; it's a very, very good friend of ours.

It's special, like this marker. In this case, we're going to talk about the silent E, or

the "Magic E". The silent E is a marker of a long vowel sound. That means it's going

to say A, E, I, O, U, instead of "aw", "eh", "ih", "ah", "uh". Drink too much, you sound

like that. It's going to tell us it's a long vowel sound of the syllable it finishes. What

is a syllable? It's a vowel sound, from a grouping, so just keep that in mind. When

you say something like my name: "James"; even though it's got two vowels, it's only got

one vowel sound, so it's a single syllable. There.

Okay. The first thing it will tell us is that it is a long vowel, and let's give an example.

Well, this word is... wrong. There's no "mete"; I meant to put this, "mat". A "mat" is something you

stand on in your house when you get out of the shower or the bath, a piece of fabric

that keeps your feet dry or keeps the floor dry, "mat". When you add the magic E -- that's

why I put the E there - "mate." All of a sudden that "ah" sound becomes "A"; "mate".

What about the next one? If you like chocolate cake, like I do, mm baby, you're fat. But

if you meet the doctor -- Doctor Fate - "ah" becomes "A". Doctor Fate. Go read a comic book.

How about "not"? I often have girlfriends go, "You're not going there this evening."

I always go, "But I want to." The "aw" sound becomes "O" when I write her a very nice note.

I write her a note saying, "I love you, baby." She goes, "Well, you can come here now." No

more nots.

What about the next one, "cut"? If you meet Mr. E and you touch his girlfriend, he is

going to "cut" you; he's going to cut you real good. If his girlfriend likes you it

must be because you're "cute". "Uh" (sound) becomes "U"; cute.

This one; do you know this one? I love when foreign students try to say this one. They

go "Hoogee. It's a hoogee, right?" I'm like, "No, it's a hug." To hold someone and to hold

them tight close to you -- hug. I have a bad joke; I won't say it because my Russian students

are always saying: "You must be more serious, much more serious when you do these lessons."

"Huge." Insert your own joke. "Insert" means put in -- put your own joke here. "Huge" means

very big. Once again, "huge" - "U". "Huge" not "uh" (as in "hug").

Some people tell on me when I do bad things, and we call those people "rats". They also

live in the basement of my house. Send me money; I need to move, bad. If you're important

in Toronto, you "rate"; that means you're important; you get special consideration.

Or we say, "What is the rate? How much do I have to pay?" "Rate". What is the rate?

Next, "pin". We usually use this for clothing. Pin things together. Or if you break your

arm, they'll put in a pin to hold it together. "Pin". I love the smell of "pine" in the morning,

it smells like napalm. No, that's another movie, "Apocalypse James".

"Rag". My clothes are rags -- I have a hole here. I don't even want to show you back here, it's got

holes. But I do fly into a "rage", which means be very angry, like Hulk. "Me Hulk!"... not

really. Hulk is bigger and stronger. "Rage".

I've shown you examples where I took words, added the "Magic E", and they went from short

vowels to long vowels. Single syllable words, so I make it easy for you.

What else does the "Magic E" do? See, I can speak English and gibberish; those are my

two best languages. Number two, it also tells us something about the "th" sound. Some of

you have problems with the "th" sound because it can be either "ffff", more like an F, or

"vvvv", it buzzes. "Vvvvv" -- I feel Spanish when I say that.

What happens in this part is it vibrates and it tells us that if you have an E at the end,

it becomes a 'vvvv', a vibration sound, and it still has the long vowel sound. For instance,

"bathe". When you take a "bath" at night that's "ah", but if you "bathe", that's more of the

verb sound, more of a verb. "I bathe" -- that's the action, so by adding the E, not only do

we change it from a noun to a verb, we get the "v" vibration, and we know it's a verb.

How about "cloth"? Cloth is material, but you put it on your body we say, "clothe";

you're putting some clothing on yourself. Once again, it becomes a verb and we get the

"th" sound. Long O - "clothe". The last one, I "loathe" it. "Loathe" means hate. After

you fly into a rage, you will probably loathe something. Once again, I'm going to be off for a second

but look. "Lo", as in long O... "th" vibration because of the E.

I'm quite aware that you didn't loathe that lesson; I'm sure you loved that lesson. I'm

looking forward to teaching you more. Let's go quickly over the letter E. When you see

the "Magic E" at the end of a syllable, it's going to make a long vowel sound -- A, E,

I, O, U. It will also, if there is a TH, make it vibrate - "vvvv" -- so it's going to help

you when you're reading, with your pronunciation.

I hope you love the lesson, not loathe it. By the way, you should bathe -- check out

the "Smell Yourself" lesson, "Clean Yourself" -- you'll like that one. I think that's about

it. Mr. E, you did a great job. I take it back, you're not a worm at all; you're a man

of stature. No more ears for you. You guys, you need to go to the website, which is www.engvid.com,

where you'll see myself and other great teachers willing and ready to teach you.

You might actually meet a mate because that's your fate. Take note, she might be cute. He

might be huge and you do rate. Don't pine over them or fly into a rage when they leave

you. But if you bathe, I'm almost sure when you clothe yourself just well, you won't loathe

yourself anymore. EngVid -- bye.

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