BBC LEARNING ENGLISH

English In A Minute
Rules for silent ‘e’
This is not a word-for-word transcript

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.

English In A Minute ©British Broadcasting Corporation 2020

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