E – The biggest reading problems of e are posed by ea,
followed by ei, ie, e-e and ey.
It also causes difficulties as asilent letter (surprise – promise)
and a few other irregularpronunciations (petty – pretty, few – sew).
Ea - The main pronunciation for eais /ee/ - (beach, breathe, dear... in 152 words), but not in 65, and 3 pairsof words share one spelling (e.g. haveread, will read).
Short /e/ in the 56 common words:
already, bread, breadth, breakfast, breast, breath, cleanse, dead, deaf, dealt, death, dread, dreamt, earl, early, earn, earnest, earth, feather, head, health, heard, heather, heaven, heavy, instead, jealous, leant, leapt, learn, leather, meadow, meant, measure, pearl, peasant, pheasant, pleasant, pleasure, ready, realm, rehearse, search, spread, steady, stealthy, sweat, thread, threat, treacherous, tread, treasure, wealth, weapon, weather, yearn
/ai/ in: break, great, steak, bear, pear, swear, wear, tearx2 = [teer/tair]
lead(x2)=[leed/led], read(x2)=[reed/red]; + create [cree-ate], react [ree-act].
ear = ar in: heart, hearth;
Silent e in:
are, gone, determine, discipline, famine, have, heroine, imagine, medicine, promise, shone, tortoise, nature, picture. Meringue = merang
Compare: care, bone, define, surprise, mature, rang. .
Ei and ie have different sounds, with some overlaps between them:
Ceiling, protein, receive, seize, weird;
eight, neighbour, height, sleight, either, neither, kaleidoscope; leisure; heir,
believe, field, piece; die, pie;anxiety, quiet, science; sieve; view; friend, soldier.
For beginners the following are also challenging:
English, pretty, sew, sewn, ballet, buffetx2, duvet, café, fête
(compare: petty, few, duet).
These, here, there, where, were, evening,
every.
The - be, me, he, she, we, be, secret - secretary.
Hey, eye, grey, key, they, jersey, convey, donkey, monkey, obey, survey.
