1. If the pattern is "e" followed by a consonant, it's pronounced [Ɛ].
This is the vowel in words like: checked, Ed, end, Fed, heck, let, Mets, neck, peck, sex, Ted, and wet.
Here's a video on the correct pronunciation:
2. If the spelling pattern is "ea" or "ee" followed by a consonant, it's more complex. Sometimes it's pronounced [Ɛ], other times it's pronounced [i] (カタカナのイ).
For instance, been, head, and stead, are pronounced with the [Ɛ] vowel.
But bead, cheat, each, ear, feed, heat, Leeds, mean, near, peat, seed, teat, teen, and weed are pronounced with the [i] vowel.
Except that "search" is pronounced with the [ɝ] vowel (see rule #5 below).
And "bear" is pronounced with エ.
Isn't English fun!
Good luck with this one!
3. If the pattern is a consonant with "e" or "ee" at the end of the word, then it's pronounced イ too.
Examples include: be, bee, free, flee, me, pee, tee, and wee.
4. There are a few words spelled with "ei," and most of these are pronounced [e] (like カタカナ エ).
These include: eight, neigh, sleigh, weight
Except that "height" is pronounced with the [ai] diphthong.
But "weird" is pronounced with the [iɝ]
So again, this one is complex.
5. If "e" or "ea" is followed by an R, then the vowel is generally pronounced with the [ɝ]
So we get words like dearth, Ferb, hearse, her, herds, nerd, per, perm, perch, search
Except that "ear" is pronounced with イ.
6. "W" has a strange influence on pronunciation, and words that end in "ew" are pronounced [ju] (like the word "you") or just [u].
Examples are few, hew, pew with the [ju].
And brew, Lew, stew with [u].
In cases like "eCe" where C=consonant （子音）then "e" is pronounced like イ.
Examples include cede, meme, and geese
I think that's all of the patterns of single-syllable English words which use the vowel "e" (except for word-final e-word patterns like the word "grade."
Send me an email you think I've missed a pattern. It wouldn't surprise me because "e" pronunciation is complex.
Posts
