Summary
Highlights
The first and most common pronunciation of 'e' is the long 'e' sound, as in 'equal'. To make this sound, spread your lips slightly and keep your mouth relaxed while making a long 'e' sound. Practice words include sleep, deep, please, peace, leave, relief, protein, Japanese, and evening. An example sentence: "Please leave the piece of cheese on the table this evening."
Another pronunciation of 'e' is the short 'e' sound, as in 'egg'. Open your mouth slightly and keep it relaxed. Practice words include egg, editor, exit, never, together, and bread. An example sentence: "I never eat bread with eggs for breakfast."
The letter 'e' can sometimes be pronounced with an 'i' sound, as in 'English'. Spread your lips slightly and keep the sound short and relaxed. Practice words include pretty, believe, receive, eleven, emotion, women, example, wanted, and needed. An example sentence: "Eleven women believe the message was important."
The 'e' can also be pronounced as the 'uh' sound, known as the schwa sound, as in 'open'. This sound is very short and relaxed; open and relax your mouth. Practice words include open, happen, often, parent, accident, sister, teacher, and bigger. An example sentence: "The teacher and the sister often open the door."
The letter 'e' can combine to make the 'ear' diphthong, as in 'deer'. This is a glide between the 'i' and 'uh' sounds. Practice words include engineer, career, here, beer, idea, and fear. An example sentence: "The engineer had an idea while drinking a beer here."
Sometimes 'e' is pronounced as the 'you' sound, as in 'new'. Start with a 'y' sound and glide into a 'u' sound. Practice words include few, new, beautiful, argue, due, queue, and Tuesday. An example sentence: "The new student argued on Tuesday about the queue."
The letter 'e' can also be pronounced as a long 'u' sound, as in 'chew'. Your lips need to be rounded for this sound. Practice words include brew, crew, and chew. An example sentence: "The crew will chew gum while they brew a tea."
The 'e' can be pronounced as the 'a' sound, as in 'eight'. This is a diphthong where the 'e' and another 'e' (or a similar sound) glide together. Your lips start spread and then spread even more. Practice words include veil, rain, great, break, they, and gray. An example sentence: "They will break eight plates on a gray day."
Another diphthong for 'e' is the 'air' sound, as in 'there'. This is a glide between the 'e' and 'uh' sounds. Your mouth starts spread and then relaxes slightly. Practice words include there, where, their, pair, bear, and wear. An example sentence: "They're over there with their bear near the pear tree."
The letter 'e' can sometimes be pronounced as the 'ah' sound, as in 'heart'. Open your mouth quite wide for this long 'ah' sound. Practice words include sergeant and heart. An example sentence: "The sergeant had a brave heart."
The 'e' can also make a long, relaxed 'uh' sound, as in 'earth'. Your lips are relaxed, and the sound is sustained. Practice words include earth, earn, learn, pearl, early, her, person, and certain. An example sentence: "She learned early that every person has a purpose."
The letter 'e' can be part of the 'i' diphthong, as in 'either'. This is a glide between the 'ah' and 'ee' sounds. Practice words include either, neither, and heist. An example sentence: "Either you try or neither of us will succeed."
Sometimes the letter 'e' is silent, not pronounced at all, but it still affects the word. Practice words include movement, someone, camera, interest, vegetable, stayed, enjoyed, and planned. An example sentence: "Someone enjoyed the planned movement of the camera."
Finally, the magic 'e' is a silent 'e' at the end of a word that changes the vowel before it to say its name. Examples include car to care, her to here, hop to hope, and bit to bite. This is also called a split digraph. An example sentence: "I hope you like the cute cake I made here."