Monday, March 22, 2010

PRONUNCIATION NO. 8: silent -e, spelling helps

Silent -e-

Many words in English finish with a single -e- When that happens, this letter is usually silent and the previous syllable is pronounced with a diphthong:

/ai/
smile
type
side
abide
nice
fine
mine

/ei/
tame
lame
same
name
fame
sane

long /o/
sore
before
more

/A/
done
some
tongue

Can you find other examples?

Spelling and pronunciation

There are 12 vowels in oral English, still, only 5 letters are used to represent them. Sometimes spelling, however, can be useful.

a) -o- in: son, tongue, ton, come.
b) -o- in: long, song, shot.
c) -ou- in: fought, sought, four.
d) -a- in: man, sand, land.
e) -i- in: fit, six, minute.
f) -ee- in: see, feet, need.
g) -ea- in: seat, feast, least, neat
h) -oo- in: foot, good, look.
i) -oo- in: food, fool, wool.
j) -u- in: full, put.
k) -u- in: luck, cut, nut.

Can you find more examples for this list? More sounds to add to the list?

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