Magic e

Magic e is a short version of the sentence "silent final e makes the vowel say its name". This means that in face the a sounds A; in delete the middle e sounds E; in price the i sounds I; in home the o sounds O; in cute the u sounds U.

Summary
The existence of magic e explains the necessity of double consonants.

A

 * See also Decoding the letter A

Minimal pairs: can - cane; cap - cape; hat - hate; mad - made; rat - rate;

A + consonant ending is /æ/ or /ə/

 * See also So-called “short a''”


 * /æ/: bad - bat - can - cap - fat - gas - hat - hang - jam - lack - man - pack - plan - program - rat - tax - trap
 * /æ/, /ɑː/: ask - bath - branch - demand - graph - laugh - plant
 * /ə/: Christmas
 * /əl/: general - local - political - several
 * /ən/: American - german - human - woman


 * Exceptions
 * /eɪ/: (music)
 * /ɔː/: chalk - salt - talk - walk
 * with "all": all - ball - call - fall - hall - mall - small

A + magic e is /eɪ/

 * See also So-called “long a''”


 * ache /eɪk/ - age - bathe - brake - embrace - face - fake - made - make - late - pane - place - race - replace - take - trade


 * Exceptions
 * E is pronounced: Apache - Gethsemane - karate - sesame - tamale
 * Other exceptions: cache - have - purchase - surface
 * with "age": advantage - average - damage - encourage - garage - garbage - image - language - manage - marriage - message - mortgage - package - percentage - village
 * with "ate": adequate - advocate (noun) - chocolate - climate - delicate - estimate (noun) - fortunate - graduate (noun) - moderate (adj.) - passage - private

E

 * See also Decoding the letter E

E + consonant ending is // or /ə/

 * bed - best - cent - dress - get - hell - hotel - men - neck - parallel - personnel - red - scent - stem - ten - then - when
 * /ə/: happiness - kindness - trumpet - violet
 * /əl/: cancel - channel - counsel - hostel - label - level - model - novel - panel - vessel - travel
 * /ər/: after - cancer - letter - number - other
 * /əm/: item - problem - system
 * /ən/: even - garden - happen - often

E + magic e is /iː/

 * athlete - compete - complete - concrete - delete - extreme - gene - scene - scheme - supreme - theme


 * Exceptions
 * E is pronounced: machete - Selene
 * Other exceptions: allege - college - eye - privilege

I

 * See also Decoding the letter I and Decoding and spelling exercises: /ɪ/ vs /aɪ/

Minimal pairs: bit - bite; kit - kite; quit - quite

I + consonant ending is /ɪ/ or /ə/

 * bit - fit - hit - kick - kit - mill - mist - pill - sick - six - swim - thin - will - wit - wind (noun)
 * /əl/: council - civil - pupil
 * /ən/: cousin - Wisconsin

Exceptions
 * /aɪ/
 * climb - mild - pint - rewind - wild
 * with "ind": behind - bind - blind - child - find - kind - mankind - mind - remind - wind (verb)
 * with "ight": delight - fight - light - night - tight
 * with "ign": align - assign - sign

I + magic e is /aɪ/

 * bike - bite - five - kite - mine - nine - pile - pipe - price - quite - write


 * Exceptions
 * E is pronounced: aborigine - recipe
 * Silent e.
 * I as /ɪ/: definite - favourite - infinite - opposite - premise - promise
 * with "ice": justice - notice - office - practice - service
 * with "ine": determine - discipline - engine - examine - imagine
 * with "ive": active - adjective - alternative - give - live (verb)
 * I as /ə/: medicine
 * I as /iː/: cuisine - machine - magazine - police - submarine

O
See also Decoding the letter O

Minimal pairs: rot - rote

O + consonant ending is /ɒ/ or /ə/

 * alcohol - boss - box - cloth - cost - dog - doll - floss - job - long - loss - lost - lot - odd - shop - song - stop
 * /ə/: develop - method - pilot - symbol


 * Exceptions
 * /əʊ/: both - control - fold - ghost - gold - gross - host - Job - most - poll - post - roll - stroll - scroll
 * /ʌ/: front - son
 * /uː/ whom

O + magic e is /əʊ/

 * code - dove (verb) - home - joke - phone - rose - smoke - suppose - stove


 * Exceptions
 * E is pronounced: adobe, apostrophe, catastrophe, epitome, hyperbole
 * Other exceptions
 * /ʌ/: come - done - dove (bird) - love - one - some
 * /ɒ/: catalogue - gone

U

 * See also Decoding the letter U

Minimal pairs: cub - cube; cut - cute;

U + consonant ending is /ʌ/ or /ə/
Exceptions
 * /ʌ/: bun - bus - but - cut - fun - jump - gun - luck - lunch - null - run - skunk - strut - sun - thunder - truck - up - us
 * /ə/: album - Connecticut - focus - maximum
 * /ʊ/: bull - bush - full - pull - push - put

U + magic e is /(j)uː/

 * /juː/: commute - cube - cute - dispute - excuse - huge - mule - refuse - tune
 * /uː/: flute - June - rude - rule
 * Exceptions
 * lettuce - minute

Y

 * See also Decoding the letter Y

Y + consonant ending is /ɪ/ or /ə/

 * gym, hymn, lynch, lynx, myth, sync

Y + magic e is /aɪ/

 * byte, hype, rhyme, style, thyme, type

R and magic e
So-called "long" vowels change their sound before r in the following way


 * A (/eə/) - E (/ɪə/) - I (/aɪə/) - O (/ɔː/) - U (/jʊə/).

Examples: care - here - fire - store - pure;

Many polysyllabic words ending in "ure" have a special pronunciation
 * "ture" is pronounced /tʃər/ (/tj/ became /tʃ/): adventure - culture - future - manufacture - nature - picture - structure
 * "dure" is pronounced /dʒər/ (/dj/ became /dʒ/): procedure
 * "sure" is pronounced /ʒər/ (/zj/ became /ʒ/): exposure - measure - pleasure
 * "ssure" is pronounced /ʃər/ (/sj/ became /ʃ/): pressure
 * in other cases "ure" is pronounced /jər/: failure - figure


 * Exceptions
 * with "a": are (verb to be)
 * with "e": there - were - where
 * with "u": figure
 * words ending in "ure" and pronounced /ɔː/ (such as "sure") are not considered exceptions. See IPA phoneme /ʊə/.