Pronunciation

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

/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) -oo- in: foot, good, look.

h) -oo- in: food, fool, wool.

i) -u- in: full, put.

j) -u- in: luck, cut, nut.

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