The Seven Ways of Spelling the Long E Sound

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If you struggle with spelling – you’re not alone. One of the reasons why English spelling is so difficult is because of how inconsistent it is. This week we’re looking at the long /e/ sound and the seven different ways of spelling it. Please note the pronunciation of some of the example words may vary depending on accent.

Just the letter e

In some cases, the long /e/ sound is spelled with just the letter e. This is usually the case in words that are more than one syllable long, but exceptions include some very common words like ‘me’, ‘be’, ‘we’, ‘he’, and ‘she’.

This spelling of the long /e/ sound is used for prefixes ‘re-‘, ‘be-‘, and ‘de-‘.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with just the letter e:

evening
emergency
become
between
decide
delight
recess
relax

You can try spelling some e words here.
EE words

Many words spell the long /e/ sound with the letters ee. In these words, the long /e/ sound usually appears in the middle of the word and occasionally appears at the end of the word.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with letters ee:

peel
creep
breeze
fourteen
speech
three
flee
agree
committee
You can try spelling some ee words here and here.
EA words
A very common way of spelling the long /e/ sound is with the letters ea.
Here are some examples:
peach
dream
year
feast
breathe
squeak
reason
season

You can try spelling some ea words here and here.
E – E words
Sometimes the long /e/ sound is spelled with an e in the middle of the word and an e at the end of the word. These words are normally (but not always!) more than one syllable long.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with an e in the middle of the word and an e at the end:

here
gene
these
theme
concrete
delete
severe
Portuguese
You can try spelling some e – e words here.
Y words

Often, at the end of a word, the long /e/ sound is spelled with the letter y. This sound is not always as strong as other long /e/ sounds.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with the letter y:

happy
cherry
glory
memory
twenty
family
smelly
empty

You can try spelling some y words here.
IE Words
The famous ‘i before e except after c’ spelling rule applies to long /e/ sounds.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with the letters ie:

field
brief
shriek
fierce
achieve
mischief
diesel
relieved

You can try spelling some ie words here.
EI Words
Since the ‘i before e’ spelling rule doesn’t apply after the letter c, some long /e/ sounds are spelled with the letters ei.

Here are some examples of long /e/ words spelled with the letters ei:

ceiling
receipt
receive
deceive
conceive
perceive
conceit
deceit

You can try spelling some ei words here.

If you’d like to learn more about spelling long /e/ sounds, have a look at Unit 7 and Unit 21 on our online spelling course. Have a good week!

05 Oct 2016
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The Seven Ways of Spelling the Long E Sound

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