The English letter E is a vowel and has several pronunciations.

The table below lists the IPA* symbol and the standard (Std) symbol used to describe the sounds of the letter E. The phonetic transcription of each word is in parentheses.

Click on the sample words to listen to the sound files. Pay attention to the sound of the letters in bold.

Name	IPA	Std	Examples
short e		ĕ	elegant (lgnt)	hello (hl)
long e	i	ē	evil (ivl)	green (grin)	eleven (lvn)
long a	ei	ā			resumé (rzumei)
schwa			eleven (lvn)	enemy (nmi)

Note that the letter e at the end of a word is almost always silent.

taste (teIst)	axe (ks)	five (fv)	blue (blu)
orange (n)	opposite (pst)	lime (lm)	toe (t)

Exceptions:

When the word has no other vowel.

me (mi)

she (i)

he (hi)

we (wi)

be (bi)

When the word ends in a double e.

see (si)

employee (mplji)

agree (gri)

When the word has an accent mark.

fiancé (finseI)

résumé (rsumeI)

macramé (mkrmeI)

pâté (pteI)

Note: English speakers rarely use accent marks. Fortunately, there are very few of these kinds of words in English.

*IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet. Learn more about phonetics and the IPA.

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