Hello and welcome to Learn to Read Silent Final E Words.
In this video you'll learn tricks for reading words that end with the silent letter, E.
The English language has many words in it that are tricky to read.
You know about vowels and consonants and their sounds,
but sometimes letters don't make any sounds at all.
Sometimes they are silent.
In this video we'll look at words that end with the silent letter, E.
A long time ago the letter, E, at the end of words was actually pronounced.
In other words, people said the sounds of the letter, E, when they read or spoke words.
Over time, some words ending in the letter, E, became quiet or silent.
Here are some words that end in the letter, E, but are silent.
We don't pronounce or say their sounds.
Notice when I read them that we don't hear the /iː/ or the /ɛ/ sound at the end of each word.
We say, "lʌv" not /lʌviː/ or /lʌvɛ/.
We say, "hæv," not /hæviː/ or /hævɛ/.
We say, "peɪdʒ," not /peɪdʒiː/ or /peɪdʒɛ/.
We say, "ɡeɪm," not /ɡeɪmiː/ or /ɡeɪmɛ/.
We say, "beɪk," not /beɪkiː/ or /beɪkɛ/.
We say, "ˈlɪtəl," not /ˈlɪtəliː/ or /ˈlɪtəlɛ/.
The final letter, E, is silent.
Just because the letter, E, is silent, at the end of each word,
doesn't mean that it's not an important letter.
It's actually a very powerful letter.
There are three big things to know about reading words that end with the silent letter, E.
Let's look at what they are.
Sometimes, when words end with the silent letter, E,
the first vowel in the word says its name.
In other words, it takes on the long vowel name, such as,
A (/eɪ/), E (/iː/), I (/aɪ/), O (/oʊ/), or U (/uː/).
Here are some words that end with the silent letter, E.
Follow this rule.
In this vowel, should take on the name sound,
or the long vowel sound, which is, /eɪ/,
so this word is, "ate."
In this word, since there is a silent final, E, letter,
this vowel takes on its name sound, which is /iː/.
This word says, "bike."
This word also has a silent letter, E, at the end,
so this vowel takes on its name, which is /oʊ/.
This word says, "nose."
If these words did not have silent letter, E,
they would be completely different words.
"Ate," would be, "at."
"Bike," would be, "bik."
And, "nose," would be, "nos."
This rule works for most words,
but not with all English words.
Let's look at what I mean.
Another important thing to know about words in English
is that they don't end in the letters, V, or, U.
Even though most words that end in the silent final, E,
have the first vowel take on it's name,
it doesn't word for words like, "have," "love," and, "give."
Did you notice that the first vowel doesn't take on its name?
"Have," would be, /heɪv/.
"Love," would be , /loʊv/
And "give," would be, /gi:v/ according to the first rule.
But since words don't end in, V,
we add the letter, E, at the end of words to finish out the word.
The same is true for words that end in, U, like, "blue," "glue," and, "clue."
Even though these vowels do take on their name sound, /uː/,
since we don't end English words with the letters, V, or, U,
the silent letter, E, is added to the end to finish out the word.
Let's look at the third important rule about the final letter, E.
The letter, G, makes the sounds /ɡ/ or /dʒ/.
The letter, C, makes the sounds /s/ or /k/.
When there is a silent letter, E, after the letters, G, or, C,
it tells you that you should read those letters as the softer sound.
In other words, if, E, comes after, C, you read the C-sound as /s/, like in the word, "lace."
If, E, comes after, G, in a word, you read the G-sound as /dʒ/, like in the word, "cage."
I told you that there are three important things to know about the silent, E, at the end of words,
but you already know another rule from the syllables video.
In that video, you learned that all syllables must have at least one vowel in it.
So, words that in in a silent, E, like, "little," and, "handle," and, "candle,"
could have been written without the silent letter, E.
But, since the rule says that all syllables need to have one vowel in it,
the final silent, E, is added.
And there you have it.
There are many rules to remember about the silent final, E,
but luckily, you can watch this video again,
and you can practice on our fun word games.
Until next time, always be clever.