Meaning:
Silent
e rule primarily means that in words where “e” comes at the end of a word, the
vowel in the middle has a long sound. We have studied many CVC words with short vowels, just by adding
silent e at the end of these words, the vowels become long. As always, there
are exceptions to every rule. Let’s look at some examples below;
Short a (CVC) to long a
(CVC-e) words:
The sound of the short vowel is represented by the symbol, /ă/. The sound of the long vowel a says its own
name represented by the symbol, /ā/. In the below examples:
*a stands for short vowel a (/ă/)
*a stands for long vowel a (/ā/)
a. mat becomes mate,
b. rat becomes rate,
c. fat becomes fate,
d. cap becomes cape,
e. gap becomes gape,
f. can becomes cane,
g. van becomes vane,
h. pan becomes pane,
i. man becomes mane,
j. hat becomes hate,
k. mat becomes mate,
l. fad becomes fade,
m. mad becomes made,
n. tap becomes tape,
o. pal becomes pale,
p. sag becomes sage,
q. wag becomes wage,
r. rag becomes rage.
Short i (CVC) to long i
(CVC-e) words:
The sound of the short vowel
i is represented by the symbol, /ĭ/. The sound of the long vowel i says its own
name, represented by the symbol, /ī/. In the below examples:
*i stands for short vowel i (/ĭ/)
*i stands for long vowel i (/ī/)
a. rid becomes ride,
b. hid becomes hide,
c. fin becomes fine,
d. pin becomes pine,
e. win becomes wine,
f. rip becomes ripe,
g. pip becomes pipe,
h. bit becomes bite,
i. kit becomes kite,
j. sit becomes site.
Short o (CVC) to long o
(CVC-e) words:
The sound of short vowel
o is represented by the symbol, /ŏ/. The sound of the long vowel o says its own
name represented by the symbol, /ō/. In the below examples:
*o stands for short vowel o (/ŏ/)
*o stands for long vowel o (/ō/)
a. con becomes cone,
b. cod becomes code,
c. rod becomes rode,
d. nod becomes node,
e. wok becomes woke,
f. not becomes note,
g. hop becomes hope.
Short u (CVC) to long u
(CVC-e) words:
The sound of short vowel
u is represented by the symbol, /ŭ/. The sound of the long vowel u says its own name, is represented by the symbol, /ū/. In the below examples:
*u stands for short vowel u (/ŭ/)
*u stands for long vowel u (/ū/)
a. cub becomes cube,
b. tub becomes tube,
c. cut becomes cute,
d. hug becomes huge,
e. us becomes use,
f. fus becomes fuse.
Exceptions to the Silent
e rule:
As to every rule, there
are few exceptions to the silent e rule where it is not applicable:
1. Whenever there are double
consonants present in any words, the middle vowel is short.
a. later (Long vowel)-latter (Short
Vowel),
b. diner (Long vowel)-dinner (Short Vowel)
2. Rule breaker problem word
list below:
a. none,
b. come,
c. love,
d. dove,
e. some,
f. give,
g. gone,
h. prove,
i. have,
j. are,
k. clue,
l. blue.
3. 3. Words
ending with u or v: Most English language words, never end with the letter v or
u. In such words, the letter e is
always added at the end.
a. dove,
b. love,
c. give,
d. prove,
e. have,
f. blue,
g. clue,
Exceptions,
a. flu,
b. menu,
c. tofu.
R- controlled vowels
Meaning: When a vowel is followed
by the consonant r. the r changes the sound that the vowel usually would have
made, into a completely new sound. Since the r dominates or controls the sound
of the vowel, this process is sometimes referred to as the “Bossy r” or r-
controlled vowels.
The vowels (a, e, i, o
and u) are followed by an r making the letter combinations, (ar, er, ir or, ur). Let’s see the impact of r on these vowels:
Vowels e, i and u: When “r” comes after the vowels e, i, and u, these vowels are
usually, neither long nor short but make an /er/ sound denoted as (/ər/) when controlled by r.
E.g. er-her; ir- third, skirt; ur-curd, fur.
Vowel o: When “r” comes after the vowel o, i.e. when o is controlled by r, it makes three
sounds as described below:
1. It is pronounced like the /er/ sound denoted
as (/ər), e.g. word.
2. It is pronounced like a short o sound, e.g. for and nor.
3. It is pronounced like a long o sound, e.g. fork, fort, and score.
Vowel a: When “r” comes after the vowel a, i.e. when a
is controlled by r, it makes three sounds as described below:
1. It is pronounced like the /ar/ sound e.g. scar, scarf, far, car, park,
2. It is pronounced like the /air/ sound e.g. pear, care, scare, bear,
3. It is pronounced like the /ir/ sound e.g. ear, fear.
Exceptions
to the r-controlled rule: When r is followed by
another letter r, the previous vowel in the word is often short.
1. marry (short a),
2. ferry (short e),
3. hurry (short u).
R-controlled vowels word list:
ar
|
er
|
ir
|
or
|
ur
|
far
|
herd
|
bird
|
fork
|
fur
|
car
|
jerk
|
girl
|
pork
|
surf
|
bar
|
sister
|
skirt
|
cork
|
purple
|
scar
|
brother
|
flirt
|
dorm
|
hurt
|
par
|
germ
|
birth
|
corn
|
blur
|
smart
|
canister
|
shirt
|
born
|
purse
|
shark
|
dinner
|
dirt
|
thorn
|
Thursday
|
The Schwa
Any vowel a, e, i, o
and u, can use the schwa sound like a low tone short u sound. This is similar to
the short u sound, but generally unstressed or low tone. The vowel in this
context does not either make its usual short or long sounds. It is represented
as an inverted e. Its symbol notation is /ə/. Let’s see some words where the schwa is used,
along with its phonetic decoding.
Word
|
Phonetic decoding
|
Comments
|
about
|
/ə/+/b/+/ow/+/t/
|
The vowel a marked
in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
away
|
/ə/+/w/+/ā/
|
The vowel a marked
in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
shaken
|
/sh/+/ā/+/k/+/ə/+/n/
|
The vowel e marked
in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
sister
|
/s/+/ĭ/+/s/+/t/+/ər/
|
The vowel e marked
in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
pencil
|
/p/+/ĕ/+/n/+/s/+/ə/+/l/
|
The vowel e marked
in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
honey
|
/h/+/ə/+/n/+/ē/
|
The vowel o
marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
money
|
/m/+/ə/+/n/+/ē/
|
The vowel o
marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
monkey
|
/m/+/ə/+/n/+/k/+/ē/
|
The vowel o
marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
supply
|
/s/+/ə/+/p/+/l/+/ī/
|
The vowel u
marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
|
To make reading fun
and clearer, it is very essential to know the above three concepts really well.
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