Silent E  

The term silent E (sometimes called magic E) refers to the use of an unpronounced E after another letter (usually a consonant) at the end of a word. As its name suggests, silent E is not pronounced as a separate vowel sound; instead, its most common function is to dictate the pronunciation of the vowel (and occasionally the consonant) that comes before it. However, as we’ll see later, there are many exceptions to this rule, as well as a number of other technical functions that silent E can perform.

As we looked at in the section on vowels, silent E affects the way another vowel in the word is pronounced, changing the speech sound into what is commonly referred to as a “long vowel”—one that is pronounced like the name of the letter. Let’s take a look at some similarly spelled words in which the addition of a silent E changes the pronunciation as well as the meaning. For example:

Silent E also has this effect on the sound of Y when Y functions as a vowel (the “long” and “short” vowel sounds for Y are the same as I: /aɪ/ and /ɪ/, respectively). There are no standard pairs of words that have the same spelling except for silent E, but we can look at an example of two words with similar spelling to see the differences in pronunciation: myth (/mɪθ/) and scythe (/saɪð/). Notice how silent E also affects the pronunciation of TH; we’ll look at this more closely further on.

It’s important to remember that silent E also has this effect in words that couldn’t be spelled without it—that is, the word without the silent E would have no meaning. Therefore, only the pronunciation is dictated by silent E, not the meaning of the word compared to another.

For example:

While the silent E rule regarding vowel pronunciation is fairly consistent, there are many instances in which the preceding vowel does not become long. This is typically the result of spelling having changed over time, or of an E becoming silent after having once been pronounced. Some common examples include:

(*Note that these vowel sounds are considered a kind of long vowel, but are not what is traditionally taught as one—that is, they do not sound like their vowel letters’ names.)

This exception to the rule that silent E produces long vowels before single consonants is also often seen in many (though not all) multi-syllable words ending with “-ive,” “-ine,” and “-age.” Much less commonly, it also happens with words ending in “-ate.” (Note that, in the case of “-age” and “-ate,” the short vowel sound for A changes from /æ/ to /ɪ/.)

For example:

Many words ending in “-ine” also have a different long-vowel sound for the letter I (/i/, traditionally taught as the “long E” sound). This is especially true for the names of chemical compounds, but it occurs in other instances as well. For example:

(*As a noun, estimate is pronounced /ˈɛstəmɪt/. However, this word can also function as a verb, in which case it is pronounced /ˈɛstəmeɪt/, with silent E producing a “long A” as it usually does. There are other words like this that have two pronunciations dictated by E, which we’ll look at next.)

Many words that have the exact same spelling will have two different meanings with two separate pronunciations. The standard rule that silent E will make the preceding vowel “long” applies to one of these pronunciations, but not the other (though E is silent in both); this difference in pronunciation lets us know which meaning we’re using. For example:

In addition to changing the sound of preceding vowels, silent E can also have an impact on the pronunciation of certain consonant sounds, specifically those produced by C, D, and the digraph TH.

The consonants C and G both have a “hard” and “soft” pronunciation. “Hard C” is pronounced the same as the letter K (/k/), while “soft C” has the same sound as the letter S (/s/). “Hard G” has a unique consonant sound (/g/), while “soft G” is pronounced like the letter J (/ʤ/).

When they come before a silent E, both C and G take their soft pronunciations. This most commonly occurs when CE comes after the letter I and when GE comes after the letter A, but it can occur with other vowels as well. For example:

This effect is also true when CE and GE come after N at the end of a word, as in:

Silent E also has a bearing on the pronunciation of the consonant digraph TH. In most words that end in TH, it is pronounced as /θ/, an unvoiced consonant sound (meaning the vocal cords aren’t vibrated to create noise). When a final TH is followed by E, however, it almost takes the voiced consonant sound /ð/.

Often, adding a silent E after TH also has the effect of changing the meaning of a word, usually from a noun to a verb. For example:

Ending some words in a vowel + THE will result in the /ð/ sound but will not change the meaning from a noun to a verb. For example:

In addition to dictating pronunciation, meaning, or both, silent E also has a number of particular orthographic functions at the end of many words.

Each syllable in a word must contain a vowel sound. Many words are spelled with a final syllable consisting of a consonant + L, so an E is added to make sure the syllable is complete. While this E is often referred to as silent, in fact it does provide a very subtle, unstressed vowel sound—known as a schwa (/ə/)—before the consonant sound /l/.

This “semi-silent” E can also affect the pronunciation of the vowel sound that precedes the consonant + LE. Generally (there are exceptions), the rule is this: If a single vowel comes before a single consonant + LE, the vowel sound is “long”; if a single vowel comes before two consonants + LE, the vowel sound is “short”; and if a vowel digraph comes before a consonant + LE, the vowel sound is dictated by the digraph itself.

For example:

(*The word able also acts as a suffix in many words, meaning “capable of, tending to, or suitable for.” In this capacity, the vowel A is reduced to an unstressed schwa, as in capable [/ˈkeɪpəbəl/] or suitable [/ˈsutəbəl/].)

Note, though, that there are a few words in which no vowel letter is present in the final syllable. These occur when M is the last letter of the word after S or, less commonly, TH; we do not add silent E in these words. For example:

While there is no vowel letter in the final syllable of these words, notice that there is still a vowel sound—an unstressed schwa (/ə/), just like we had in words ending in consonant + LE. (Go to the section on Syllables for more information about the different ways they are formed and identified.)

The vast majority of English words do not end in a U or a V. In a similar way to how E is added after words ending in a consonant + L, it is also added after words ending in U or V to help normalize their appearance. However, unlike when it appears after a consonant + L, this E is truly silent; it does not add a schwa or any other vowel sound to the word.

Finally, for words that end in a single vowel + VE, silent E may or may not affect the previous vowel’s pronunciation (like many of the exceptions we looked at earlier). Unfortunately, the spelling of the word won’t indicate when this is or is not the case, so we just have to memorize the pronunciation of such words.

For example:

Notice that the words ending in GUE or QUE don’t have an additional syllable at the end, so G and Q are pronounced /g/ and /k/ while U and E both become silent. However, in some words, this letter combination does produce an extra syllable, in which case either U or E is pronounced. For instance:

(*Communiqué and risqué are loan words from French. Because of this, the final E is traditionally written with an accent mark. However, because these words have become common in English, this accent mark is often left off.)

Another functional purpose of silent E is to keep a singular noun from ending in a single S. This ensures that the word is not mistaken for a plural noun or a third person singular verb.

For example:

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that while a single E following a consonant at the end of a word is usually silent (or else produces a reduced schwa), it does occasionally produce a true speech sound of its own. For example:

E is also pronounced when it occurs at the end of words with a single consonant sound, as in: