Pronuncian Lessons

Sound

English Pronunciation

Vowels: short e /ɛ/

Listen to the short e sound

How to pronounce the short e sound

The short e sound is the most neutral and relaxed of all the vowel sounds of English. The tongue is kept slightly rounded in the middle of the mouth. The sides of the tongue may lightly touch the bottom teeth during the formation of this sound. The lips and jaw are kept loose and relaxed. The overall neutrality and easy tongue and lip positioning is why this is one of the pronunciations used for the unstressed vowel sound, schwa. (See Schwa Lesson.)

short e illustration

Common short e spellings

spelling example audio other pronunciations for spelling

consonant-e-consonant (CVC rule)^[1] bed
send
yes

none

ea bread
heaven
long e

[1] e spelling followed by the letter r
When the consonant following the letter e is the letter r (as in the words her and after), the sound is usually pronounced as the schwa+r instead of the short e sound followed by the r sound (see the r-controlled vowels lesson for more details).