Unit 2: English In A Minute
Give us a minute and we'll teach you English
Session 68
James explains some more rules for silent 'e' in this English In A Minute.
ክፍለ-ስራሓት ናይዚ ምዕራፍ
ድምር ነጥቢ ናይዚ ክፍለ-ስራሓት 68
0 / 3
- 0 / 3Activity 1
Activity 1
Rules for silent 'e' (part 2)
What difference does a silent ‘e’ make to pronouncing words? James is here to explain some more rules and he does it in just one minute!
ነቲ ቪድዮ ብምዕዛብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

James
We're going to take a look at some more rules for how to pronounce words ending with silent e today.
Firstly, the letters c and g can have hard consonant sounds like /k/ and /g/.
However, when the word ends with a silent e it changes the pronunciation of these consonants.
C and g become soft consonant sounds /s/ and /ʤ/.
So it's pronounced /mais/ not /maik/ and /keiʤ/ not /keig/.
Another very similar rule is for the pronunciation of th.
When a word ends with th and then a silent e,
it changes from a /θ/ sound to a /ð/ sound.
The most common example of this is the word the.
It's pronounced with a /ð/ sound.
Some other examples include breath and breathe and bath and bathe.
These nice and easy rules should help you when pronouncing new words.
Just remember that the silent e changes pronunciation.
Rules for silent 'e' (part 2)
1. An e after a c or g changes the sound from /k/ and /g/ to /s/ and /ʤ/
- mice = /mais/
- cage = /keiʤ/
2. When a word ends with th and then a silent e, it changes from a /θ/ sound to a /ð/ sound.
- breath /θ/ ---> breathe /ð/
- bath /θ/ ---> bathe /ð/
_________________________________________________________________________________________
To do
Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.
English In A Minute Quiz
3 Questions
Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!
ሓገዝ
Activity
Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!
ኣመት
Which is the correct pronunciation?Question 1 of 3
ሓገዝ
Activity
Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!
ኣመት
Which is the correct pronunciation?Question 2 of 3
ሓገዝ
Activity
Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!
ኣመት
Which is the correct pronunciation?Question 3 of 3
Excellent!Great job!ሕማቕ ዕድል!ዘመዝገብኩምዎ ነጥቢ ...:
Downloads
You can download a PDF document for this episode here.
More
We hope you enjoyed English in a Minute. You can find more episodes here.