Was it pronounced as a single syllable at one point? Rhythmic has two syllables and a vowel for each, but rhythm is just weird. The word, “rhythm,” has 2 syllables, but only one vowel. Wait, your rule about every syllable must have a vowel has the requisite exception. “Would we really want to write pebbl or littl?” Your question deserves a post of its own. I can never remember if it is correspondAnce or correspondEnce, prevalEnt or prevalAnt (too many A’s in a row), relevAnce or relevEnce (too many E’s in a row). Have a great day!Īre there any rules for spelling words that end in -ence or -ance. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:ģ3 Responses to “Five Spelling Rules for “Silent Final E”” Industrious critics will point out exceptions that I’ve failed to mention, but in most cases, the five rules apply and are useful to know. The final e at the end of the French borrowing forte (strength, strong point) is silent, although many speakers pronounce this word the same way they do the musical term. The final e at the end of the Italian musical borrowing forte (loudly, powerfully) is pronounced like a long a: /for-tay/. The word resumé is often spelled in English with the French accent aigu to indicate the untypical pronunciation. Spalding (Romalda Spalding, The Writing Road to Reading) calls “no-job e.” Like Everest, it’s there. In words like are, and ore, the silent final e does not affect the pronunciation or provide a missing vowel, or keep a word from ending in v or u. Sometimes the silent final e has no purpose whatever. In words like candle, pickle, and people, the final syllable can be pronounced without a vowel, but “in English, every syllable must have a vowel.” (Would we really want to write pebbl or littl?)ĥ. Without the silent final e, these words would represent the pronunciations /lank/ and /charg/. Silent final e after C and G indicates that the sounds are /s/ and /j/. The letter G can represent the sounds of either /g/ as in gum or /j/as in gym. The letter C can represent the sounds of either /k/ as in cat or /s/ as in cent.

Silent E after the letters C and G “soften” their sounds. Impromptu is one of the few exceptions to this rule.ģ. The e is there because the words would otherwise end in v or u. The e at the end of have and blue do not affect pronunciation. This first and most common kind of silent final e “makes the letter say its name.” Silent final e makes the vowel say its name.Ĭompare the pronunciation of the following pairs of words: Here are the five rules for the use of silent final e.ġ. Now, however, unless the word is a foreign borrowing, the final e is silent.Īlthough final e is silent, it usually has a job to do. In an earlier stage of the language, many of these final e’s were pronounced. Five Spelling Rules for “Silent Final E” By Maeve Maddox

E blue silenz