No matter what you call it, it is a very special letter that we love to teach here at Latch Onto Learning! Once students have mastered closed syllables, we love to dig into Magic E syllables. While the magic E has many purposes, the first one we teach is that it tells the short vowel to say it's name. This is true for words where the vowel is a, e, i, o, and u.
CVC Words | Magic E Words |
hop | hope |
cap | cape |
plan | plane |
pin | pine |
When it comes to the vowel u, it actually has two long sounds. One is it's name /U/ which sounds like /y/ + /oo/. The second is just /oo/ with no /y/.
Long U Sound | /OO/ Sound |
cube | dude |
cute | flute |
puke | tube |
When it comes to the vowel y, the magic E makes it say /I/.
byte |
hype |
style |
type |
tyke |
There are other reasons why a silent E is added to the end of a word. One of those reasons has to do with the fact that words never end in V. Consider the following words:
Long Vowel Sound | Short Vowel Sound |
live | live |
gave | give |
​ | have |
This can be tricky since there is a long list of words that end in Ve that have the vowel say it's long sound. Here are only a few example:
brave |
five |
clove |
stove |
We have some more tricky words that require additional attention. Consider:
Short U | Short U | /OO/ | Short O |
shove | come | prove | shone |
love | some | move | gone |
glove | none | lose | ​ |
dove | ​ | ​ | ​ |
Despite the irregularity of the vowel sound, we can group them together which can make them easier for students to learn.
Once mastered as a single syllable at the word level. It is a good idea to practice it at the sentence level and then to explore words that are two syllables that include one or two Magic E syllables.
enzyme |
complete |
sometimes |
escape |
We have a wonderful team of tutors who would be happy to support your child on developing this skill and other reading and writing skills.
Comments