Long E Sound, List of Long E Words and Worksheets

• 
• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

When you hear the long E sound, it can be spelled several ways. The long E sound can be represented in 2 vowel teams (“ea” and “ee”), an irregular vowel team (“ie”), the open syllable rule, e.g., me, and “Y” as a vowel at the end of a word, e.g. bunny.

5 Ways to Spell the Long E Sound

1. Vowel Team – EE

The vowel team rule states that when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. The combination of two e’s (double vowels) results in the long e sound. There are many EE words.

2. Vowel Team – EA

The combination of both an “e” and “a” (double vowels) also results in the long e sound. Similar to the ee words, there are many EA words that make the long e sound.

3. Irregular Vowel Team – IE

The vowel team rule states when two vowels go walking the first does the talking and the second vowel is silent. Like most things in life, there are exceptions. The combination of the vowels “i” and “e” can result in the long e sound, e.g., achieve, belief, chief, field, priest, piece and siege.

4. Open Syllable Rule – Long E

An open syllable occurs when a vowel is at the end of the syllable (it is not closed by a consonant). We provided examples below.

• Initial Sound – emit, evil, even and eclipse
• Medial Sound – area, really, female and legal
• Final Sound – be, he, she & we




5. Y as a Vowel

The letter Y as a Vowel is more common than Y as a consonant. When the letter “y” is at the end of word, it sometimes makes the long e sound, e.g., baby, candy, family and city. Y as a vowel at the end of a word can also make the long i sound, e.g., my, cry.

Long E Words

The table below contains over 275 long E words. They are categorized into one of the five ways to spell the long e sound as discussed above – Vowel Teams (2), Irregular Vowel Team, Open Syllable Rule and Y as a Vowel.

Long E Worksheets

We created numerous long e worksheets to assist a child in learning the various ways the long E sound can be spelled. Our worksheets offer fun exercises to help a child learn in an entertaining environment.

Source: Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading
Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass