long e /ē/

long e is the /ē/ sound like in ‘bee’, or when the vowel says its name

1. when the silent e uses its magic, like in ‘these’
   2. in some cute little words or syllables, like ‘me’ (he, she, we, beware)
   3. in vowel team ee, like in ‘bee’
   4. in vowel team ea, like in ‘sea’
   5. /ē/ spelled as y, at the end of a two syllable word, like ‘bunny’
   6. /ē/ spelled as ie, for the plural of words ending in y, like bunnies
   7. /ē/ spelled as i (taxi), ie (piece), ey (honey), ei (ceiling), eo (people)

ee bee

/ē/ spelled as ee

The ‘ee’ vowel team is usually in the middle or the end of a word.

ee ea see sea

/ē/ spelled as ee or ea

The ‘ee’ vowel team is usually in the middle or the end of a word.
The ‘ea’ vowel team can be in the start, middle or the end of a word.

ee and ea are called vowel teams, because, yes, they are two vowels that together make only one sound — /ē/ — they are a team.

ea ee eat sheep

/ē/ spelled as ee or ea

The ‘ee’ vowel team is usually in the middle or the end of a word.
The ‘ea’ vowel team can be in the start, middle or the end of a word.

y bunny

/ē/ spelled as y at the end of a two syllable word
(see special lessons to learn about syllables
and to learn all about y)

(look out, there’s too much cuteness in this video)

After you learn the long i sounds, you can do some fun cut and paste with the ‘sounds of y’ lesson.

magic e

Generally speaking, we prefer not to teach rules — so much cognitive load, and so many exceptions in common words (have, love, give). These have their own rule to explain the exception (words don’t end in the /v/ sound, so add a silent e).

But for those who would like a rule to explain a common english anomaly:

“An ‘e’ close behind another vowel (with no more than one letter in between) usually makes the first vowel say its name, and the ‘e’ is usually silent. Like in ‘bite’, the ‘e’ is silent and the ‘i’ says its name. Without the ‘e’, it would be ‘bit’, and the ‘i’ would be the short sound.

bit → bite
cut → cute
hop → hope
tap → tape

The magic e at the end turns a short vowel into a long vowel — it makes the vowel say its name.