You will find some really solid worksheets below that will work on both forms of this sound, in written form. Many teachers find these worksheets very helpful for developing phonics skills. When you are practicing this series you will find that as far as "short e" sounds go, you will see many repeats. This is because many of the "short e" are a higher vocabulary level than normally seen by pre-readers. It will be hard to shake the word "bed" when you are working on these for sure. The most common long e words are: here, eat, sea easy, each and team. The most common short e words are: bed, jet, leg, let men, ten and wet.
Print Long and Short E Vowel Sounds Worksheets
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The Long E Sound
Circle the animals that have a long E (ē) sound. Then write the word under the picture.
The Long and Short Of It All
Color the Long E words RED. Color the Short e words BLUE. Color all other words GREEN.
Da Long One
Circle the word in each pair that has the long e sound. Write that word on the line. Say the name of each picture. If it has e Long A sound, draw a line to connect the picture to the Long A.
Short e Word Search
Say the name of the picture. Circle the word, every time that you see it, within the matrix of letters.
Long E Word Search
Underline the Long E words in the story and write them on the lines. Only write each word once. Peter loved cheese. He ate cheese at every meal. When his sweet niece invited him to a party, he was imagining what he might get to eat as soon as he accepted the invitation.
Short E Worksheet
Say the name of each picture. If it has a short e sound, draw a line to connect the picture to the short e. Can you think of two things whose name contains the short e sound? Draw a picture of each thing. Then write its name on the line.
Long e | Short e Sounding Words
Read each word. Does it have a long or short sound? Color in the circle next to the correct sound.
Short and Long Pictures
Say the name of each picture. Color all the short e words blue. Color all the long e words red. Can you name three short e words that don’t appear above?
Can You Hear the Short (ĕ)?
Circle the word in each set that starts with a short (ĕ) sound. Circle the word in each set that just contains that same sound.
What are These Vowel Sounds? What Words are They Found in?
Short vowels are the most common sound for each vowel. Short e (ĕ) is pronounced as /Ɛ/. For example, in elephant, men, or pet – all have the short e sounds.
Here's a comprehensive list of words with a short e sound:
Ben, bed, beg, bet, den, fed, gem, get, gel, hen, hem, jet, keg, led, leg, let, men, met, net, pen, peg, pet, red, set, ten, Ted, vet, yet, wed, wet, ferry, deck, elbow, echo, egg, pencil, bread, ready, breath, steady, threat, heavy, pleasure, deaf, measure, sweat, weapon, spread
How to Make the Short e Sound
Short e sounds can be made using either of these two ways:
1. Using the Letter e:
The cvc words follow the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant. When the vowel e is placed between two consonants, it makes a short e sound.
Examples: get, wed, bed, set, red
2. Using the digraph EA:
The letters EA make a short /e/ sound.
Examples: head, bread, weather, tread, already
All the above-mentioned short e words don't require the speaker to stress on the vowel e, so the resultant sound is very soft.
Long E Vowel Sound Words
The long e vowel sounds require the speaker to stress on the vowel 'e' for the correct pronunciation of the words.
Here's a comprehensive list of words with long e vowel sounds:
Bead, Bean, Mean, Lean , Dean, Teen, Feet, Heat, Beet, Beat, Seam, Keen, Meat, Meet, Sheet, Bleet, Feed, Need, Lead, Seat, Sleet, Fleet, Neat, Greet, Become, Gene, Recess, Theme, Evening, These, Portuguese, Decide, Happy, Relax, Glory, Delight, Field, Deceit, Brief, Receive, Mischief, Conceive
How to Make Long E Sounds
Following are seven different ways of making and sounding the long e words.
1. Using Letter e:
Some words use only the letter e to create the long /e/ sound. Words beginning with prefixes 'be-', 'de-', and 're-' also make the long /e/ sound.
Examples: Between, evening, delight, recess
Some exceptions to this rule are the common words (also called the tricky words) such as 'he,' 'she,' 'be,' 'me,' and 'we.'
2. EE Words:
Some words make the long /e/ sound using with the letters ee, in the middle of the word or end of the word.
Examples: Feet, sweet, free, three
3. EA Words:
These words use the letters ea to create the long /e/ sound:
Examples: year, feat, reach, season, breathe, squeak, reason, peach
4. E_E Words:
Some words use the split digraph e_e for pronouncing the long /e/ sound. In these words, the first e is present in the middle and the next e comes at the end.
Examples: there, here, Portuguese, concrete
5. Y Words:
These words use the letter y at the end of the word to make the long /e/ sound.
Examples: twenty, cherry, glory, empty
6. IE Words:
These long /e/ sounding words have the digraph ie in the middle of the word.
Examples: relief, shrieked, fierce, brief
7. EI Words:
The long /e/ sounds in these words is made due to the letters ei. The 'i before e' spelling rule no longer applies after the letter c.
Examples: conceive, ceiling, perceive, receipt
All of the above mentioned long e vowel sounds require the speaker to stress on the vowel 'e' to make a sharp sound.