Silent E: The 5 Most Important Jobs of This "Magic" Letter
With a whiteboard, dry erase marker, and a furrowed brow, my inquisitive student, Jamie, proceeded to show me how English does not make sense.
She questioned why "have" and "gave" don't rhyme and why "have" isn't spelled "hav." I agreed that many words in English are not spelled the way they sound, which can lead to confusion, frustration, and annoyance. Jamie's pleas for clarification were passionate. I quickly validated her confusion and assured her that knowledge would lead to clarity in the case of the often-present Silent E.
Bonus: Get a FREE download of "The Jobs of Silent E" poster when you sign up for my newsletter. But first, read on!
What Does the "Silent E Rule" Mean to You?
Most phonics programs teach that a Silent E makes the vowel before it long (say its name). It is the job of the E to do so, and it is sometimes referred to as "Magic E" or "Sneaky E." After a student learns this rule, they can apply it to many, many words, such as:
note pine bake theme cute name hole
But what about all those other words that students come across that do not follow the "Silent E Makes the Vowel Before It Say Its Name" Rule?
What about words such as "have" and "please" or "little" and "fudge"? What do they all have in common other than their Silent E ending?
What About Those Other Words with Silent E?
If you are a teacher, you know that teaching is just one of many daily jobs you perform. You plan and prep for lessons, manage a classroom, help keep children safe, talk to parents, meet with other teachers, create fun activities, etc. Silent E is like a teacher. It doesn't have just one job; it has many.
So, What Are the 5 Main Jobs of Silent E?
JOB #1: To make the vowel before it long (say its name) as in "note", "cake" and "theme".
JOB #2: To keep 'v' from being the last letter in a word as in "have" and "give".
JOB #3: To make 'c' say /s/ and 'g' say /j/ - their soft or unvoiced sounds - as in "nice", "France", "page" and "fudge".
JOB #4: To add a vowel in the CONSONANT-LE syllable (every syllable must have a vowel!) as in "lit-tle" and "ta-ble".
JOB #5: To show that a word is not plural as in "please" and "moose" (not to be confused with "pleas" [more than 1 plea] and "moos" [ more than 1 moo]).
NO JOB: Silent ‘e’ is just part of the word as in “were” and “are”.
What About the "NO JOB" Silent E?
Sometimes a word ends in a Silent E for no apparent reason!
These are "NO JOB" Silent E's and can be found in words such as "the", "come", "were", and "are". I call these "Puzzle Words" because they do not follow any rules and are sometimes hard to figure out.
How To "Appease" Those "Pleas"?
After using a visual poster and explaining that the often-present Silent E has not just one job, but 5 main jobs, everything clicked for my student.
Borrowing her whiteboard and dry erase markers, I showed that student examples of the 5 main jobs of Silent E. Her pleas for explanations subsided, her furrowed brow relaxed, and she achieved the clarity she sought.
She did add that learning to spell words in English wasn't easy, and I had to agree!