Silent E Jobs & Why They are Important

Many students learn about silent e (or final e) within CVCe words, but silent e jobs don’t end there! There are many jobs that silent e has and learning these jobs will make reading less confusing for your students. Let’s dive into all the jobs of silent e and why they are important.

Silent E Job #1 To make a vowel long

The vowel says its name because of the silent e, as in pile, cape, or mute. These are CVCe words. This is the most common way to teach final e, with most teachers calling it ‘magic e’ because it jumps over the consonant to make the vowel say its name.

Silent E Job #2 To prevent a word from ending in i, v, or u

English words don’t end in i, v, or u, as in blue, tie, or give. This is why there are words like give that have a short vowel sound, but also have a final e. This silent e isn’t to make the vowel sound long in those words. Instead, it’s to keep the word from ending in a letter v. This is also why we have certain vowel teams like ue or ie. This solves the mystery of sight words like give or have!

Silent E Job #3 To make C or G soft

This silent e is used too make C or G soft, as in cage or rice. Although we see the letter e behind a soft C or G in the beginning of the word as well (cell, gem), this is the explanation for finding the silent e at the end of a word too.

Silent E Job #4 To give a syllable a vowel

This silent e is used to give a syllable a vowel, as in little, candle, or twinkle. Every syllable must have a vowel in it, so final stable syllables (or consonant-le syllables) use the final e to follow that rule. You can read more about these types of syllables in this blog post.

Silent E Job #5 To distinguish plural words from words ending in -s

Silent E is also used to distinguish between words that are plural from words that end in S, as in house, purse, please, or moose. This helps students pronounce the words they read as well as better understand the text that they’ve read. In the sentence, ‘the cow moos,’ the word ‘moos’ doesn’t need a final e because the verb must have a letter s to match the singular subject ‘the cow.’ In the sentence, ‘the moose is in the field,’ the word ‘moose’ needs a final e to distinguish it from the word ‘moos’ because a moose is a type of animal.

Silent E Job #6 To distinguish between word meanings

Silent E is also used to distinguish between word meanings, as in or and ore, aw and awe, and be and bee. Typically content words (bye, owe) have three or more letters while function words (to,do, a) remain small.

Silent E Job #7 To give voice to digraph th

The digraph th can be either voiced or unvoiced. To tell the difference, you can put two fingers on your throat as you say words with digraph th. When you do this and say the word ‘bath’ you do not feel your voice box vibrating. However, when you do this and say the words ‘the,’ ‘these,’ or ‘bathe,’ you do feel your voice box vibrating. That’s because these words have a voiced digraph th. Words like teethe, clothe, or breathe are examples of the final e after a voiced /th/.

Why are silent e jobs important?

Making a vowel sound long is only one of the many important silent e jobs! Giving students this list of all the things that silent e can do will provide your students with additional knowledge when they encounter an unfamiliar word with a final e. The silent e jobs do not necessarily need to be taught in the order listed above. Instead, they can be introduced as your students learn different phonics concepts. For example, when students learn the soft g and c sound, this can be a good time to introduce the final e job that is connected to those phonemes.

I created these silent e jobs posters and sorting activities to help students practice identifying these words! Click the button below to grab the silent e posters!