The most important thing to remember about this rule is that we are not
concerned with the vowel sound here, only the final consonant sound.
Words in English do not end in the letter v. If you hear a /v/ sound at
the end of a word in English, it will end in -ve.
That final e
is silent, so you will only hear and pronounce the /v/ sound.
But remember that this is not
always a "magic" e. You will find many
words in English that end in -ve,
but have a short vowel sound before the v.
Here are some examples of common English words that end in -ve:
give
detective
prove
love
positive
executive
have
love
negative
exclusive
talkative
reserve
save
active
alive
2. The /j/ sound
"Hello, I am Patricia! I will manage
this project."
Words in English also do not end in the letter j. When you hear the /j/ sound at the end of an
English word, it will end in -ge
or in -dge.
So, when you see these letters at the end of an English word, you will
remember that the e
is silent, and you will only pronounce a /j/ sound.
Here is a list of some common words in English that end in -ge:
cage
age
arrange
baggage
carriage
college
package
cabbage
damage
enlarge
footage
message
page
image
orange
charge
And here are some common words that end in -dge:
edge
ridge
wedge
bridge
badge
fudge
knowledge
judge
dodge
3. The long E sound
Goodness, he looks veryangry!
Finally, we will talk about a common vowel sound at the end of words in
English: the long E.
Except for some abbreviated words (like taxi) or words taken
from other languages (like spaghetti),
English words do not end in the letter i for this sound.
Use the letter y.
Here are some common examples:
ability
family
play
fairy
pretty
carry
happy
essay
quickly
entry
study
country
body
easy
activity
probably
Review
So, let's review what we have learned about these English word ending
sounds:
The /v/ sound in English at the end of a word is spelled
with -ve.
The e is
silent, but it is not always a "magic" e.
The /j/ sound at the end of an English word is spelled with
-ge
or -dge.
Here the e
is also silent.
The long e
sound at the end of an English word is spelled with a y.