23 - a e i o u (y) : power of 'e' (PSE)

Happiness is learning and succeeding by our effort ;-)

23 - a e i o u (y) : power of 'e' (PSE)

We will look at the vowel 'e' and how it is used.

It should come to no surprise that 'e' is used in some 500,000 words listed in Oxford English Language Dictionary and in some other 500,000 words of scientific and technical terms. 'e' is used so much that a book of some 50,000 words without an 'e' becomes a much sought after item for book collectors (see Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E", a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright.)

'e' is the most used letter in over 11% of English words. 'a' is second, used in 8.5% of English words. ('q' is last, used in 0.2% of English words (see http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-frequency-of-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-in-english ). Democratically voted, 'e' has the voice of English and hence the grass-root power of English.

But what does 'e' sound like?

We will try a small sample:

อี   be, belief, believe, beloved, cereal, delight, deliver, eel, elite (อีลีท), feline, female, ge..., hero, jewel, lemur, me, meander(มี อันเดอร์), nee, pea,
   pre- (prefix: prefer, prepare, preschool, pretend, prevent, ...),     re- (prefix: recall, recover, redo, reform, regain, rejoice, rely, remand, repay, retire, return, revive, ...),
see, scene, she, spree, street, tea, teal, tee, te, veal, we, zebra, zeal, ... many more

Note 1. 'ee' sounds as 'อี' most times for examples: beet, deed, deem, feed, feet, greet, heed, heel, leek, meet, need, peel, queen, reef, reed, reek, reel, seem, seen, street, teem, ... but 'เอียรึ' in beer, deer, meerkat, peer, queer, seer, steer, veer, ...
   'ea' also sounds as 'อี' in bead, beat, eat, feat, heat, knead, lean, lease, mead, mead, neat, peat, seat, team, treat, wheat, ... but 'เอียรึ' in dear, ear, fear, gear, hear, near, real, rear, seal, sear, tear (น้ำตา),... and 'แอรึ' in bear (แบรึ), pear (แพรึ), wear (แวรึ), tear (ฉีกขาด), ...

Note 2. Prefixes 're-'/'pre-' usually sound 'รี'/'พรี' but sometimes 'เร'/'พเร' for examples prepare (พรีแพรึ) - preparation (พเรพา เร ชึน), and revolt (รีโว๊ลทึ) - revolution (เรโว ลู ชึน). Also note prefixes 'be-'/'de-' as in bedazzle, bemuse, derail, derive, ...

เอะ/เอ   bed, beg, bell, bend (เบนดึ), bent (เบ๊นทึ), bet, cell, ebony, fed, fell, fend (เฟนดึ), fence (เฟ๊นซึ), gel, gents (เจนทึซึ), hen, hence, hey, jelly, ken, lend, lent, men, (meant, moment), nest, pen, pence, query, red, send (เซนดึ), sent (เซ๊นทึ), spend, spent, tend (เทนดึ), tent (เท๊นทึ), vend, vent, well, wey, when, whence, zest, ... many many more [your turn to list them ;-) ]

เออะ/เออ de [lux], err, centre, ferment, merry, nerd, nerve, offer, paper, term, ... note: learn,

Note 3. Suffix '-er' (also ending 'er') sounds like 'เออรึ': adder, batter, caller, digger, ...
   But most times the 'เออรึ' sound is softly and quickly said. We may hear it like 'อา' or 'อะ' : เบ๊ทท่า better, บิ๊กก่ะ bigger, เบ๊กก่า begger/beggar, ...

อิว   dew, ewe, few, hew, jewel, mew, new, pew, queue, ...

อู   brew, crew, drew, flew, grew, lewd, news, phew, screw, sewer (ซุเวอร์), stew, view(วิยูวึ), ... but sew (โซวึ).

[More to come
By now we would have seen some 200 words that are used often every day. We should already know about 500-1,000 common words already. But reading and using them correctly will still be a challenge. To read them out in your head is not quite the same as reading them to your buddies. If we could ask our buddies to listen to us read some of these words and tell us what each word means. We would get feedback and be able to correct our reading. We should offer to listen to our buddies read too.

We could even play spelling games like:
   - give me a word that has the sound "บี"
   - be ee ee bee;
   - be ee ef oh ar ee before
   (try these: beach, begin, belief, ...)
    and we will each take turn to give another บี word.

If we have been keeping our boxes of words, they should be quite full after a few weeks. And if we have been practising combining words and reading them out, we would be quite good at saying simple English.

Happiness is learning and succeeding by our effort ;-) ]

เขียนใน GotoKnow โดย sr
ใน Learners Web

คำสำคัญ (Tags): #enhanced learning#learn by senses#plain and simple english#sharing

หมายเลขบันทึก: 482917เขียนเมื่อ 23 มีนาคม 2012 06:14 น. ()แก้ไขเมื่อ 16 เมษายน 2012 04:52 น. ()สัญญาอนุญาต: ครีเอทีฟคอมมอนส์แบบ แสดงที่มา-ไม่ใช้เพื่อการค้า-อนุญาตแบบเดียวกันจำนวนที่อ่าน

ความเห็น (6)

Dr. Ple

เขียนเมื่อ 7 เมษายน 2012 10:39 น. ()

to....Mr Sunthorn SR Rathmanus

Earth Class Sundarekas

- 200 words that are used often every day. We should already know about 500-1,000 common words already. But reading and using them correctly will still be a challenge.

- I have a comment like that.

- Thank you