Letter a

1) [eI]

a) in initial position, when it forms a syllable by itself; in medial position, when it is at the end of open non-final accented syllables: e. g. able, Asia, baby, bacon, lady, dictation;

b) in halfpenny and dahlia; -lf and -h are silent;

c) in initial and medial position, in closed, generally accented, syllables if a single consonant closing the syllable is represented by a consonant letter or a digraph which is followed by silent e (“a + a consonant letter + silent e” pattern): e.g. age, lame, face, behave, bookcase, concentrate;

d) in medial position, in closed accented syllables when followed by [nG] nge and [st] ste: e.g. range, change, angel, haste, waste;

e) in chamber, Cambridge, ancient, bass;

2) [e]

in any, many, Thames, ate;

3) [I]

a) in the following words: manager, character, preface, surface, comrade, orange, palace, furnace;

b) in numerous words ending in -age and -ate: e.g. passage, stoppage, literate, chocolate;

4) [P]

a) in medial position, in closed accented syllables when preceded by [w] w, wh, or [kw] qu: e.g. what, want, swan, quarrel, quality;

b) in yacht and scallop;

5) [R]

a) in initial and medial position, in open accented syllables of numerous borrowings from Romanic languages: e.g. aria, banana, bravo, cantata, drama, scenario, tomato, etc.;

b) in medial position, in closed accented syllables before a single consonant represented by a consonant letter which is followed by silent e: e.g. morale, garage, mirage, moustache, sabotage, vase, etc.;

c) in final position, at the end of the words which are widely used by children: e.g. ma, mama, pa, papa, ta, tata, etc.;

d) before silent h in ah, bah, hurrah;

6) [L]

in wrath and water;

7) [Fq]

in medial position, in open accented syllables of root words, when [Fq] is followed by [r] which belongs to the following unaccented syllable: e.g. vary, area, Mary, parent, librarian, aquarium;

8) [q]

a) in the initial, medial and final position of root words: e.g. anatomy, canal, cinema;

b) in the prefixes a-, ab-, ad- (by assimilation ac-, af-, ag-, al- an-, ap-, ar-, as-, at-): e.g. alike, absorb, admit, accustom, affirm, aggrieve, allege, announce, appoint, arrange, assure, attend;

c) in the suffixes and endings -a, -able, -al, -an, -acy, -ance, -ant, -ary, -graphy: e.g. data, movable, central, Russian, accuracy, assistance, assistant, revolutionary, biography.

Letter e

1) [eI]

è, é, ê in numerous late borrowings from French in initial (élite), medial (crêpe, crèche, précis) and final position (café, attaché, résumé, matinée, fiancée);

2) [J]

a) in initial position when it forms a syllable by itself, in medial position, when it is at the end open non-final, generally accented, syllables, and in final position, at the end of the monosyllables listed below: e.g. even, economic, region, veto, demobilize; be, me, he, we, she, the;

b) in medial position, in closed, generally accented, syllables if a single consonant closing the syllable is represented by a consonant letter which is followed by silent e (“e + a consonant letter + silent e” pattern): e.g. scene, cede, serene, Chinese, extremely;

c) in the plural forming suffix -es in the words of Greek origin: e.g. thesis – theses, basis – bases, crisis – crises, oasis – oases, analysis – analyses, etc.;

3) [e]

in final and medial position, in closed, generally accented, syllables: e.g. egg, let, send, address, context;

4) [I]

a) in initial and medial position, in closed unaccented syllables of root words, and in final position: e.g. eleven, create, cruel, finale, apostrophe;

b) in the prefixes ante-, be-, de-, en- (ef-, em-, ex-), pre-, re-, tele-: e.g. antemeridian, behead, depart, enclose, effect, embody, expose, preserve, rewrite, television;

c) in the endings -ege, -edge and in the suffixes -ed, -en, -es, -ess, -est, -et, -eth, -less, -ness, -let: e.g. college, knowledge, mended, chicken, watches, hostess, richest, locket, twentieth, useless, booklet, sickness;

d) in English and pretty;

5) [Iq]

in open accented syllables of root words when [Iq] is followed by [r] which belongs to the next syllable: e.g. era, hero, cereal, serious, period, material;

6) [q]

a) in the medial position of root words: e.g. opera, anthem, operate, academy;

b) in the suffixes and endings -ence, -ency, -en, -ent, -ery, -ety, -ment: e.g. different, difference, tendency, golden, greenery, gaiety, movement.