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6 answers

To make the vowel sound long; 'eye' in this case.
Short ones would be lick, spill etc. which also is shown in the double consonant spelling (usually).

2007-01-09 18:59:56 · answer #1 · answered by Bart S 7 · 0 0

The 'E' on the end changes the vowel in the middle from a 'soft' sound to a 'hard' sound. I'll try to give u an example... If you were to write the word "LIKE" as "LIK', you would pronounce the "I" as 'i'. So it would sound like 'lick'. If you were to write 'PROVIDE' as 'PROVID', the vowel ( i ) would make the pronounciation sound more like 'pr O vid', (as in the word video). Adding the E gives it the capital I sound the word requires. The same goes for '
SMILE'. without the E the word should be read as 'smi ll' (Rhyming with till) It is really hard to explain through print, it would take 2 seconds for me to SAY it, but hopefully this helps u. :)

2007-01-09 19:05:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

There are twenty three consonants in English and twelve vowels, give or take one or two depending on dialect.

These have to be represented by twenty six letters of the alphabet, three of which are phonetically superfluous in English (C, Q and X). Silent letters in spelling often help to determine precisely which of the vowels is required. The vowels are the vowel sounds in the following words:
pit, peat, pet, pat, part, pot, port, put, but, boot, pert and the unstressed vowel schwa, the first sound in "about", "police", "diivide" etc.

There are also diphthongs in English, sounds made of two vowels with the length of one. These are the sounds in words such as
like, lake, lout, lope

2007-01-09 20:41:26 · answer #3 · answered by tentofield 7 · 0 0

cap cape
tap tape
mop mope
rip ripe
tub tube
Sam same
rob robe
dim dime
cut cute

See the difference in the vowel sounds? The final, silent 'e' changes the vowel sound inside the word.

2007-01-09 20:53:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

are you asking why some letters are silent when pronouced in certain words? they just are

2007-01-09 18:49:58 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Well I ask you this: Why do we have grammer if people don't use it?

2007-01-09 18:56:44 · answer #6 · answered by The 14 Year Old Philosopher 1 · 1 0

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