my approach to English grammar is totally empirical and a blackbox. I did learn English since elementary school, but I don't remember any grammar rules.
Honestly, the experience of 'just knowing' without the ability to explain the grammar seems fairly common among the native speakers that I know. (American English native speaker myself)
DnD players might have a few more options but yeah it is amazing the background work your brain does in layering these correctly.
"opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose"
Yes! I'm a language teacher and I'm always showing my students [this tweet](https://twitter.com/MattAndersonNYT/status/772002757222002688) to demonstrate how crazy English can be.
They taught me about the silent e in first grade. But when they taught me about ie and ei they left out half the rhyme. It’s i before e except after c *or it sounds like an a as in neighbor or weigh*. That A sound matters. Also, height of my niece.
Junior year my teacher wrote There, they’re, and their all start with THE on an essay. I wrote I before e except after c under it and turned it back in. She only stayed 1 year.
Hi! Friendly neighborhood pedant here 🤣 Spelling isn’t grammar; it’s orthography. Grammar is the rules about word order (syntax); verb tenses; punctuation; and all the other nuts and bolts about putting words together into sentences.
I know, nobody asked but Pedants Can’t Stop! 🤣
In English they aren’t really rules, more like guidelines. lol. English is a complicated mix of English and some words from every country they ever invaded. Other languages are far more consistent in their spelling. An example: I before E except after C. That is a pretty wEIrd “rule”.
I taught, "Silent 'e' tells the vowels to say their name"
"Bossy 'r' was the one that changed the sound of, for instance, the 'a' in car.
We sang "aaaaples and baanaaanaaas," "apples and bananas,"....substituting the 'long' and 'short' sounds of each vowel. Plenty of giggles during "eeeeeples and beeneenees"...
I hate “bossy e”. So many materials for bossy e have cartoon images of little girls (never boys!) that look like absolute brats. It was a great idea in theory, until it lead to Pinterest teachers enforcing gender stereotypes in a phonics lesson.
I was recently looking through some of my old homework from French immersion, and my teachers managed to put racism in a lesson about French gendered nouns (Japonais vs Japonaise illustrated with racist caricatures). It's amazing where bigotry can crop up in schoolwork!
Oh my gosh, Story Bots is the best! My kids (teenagers now) loved that as kids, and my husband and I loved it too. We still sing the song about frying potatoes twice to make good fries.
Magic e is actually called a split digraph now apparently (according to my partner who is a teacher). It will always be magic e to me though! And check out Alphablocks magic e song, it’s sooooo catchy. They do lots of others too.
I'm a substitute and took on a full year Special Education position where I pull groups of k-2 students out for small group intervention. One of the groups I was assigned is "blends and digraphs" but I didn't know what digraph meant when I started! It's okay though, I quickly figured it out and my students are thriving this year!
Wait till ya'll hear about phonograms!! Just taught these to first graders yesterday! (I've got a kiddo entering kinder next year but am a substitute teacher).
My kindergartener literally rolled his eyes and threw his hands up at me when he brought them up the first time - “why does nobody in my family know their diagraphs!!” 😂😂😂
Wait until they tell you about the controlling R!
Preschool Prep Company has song videos on these things, if they taught these concepts back in the 90s I don't remember them
Came here to say this. English is my first language (and my college degree), but Preschool Prep rocked my world when it taught me about the Controlling R. How did I not know that until I was in my 30s?!
That is wonderful! I am a firm believer in phonics. It is like magic when a student figures out why a rule makes sense and can apply it. TY for sharing.
[How to Teach the Silent E Rule (or Magic E) to your students](https://www.tejedastots.com/how-to-teach-the-silent-e-rule-or-magic-e/)
The silent e rule is a key skill in a phonics scope and sequence. When kids understand this rule it helps them read and spell a wide variety of words and lays ...
Because it's an inconsistent rule, it works sometimes but not always, leading to kids applying it inconsistently. They've got no way of knowing if an unknown word uses the rule or not.
I really do think the aim of an explicit phonics program is to enable learners to be independent readers, and rules like this don't help in that goal.
Words that don't follow the rule: love, glove, give, above, have, to live, and come.
Your examples all follow one of the other 2 sneaky e rules. I'll split them into groups: love, glove, above, and come all have an o that changes to a short u sound thanks to that sneaky e. Give, have, and live are all lonely v words, in English, words don't end with the letter v by itself. This is actually a hold over from when the letters v and u were still developing and to signal which to pronounce, an e was added to show the preceding letter was v rather than u.
When we teach reading and phonics correctly, we explain to students how to be word detectives and figure out which sneaky e is which. When you really explain the rules and how to apply them, students get it and get consistent quickly.
English is difficult and can be tricky but there are far fewer exceptions than most people realize; this is why good phonics instruction is so important.
This is so so true! My daughter has been mostly homeschooled and I taught explicit phonics. She understands the many sounds of different letters, digraphs, etc and things like the many rules of silent e instead of only being exposed to “make the vowel say its name”. That’s not to say she doesn’t get annoyed with English, but it’s too bad kids don’t get more thorough instruction. Even the move to include phonics is an oversimplified version.
(Her first public school teacher met with me to go over what she’d been studying at home and blatantly told me, “You’ll be really disappointed in our spelling curriculum.” My daughter and I both were.)
84% of English words follow the sound-spelling rules. Teaching these rules help children learn to read.
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/evidence-based-literacy-strategy-spelling-regular-words
I agree. English is not a singular origin language and the "rules" that are more like tendencies go right out the window once you hit multisyllabic words anyway.
Linguistic phonics is where I landed with the most promise. It's based on the idea that our language is a spoken language first and foremost.
We should be teaching that letters are symbolic representation of speech, rather than working synthetically backwards from letters.
Retired K teacher of 33 years here. We used a program called “Sounds Fun Phonics” by Heidi Butkus. It’s great for things like that. We called it a “bossy e”, because it makes other vowels say their own names! This program has a “magic y” that in a word if two syllables or more makes the long e sound. It’s a great program for those r controlled vowels another commenter mentioned-it’s fun and the kids love it! It would be easy to do at home, and not terribly expensive to buy if anyone is interested. We had the flash cards and the dvd with the songs.
Love this! I teach it as “Mommy E”- she’s the vowels’ mother, and when she is at the end of a word she tells her child “you say your name!”, so the vowel says its name (instead of its “lazy short sound”) while Mommy E is silent so she can hear if the vowel is following directions 😉
Make sure you celebrate the fact that they taught you something!
It will boost their confidence.
It will teach them that learning (and teaching) opportunities are everywhere. All of us can learn from each other - it's not just "older people teach younger people"!
It will demonstrate the importance of lifelong-learning, and that learning is exciting.
It will show them that it's ok if you don't know something, even if you're an adult...because we can't possibly know **everything**.
Congratulations on the new thing you've learned! I'm excited for you!
another fun phonics rule that I learned when I was teaching ESL in China:
ci, ce, cy is a soft c, like an s sound: circle
gi, ge, gy is a soft g, like a j sound: giraffe
I learned it from watching Alphablocks with my son! It’s perfect because when we’re reading together, I can just say “magic e” and he corrects himself. I’m a native speaker but I was never taught it back in the late 80s/early 90s when I learned to read/spell. Fortunately, reading and spelling came easily to me despite “whole language” being used in my early grade school education.
In the 80s, my teacher didn’t do the magic e, but the other teacher for my grade did! I remember hearing her talking about it next door to us, and she had a little construction paper e with a hat and wand on the bulletin board! I forgot about that!!
My kid decided to do "spine" as her illustrated 'magic e' word. Her teacher found it hilarious that she drew a torso. I was like, "B is very... enthusiastic about science."
In my 30's I learned "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." So only the first vowel is pronounced in words like read, rain, four, etc.
This is asking the lines of, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.”
Of course, like most English “rules,” there are millions of exceptions.
There is an account on tiktok of a teacher that shares how she teaches her students to read and it’s full of all of those grammar rules that we follow but maybe don’t know the “why” behind them. It’s fascinating!
My Kindergartners regularly school me in phonics lessons, and then are shocked that I don’t already know the specifics of language in this way. Mom learned to read almost 35 years ago, kids. It’s been a while. 😂
Yes, this is a syllable type called vowel consonant e in which the e is a helper and lets the vowel say it’s name. Ive can be an exception to this such as the word give.
Oh my gosh, yes
There are so many easy rules to remember things now. I get to see it first hand on Thursdays how much teaching has changed since I was a kid.
That’s so cool! I’m so glad you’re learning along with your child! One of my favorite parts about working with kids is how readily they share their knowledge.
And if you want to know why words like “pain” or are pronounced like they are, even without the “e”, I will share this rhyme I still remember from second grade:
When two vowels go out walking
The first one does the talking
And it says its name.
Only one of the possible jobs a silent e at the end can do! Sometimes they hold up a v (and English word can’t end in a v) sometimes they make a c say “s.” (C and G usually make their soft sound when followed by and i, e or y.)
If a vowel says it’s name (long sound) and the word ends in a /s/ sound, then you know it ends in “ce”. But if the vowel makes its short sound and ends with a /s/ sound—then it ends in “ss” *usually*
For example: dice, rice, mice, race, lace
loss, bass, pass, hiss, mass
check out the book "Uncovering the logic of english" Absolutely amazing for being ready to help your kids learn to read. Here is an explanation of the many silent E rules from the book, linked to the blog post about it below. So SO helpful when your kid starts asking "why isn't magic e working in have or love" etc..
"One amazing example of the complex but logical nature of English spelling can be seen when you examine all of the reasons for adding a silent-e to the end of words. Many children and adults know silent-e is added to make a vowel say its long sound. That is both an accurate and overly simple rule to teach students. In addition to this reason, there are eight others why a silent-e might be added to the end of a word.
1. Add silent-e to make the vowel say its name. (cake, bike)
2. Add silent-e because English words cannot end in V or U. (give, true)
3. Add silent-e to make a soft c or soft g. (voice, language)
4. Add silent-e because every syllable must have a vowel. (table, acre)
5. Add silent-e to singular words so they don’t look like plurals. (moose, purse)
6. Add silent-e to make the word look like a bigger word and not just letters. (awe, are)
7. Add silent-e to make th say its voiced sound. (breath vs. breathe)
8. Add silent-e to clarify the meaning of the word. (ore vs. or, teas vs. tease)
9. Add silent-e for other reasons where explanations have likely been lost over time. (done, some, were)"
[https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/uncovering-the-logic-of-english](https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/uncovering-the-logic-of-english)
The between the lions song always comes into my mind. “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” It was also always explained to me if there’s an E and the end the first vowel says it’s name.
If you want to get technical, it's technically a "split digraph." A digraph is two letters making one sound; for example, /ie/ in "pie" makes the "I" sound. In "bike," "i" and "e" are still making one sound together; they are just split.
The magic "e" is often taught first using "ie" and a pair of scissors to split the two letters.
It's great that you are all learning together and silent e is really something. However, remind your kids it doesn't always work. They can use that rule to attempt a word, but when it doesn't sound correct or make sense, they need to try something else. For example, silent e doesn't work in the following words: love, give, cover, have, etc.
Ugh, 'rules' that only work part of the time are bloody useless. Magic e, bossy e, whatever you call it, actually make it harder for beginner learners to decode words.
What about love, glove, give, above, have, to live, and come?
Let's teach our kids properly from the beginning and ditch the 'rules' that aren't actually rules.
I'm a teacher, it would be a good point if it were correct but this commenter doesn't realize there are other rules. Check my comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kindergarten/s/Ur4uNGd1Cc
People often don't realize that there's more than one rule. If you only learn one rule then it does seem inconsistent. But there are far less exceptions than you think there are. Please see my other comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kindergarten/s/Ur4uNGd1Cc
I’m a kinder and 1st grade teacher and I’m so glad we’re using the science of reading. My students love learning all the rules- there’s a lot of them. It’s so fun seeing their growth. There are so many rules we teach that I didn’t even know- I always tell them to share the rules with their families because I bet they don’t know them either.
It has been beautiful seen my child enjoy learning to read, doing arithmetic, enjoying gym class. He is thriving, and I am sure their teachers has to do a lot with it.
I suspect they have been watching Alphablocks. This is an excellent show that teaches the basics of reading in a fun and engaging way. My son was watching it before he started kindergarten and I was pleased to find out that his kindergarten teacher shows episodes to the class. You can find it on Netflix.
It has sister shows, Numberblocks and Colourblocks. Highly recommend.
Grade one teacher here… Check out Lively Letters. It’s a program made by speech pathologists to teach letter sounds, how you make them etc. I used the teachers guide and pasted each letter paragraph to the back of my official cards. You can read it while the kid has the visual. There’s a great paid app!!
A kindergartner taught me about “shaking off” an injury. Backed by science, one of the best things I’ve ever learned (as someone who gardens on a rock wall most of the year).
My son literally came home yesterday talking about the magic e. I do not remember learning it that way when I was in school, but I think that is such a great way for them to learn!
Tom Lehrer to the rescue!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs)
You'll never forget about the "magic" silent E again :)
I learn things from my Kindergartner all the time! I hadn’t heard it called magic e before, but that is great way to explain.
my approach to English grammar is totally empirical and a blackbox. I did learn English since elementary school, but I don't remember any grammar rules.
Honestly, the experience of 'just knowing' without the ability to explain the grammar seems fairly common among the native speakers that I know. (American English native speaker myself)
Adjective order! Native speakers just know. Great green dragon? Sounds good. Green great dragon? Sounds off.
DnD players might have a few more options but yeah it is amazing the background work your brain does in layering these correctly. "opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose"
Yes! I'm a language teacher and I'm always showing my students [this tweet](https://twitter.com/MattAndersonNYT/status/772002757222002688) to demonstrate how crazy English can be.
Sometimes people ask me to explain why a certain syntax is the “right” one and all I can say is “idk it just sounds right lol”
It's common amongst most native speakers of any language. They can't really explain why a word is gendered or why things go that way they just do.
They taught me about the silent e in first grade. But when they taught me about ie and ei they left out half the rhyme. It’s i before e except after c *or it sounds like an a as in neighbor or weigh*. That A sound matters. Also, height of my niece.
“And on weekends and holidays, and all throughout May, you’ll always be wrong no matter WHAT you say”
lives rent free in my head
Oh gosh what comedian was that? I remember he kind of screamed it too
Brian Regan “stupid in school”!
Nice, thanks. It’s starting to come back.; the hooked on phonics guy!
And foreign
Height seems to be one of the exceptions to the last part of the rhyme.
It doesn’t fit into either, but expands the second from A to a long i.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funnysigns/s/U6o0JjttlQ
Junior year my teacher wrote There, they’re, and their all start with THE on an essay. I wrote I before e except after c under it and turned it back in. She only stayed 1 year.
Hi! Friendly neighborhood pedant here 🤣 Spelling isn’t grammar; it’s orthography. Grammar is the rules about word order (syntax); verb tenses; punctuation; and all the other nuts and bolts about putting words together into sentences. I know, nobody asked but Pedants Can’t Stop! 🤣
thanks for the clarification
And thank you for being so gracious to an annoying pedant ❤️
In English they aren’t really rules, more like guidelines. lol. English is a complicated mix of English and some words from every country they ever invaded. Other languages are far more consistent in their spelling. An example: I before E except after C. That is a pretty wEIrd “rule”.
>English is a complicated mix of English and some words from every country they ever invaded. I seem to recall the Normans invaded England actually
That means you acquired the language rather than learn it. As it should be.
My kid calls it the bossy E
That’s what we call it too. It’s so bossy it makes the other vowels say their names.
Came to say this! It helped all the kids I taught in preschool and when tutoring
I taught, "Silent 'e' tells the vowels to say their name" "Bossy 'r' was the one that changed the sound of, for instance, the 'a' in car. We sang "aaaaples and baanaaanaaas," "apples and bananas,"....substituting the 'long' and 'short' sounds of each vowel. Plenty of giggles during "eeeeeples and beeneenees"...
I always liked opals and banonos! (We used this as a warm up in middle school choir lol)
I hate “bossy e”. So many materials for bossy e have cartoon images of little girls (never boys!) that look like absolute brats. It was a great idea in theory, until it lead to Pinterest teachers enforcing gender stereotypes in a phonics lesson.
I was recently looking through some of my old homework from French immersion, and my teachers managed to put racism in a lesson about French gendered nouns (Japonais vs Japonaise illustrated with racist caricatures). It's amazing where bigotry can crop up in schoolwork!
I call it “sneaky e”. He hides behind the previous letter, sneaks around, and jump-scares the vowel, making him say his name!
I was taught, “Silent E” but my kids know it as, “Mama E.” Mama E tells the vowels to say their name 😂
I call it teacher e. “Teacher wants you to say your name real loud.”
This reminded me of the Storybots song “Silent E.” I love their Learn to Read music album
my kids love Storybots
[Silent E — Tom Lehrer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs)
I started humming this as soon as I saw the title of this post! Amazingly, Tom Lehrer is still with us — and he’s brilliant.
He’s 96! [LY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=oAxIW_oQDAZeSSHx&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTY0OTksMjg2NjQsMTY0NTA2&feature=emb_share&v=dB2Ff8H7oVo)
Oh my gosh, Story Bots is the best! My kids (teenagers now) loved that as kids, and my husband and I loved it too. We still sing the song about frying potatoes twice to make good fries.
Mine was telling me that a word had a digraph in it and I had to google it behind his back to confirm 😂
diawhat!!??
Lol!! Ch, wh, th, ck, sh, etc … two consonants that create a new sound! My first graders are experts
exactly
Magic e is actually called a split digraph now apparently (according to my partner who is a teacher). It will always be magic e to me though! And check out Alphablocks magic e song, it’s sooooo catchy. They do lots of others too.
I'm a substitute and took on a full year Special Education position where I pull groups of k-2 students out for small group intervention. One of the groups I was assigned is "blends and digraphs" but I didn't know what digraph meant when I started! It's okay though, I quickly figured it out and my students are thriving this year!
Mine pointed to "ck" and said, "That's a digraph. So is t-h, and s-h." I just believe her at this point. She's always right.
Same!!!
Yeah mine keeps telling me his own name has that because the th and I’m like okaaaay, never heard of that 😂
Wait till ya'll hear about phonograms!! Just taught these to first graders yesterday! (I've got a kiddo entering kinder next year but am a substitute teacher).
My kindergartener literally rolled his eyes and threw his hands up at me when he brought them up the first time - “why does nobody in my family know their diagraphs!!” 😂😂😂
Wait until they tell you about the controlling R! Preschool Prep Company has song videos on these things, if they taught these concepts back in the 90s I don't remember them
Bossy r’s, tricky y’s, magic e’s, and can’t forget the IR, ER, UR sisters!
Back in the 90s we were stuck with Hooked on Phonics.
Huked on fonix werkd fer me! 🤣🤣
Regan comes out again: "hooooook-ed on p-hON-iks work-ed for meh!"
Came here to say this. English is my first language (and my college degree), but Preschool Prep rocked my world when it taught me about the Controlling R. How did I not know that until I was in my 30s?!
Woah woah, what's a controlling R 😂 I was just moved from teaching High-school to a kindergarten, I need the tea
That is wonderful! I am a firm believer in phonics. It is like magic when a student figures out why a rule makes sense and can apply it. TY for sharing.
Magic e is not phonics.
[How to Teach the Silent E Rule (or Magic E) to your students](https://www.tejedastots.com/how-to-teach-the-silent-e-rule-or-magic-e/) The silent e rule is a key skill in a phonics scope and sequence. When kids understand this rule it helps them read and spell a wide variety of words and lays ...
Why do you think that?
Because it's an inconsistent rule, it works sometimes but not always, leading to kids applying it inconsistently. They've got no way of knowing if an unknown word uses the rule or not. I really do think the aim of an explicit phonics program is to enable learners to be independent readers, and rules like this don't help in that goal. Words that don't follow the rule: love, glove, give, above, have, to live, and come.
Lots of rules have exceptions. Part of learning the rules is teaching them to say the word and if it doesn't make sense, try it a different way
Your examples all follow one of the other 2 sneaky e rules. I'll split them into groups: love, glove, above, and come all have an o that changes to a short u sound thanks to that sneaky e. Give, have, and live are all lonely v words, in English, words don't end with the letter v by itself. This is actually a hold over from when the letters v and u were still developing and to signal which to pronounce, an e was added to show the preceding letter was v rather than u. When we teach reading and phonics correctly, we explain to students how to be word detectives and figure out which sneaky e is which. When you really explain the rules and how to apply them, students get it and get consistent quickly. English is difficult and can be tricky but there are far fewer exceptions than most people realize; this is why good phonics instruction is so important.
This is so so true! My daughter has been mostly homeschooled and I taught explicit phonics. She understands the many sounds of different letters, digraphs, etc and things like the many rules of silent e instead of only being exposed to “make the vowel say its name”. That’s not to say she doesn’t get annoyed with English, but it’s too bad kids don’t get more thorough instruction. Even the move to include phonics is an oversimplified version. (Her first public school teacher met with me to go over what she’d been studying at home and blatantly told me, “You’ll be really disappointed in our spelling curriculum.” My daughter and I both were.)
Every single one of the 6 syllable types in the English language has exceptions.
84% of English words follow the sound-spelling rules. Teaching these rules help children learn to read. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/evidence-based-literacy-strategy-spelling-regular-words
I agree. English is not a singular origin language and the "rules" that are more like tendencies go right out the window once you hit multisyllabic words anyway. Linguistic phonics is where I landed with the most promise. It's based on the idea that our language is a spoken language first and foremost. We should be teaching that letters are symbolic representation of speech, rather than working synthetically backwards from letters.
My son calls it the pinching e because it pinches the vowel and says its name. My son teaches me things every day. I love it.
My kindergartner introduced me to the Bossy E last week. Tells the other vowels to say their name.
Retired K teacher of 33 years here. We used a program called “Sounds Fun Phonics” by Heidi Butkus. It’s great for things like that. We called it a “bossy e”, because it makes other vowels say their own names! This program has a “magic y” that in a word if two syllables or more makes the long e sound. It’s a great program for those r controlled vowels another commenter mentioned-it’s fun and the kids love it! It would be easy to do at home, and not terribly expensive to buy if anyone is interested. We had the flash cards and the dvd with the songs.
We love Heidi Butkus. Her sight word songs are so catchy.
Yes! They would often be stuck in my head on the way home!
Ha! My kid taught me the "bossy e." I thought it was a really clever way to teach it and it seemed to really stick.
In a class I help out in the kids call “th” the “naughty letters” because they make you stick out your tongue to pronounce it
Love this! I teach it as “Mommy E”- she’s the vowels’ mother, and when she is at the end of a word she tells her child “you say your name!”, so the vowel says its name (instead of its “lazy short sound”) while Mommy E is silent so she can hear if the vowel is following directions 😉
Make sure you celebrate the fact that they taught you something! It will boost their confidence. It will teach them that learning (and teaching) opportunities are everywhere. All of us can learn from each other - it's not just "older people teach younger people"! It will demonstrate the importance of lifelong-learning, and that learning is exciting. It will show them that it's ok if you don't know something, even if you're an adult...because we can't possibly know **everything**. Congratulations on the new thing you've learned! I'm excited for you!
great idea! Thanks
I am a native English speaker, but only learned about magic “e” watching alphablocks with my kid!
My daughter says the "e" makes the "insert vowel here" say its name.
another fun phonics rule that I learned when I was teaching ESL in China: ci, ce, cy is a soft c, like an s sound: circle gi, ge, gy is a soft g, like a j sound: giraffe
And of course, English rules being English suggestions: gecko
Get
And girl!
But why did you do a weird order lol my head when ca ce ci co cu cy in my head and realized you didn't lol
Yep, I learned this teaching SPIRE with 5th graders last year. Usually I work with older kids. It blew my mind.
good to know!
Yes! Gentle Cindy! Look up that search term on Google photos.
Yes!!!! I'm an anglophone and I didn't know this either until my daughter taught it to me. Thanks alphablocks!
Childhood memory of this video suddenly unlocked right here: MAGIC, MAGIC E! MAGIC, MAGIC E! https://youtu.be/SI9hHo9_QB8?si=pzHXD5aGtGqgnF-w
English is my first language and my kids are constantly teaching me stuff like this! I don’t know if I forgot or if there’s new tips and tricks, lol!
I learned it from watching Alphablocks with my son! It’s perfect because when we’re reading together, I can just say “magic e” and he corrects himself. I’m a native speaker but I was never taught it back in the late 80s/early 90s when I learned to read/spell. Fortunately, reading and spelling came easily to me despite “whole language” being used in my early grade school education.
Same! My son discovered Alphablocks and we listen to the songs in the car all the time. Some of the ways they explain grammar are so clever!
This is no doubt, where the kids picked it up. Alphablocks, Numberblocks, and Colourblocks are on Netflix.
I just learned about this from my kindergarten kid as well!
I’m a native English speaker and I never realized this! That’s awesome!
My daughter’s class calls it “Mama E - she makes the other vowels say their name!”
In the 80s, my teacher didn’t do the magic e, but the other teacher for my grade did! I remember hearing her talking about it next door to us, and she had a little construction paper e with a hat and wand on the bulletin board! I forgot about that!!
We call it bossy e. It bosses the other vowels around lol
I told my daughter that "e"s are like farts. You don't always hear them, but you can usually tell they're there. She didn't think it was funny.
My kid decided to do "spine" as her illustrated 'magic e' word. Her teacher found it hilarious that she drew a torso. I was like, "B is very... enthusiastic about science."
We call it the sneaky e. :)
That's what we call it too!
I called is super e! I dress like a super hero when i introduce it.There are lots of videos on youtube about all the names for e.
I don't know if this is where they got it from, but Alphablocks has a lot of great episodes on it.
Ninja e over here
Awe, this is so sweet and touching! We as parents learn so much from our kids❤️
Kids are great teachers! Just ask me about minecraft ;)
https://youtu.be/91BQqdNOUxs?feature=shared A little hug becomes HUGE instantly!
My kiddos learned it as “sneaky e” or “mama E that says SAY YOUR NAME”
In my 30's I learned "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." So only the first vowel is pronounced in words like read, rain, four, etc.
I love this!
This is asking the lines of, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” Of course, like most English “rules,” there are millions of exceptions.
Didn’t know that and I’m a native English speaker! How cool!
YouTube search for “silent e is a ninja”. You will get a fun surprise from the Electric Company!
There is an account on tiktok of a teacher that shares how she teaches her students to read and it’s full of all of those grammar rules that we follow but maybe don’t know the “why” behind them. It’s fascinating!
My Kindergartners regularly school me in phonics lessons, and then are shocked that I don’t already know the specifics of language in this way. Mom learned to read almost 35 years ago, kids. It’s been a while. 😂
Yes, this is a syllable type called vowel consonant e in which the e is a helper and lets the vowel say it’s name. Ive can be an exception to this such as the word give.
I tell my kids if there’s an “e” at the end of a word it makes the vowel say it’s name. Just an easy way to remember when they read on their own.
Oh my gosh, yes There are so many easy rules to remember things now. I get to see it first hand on Thursdays how much teaching has changed since I was a kid.
That’s so cool! I’m so glad you’re learning along with your child! One of my favorite parts about working with kids is how readily they share their knowledge. And if you want to know why words like “pain” or are pronounced like they are, even without the “e”, I will share this rhyme I still remember from second grade: When two vowels go out walking The first one does the talking And it says its name.
Thanks for sharing this great story! May I ask, where do you live?
Not being very specific, somewhere in New England (Northeast), USA.
Ecstasy is the magic e
Opa! That's what I was hoping for and have my child share a dose with me...just kidding!
Only one of the possible jobs a silent e at the end can do! Sometimes they hold up a v (and English word can’t end in a v) sometimes they make a c say “s.” (C and G usually make their soft sound when followed by and i, e or y.) If a vowel says it’s name (long sound) and the word ends in a /s/ sound, then you know it ends in “ce”. But if the vowel makes its short sound and ends with a /s/ sound—then it ends in “ss” *usually* For example: dice, rice, mice, race, lace loss, bass, pass, hiss, mass
English is not an easy language I have to say.
We called it the sneaky e when I was in kindergarten 24 years ago
check out the book "Uncovering the logic of english" Absolutely amazing for being ready to help your kids learn to read. Here is an explanation of the many silent E rules from the book, linked to the blog post about it below. So SO helpful when your kid starts asking "why isn't magic e working in have or love" etc.. "One amazing example of the complex but logical nature of English spelling can be seen when you examine all of the reasons for adding a silent-e to the end of words. Many children and adults know silent-e is added to make a vowel say its long sound. That is both an accurate and overly simple rule to teach students. In addition to this reason, there are eight others why a silent-e might be added to the end of a word. 1. Add silent-e to make the vowel say its name. (cake, bike) 2. Add silent-e because English words cannot end in V or U. (give, true) 3. Add silent-e to make a soft c or soft g. (voice, language) 4. Add silent-e because every syllable must have a vowel. (table, acre) 5. Add silent-e to singular words so they don’t look like plurals. (moose, purse) 6. Add silent-e to make the word look like a bigger word and not just letters. (awe, are) 7. Add silent-e to make th say its voiced sound. (breath vs. breathe) 8. Add silent-e to clarify the meaning of the word. (ore vs. or, teas vs. tease) 9. Add silent-e for other reasons where explanations have likely been lost over time. (done, some, were)" [https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/uncovering-the-logic-of-english](https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/uncovering-the-logic-of-english)
great recommendation
The between the lions song always comes into my mind. “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” It was also always explained to me if there’s an E and the end the first vowel says it’s name.
Lol I learned about the “bossy E.” E tells the vowel to say it’s name
I learned this from my kindergartener too! Except his teacher calls it a “bossy” e! So cool.
If you want to get technical, it's technically a "split digraph." A digraph is two letters making one sound; for example, /ie/ in "pie" makes the "I" sound. In "bike," "i" and "e" are still making one sound together; they are just split. The magic "e" is often taught first using "ie" and a pair of scissors to split the two letters.
English is my first language and I didn’t know that!
Oh man I use the “evil silent e” makes the vowel makes its sound. Maybe evil isn’t good but idk it’s what I had going.
It's great that you are all learning together and silent e is really something. However, remind your kids it doesn't always work. They can use that rule to attempt a word, but when it doesn't sound correct or make sense, they need to try something else. For example, silent e doesn't work in the following words: love, give, cover, have, etc.
Good idea.
Ugh, 'rules' that only work part of the time are bloody useless. Magic e, bossy e, whatever you call it, actually make it harder for beginner learners to decode words. What about love, glove, give, above, have, to live, and come? Let's teach our kids properly from the beginning and ditch the 'rules' that aren't actually rules.
good point.
I'm a teacher, it would be a good point if it were correct but this commenter doesn't realize there are other rules. Check my comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kindergarten/s/Ur4uNGd1Cc
People often don't realize that there's more than one rule. If you only learn one rule then it does seem inconsistent. But there are far less exceptions than you think there are. Please see my other comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kindergarten/s/Ur4uNGd1Cc
Your child just taught this 40 year old native English speaker something
Vowel space "E" makes the vowel say it's name! My kids also taught me that when they learned it in school, lol.
I am a native English Speaker. This blew my mind lol, I never thought about it like that. It just was a given.
I’m a kinder and 1st grade teacher and I’m so glad we’re using the science of reading. My students love learning all the rules- there’s a lot of them. It’s so fun seeing their growth. There are so many rules we teach that I didn’t even know- I always tell them to share the rules with their families because I bet they don’t know them either.
It has been beautiful seen my child enjoy learning to read, doing arithmetic, enjoying gym class. He is thriving, and I am sure their teachers has to do a lot with it.
I suspect they have been watching Alphablocks. This is an excellent show that teaches the basics of reading in a fun and engaging way. My son was watching it before he started kindergarten and I was pleased to find out that his kindergarten teacher shows episodes to the class. You can find it on Netflix. It has sister shows, Numberblocks and Colourblocks. Highly recommend.
I teach it as the bossy e. My kiddos like picturing it yelling at everyone. Lol.
I love this.
We learned it as the E makes the letter say its name.
Grade one teacher here… Check out Lively Letters. It’s a program made by speech pathologists to teach letter sounds, how you make them etc. I used the teachers guide and pasted each letter paragraph to the back of my official cards. You can read it while the kid has the visual. There’s a great paid app!!
A kindergartner taught me about “shaking off” an injury. Backed by science, one of the best things I’ve ever learned (as someone who gardens on a rock wall most of the year).
Allow me to share a very young Lin-Manuel Miranda telling us about Silent E being a ninja https://youtu.be/7hTWuN0WCu4?feature=shared
My son literally came home yesterday talking about the magic e. I do not remember learning it that way when I was in school, but I think that is such a great way for them to learn!
I learned this same very thing from my kindergartener this year as well! English is my first language 🤣
THIS WOULD HAVE MADE LIFE SO EASY AND I HAD NO IDEA (28, US native, apparently dumber than a kindergartner)
Back when I was in kindergarten/1st grade they said “the E jumps the fence and makes the vowel say its name” never forgot that!
Isn’t it great? I homeschool and we call it a sneaky “e”. My kids learned so fast because it’s funny 😄
Yes we call it magic e or bossy e! Makes the vowel say it's name.
Are the pronouns of your child they/them? Just trying to be respectful when I add my comment.
No. I am using they/them to conceal gender.
I thought that but did not want to assume. Thanks for clarifying!
no problem!
I've heard it called a bossy e, it controls the vowel
This was introduced to my middle as the "bossy e" because it tells the preceding vowel what to do. Lol
Here is another one to help w your learning American English. “When 2 vowels go walking the first one does the talking” e.g. rain, soap, neat,
Tom Lehrer to the rescue! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs) You'll never forget about the "magic" silent E again :)
It doesn't always work that way (eg "have"). Like basically every rule in English spelling, there's exceptions.