Long E Sound
i:(need, neat, me)

The long E sound (IPA symbol: i) can be found in English words such as: 
see, meat, receive, key, niece, me, bleed, wheat, perceive, and priest.

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

The Long E sounds is a long vowel sound. Long vowel sounds are vowel sounds pronounced the same as the name of the letter. Each vowel has a long vowel sound (Long A, Long E, Long I, Long O, Long U).

In English, long vowel sounds are usually the easiest vowel sounds to learn.

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Long E Sound

Common long E spellings

There are seven common ways to spell the long E sound:


1. e

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) me

2) be

3) she

4) he

5) we


Prefixes with the same spelling

6) pre-

7) de-

8) re-



2. ee

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) need

2) see

3) bleed

4) feed

5) fee

6) tree

7) feel

8) flee

9) bee

10) seed


3. e_e

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) theme

2) Japanese

3) delete

4) Chinese

5) even

6) these

7) compete

8) sincere

9) gene

10) eleven


4. ea

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) leave

2) read

3) meat

4) neat

5) meal

6) real

7) dear

8) heal

9) seat

10) leaf



5. ei 

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) receive

2) ceiling

3) receipt

4) perceive

5) conceit

6) seize

7) receiver

8) protein


6. ie

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):

1) relieve

2) priest

3) believe

4) brief

5) thief

6) shriek

7) piece

8) grief

9) relief

10) belief


7. y or ey

Say these words out loud (the long E sound is bold):


1) key

2) monkey

3) turkey

4) valley

5) mainly

6) holy

7) friendly

8) silly

9) funny

10) lady


Now say these sentences out loud (the long E sounds are bold):

1) The friendly lady locked the door with the key.

2) I believe I feel tired this evening.

3) Please read the book.

4) She needs help learning to speak Japanese.

5) Didn't he see the monkey?

7) The priest took a seat.

8) The bee is on the leaf.

9) We cooked meat for dinner.

10) The thief will flee.

Have you finished them all? Great job! 

Well done! You have completed the long E sound lesson.

List of Lessons

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