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You have read vowel teams like oa in boat. Zara now finds a team whose letters are apart. Adding a quiet e to cap makes cape.
Which two letters team up in cape?
Split Digraphs and Magic E
Read and spell words containing split digraphs (a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e), where a vowel and final e work together across a consonant
What a learner can do afterwards
- Read words with split digraphs (e.g. 'cake', 'bike', 'home', 'cube')
- Compare minimal pairs showing the effect of the split digraph (e.g. 'cap' vs 'cape')
- Spell words with split digraphs correctly
1 · Read
You have joined whole words to make compounds. Now look inside a word for letters that work together. In words such as cape, bike and home, a vowel and a final e work together. The final e has no separate sound. The vowel has a long sound. This is sometimes called magic e. A long a, e, i or o sounds like that letter's name.
Try it together
Say cap, then cape. Cap has a short a. Cape has a long a, like the letter name. To change cap to cape, keep c, a and p in order and add e. Check the final e when you spell a word like this.
Look for a vowel letter, a consonant and a final e. Check the word's sound too, since some words are exceptions. To read make, blend the sound for m, long a and the sound for k. Do not add a sound for the final e. Make has four letters but three sounds.
A consonant separates the vowel and final e. We call this team a split digraph. The teams include a-e in name, e-e in these, i-e in nine and o-e in rose. In u-e words, cube has the sound of the letter name u. Flute has the long oo sound.
You can compare a word with and without its final e. Pine has a long i. Take away its final e and the letters spell pin, with a short i. The other letters stay in the same order.
Some words end in e without following this long-vowel pattern. Give has the short i sound in sit. Have has the short a sound in cat. Come rhymes with some, not home. Learn these words' sounds as you check their letters.
Find the vowel and final e that work together. Blend the sounds, and remember that some final-e words are exceptions.
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