/ɛ/ — the BED vowel as in bed, get, red

The main spelling

The letter ⟨e⟩ covers 84% of words with this sound.

Unusual spellings (~16%)

⟨ea⟩

About 60 common words use ⟨ea⟩ for this sound. There's no rule to predict them — you just have to learn them.

⟨ai⟩

⟨a⟩

A few common words.

⟨ae⟩

⟨eo⟩

⟨ei⟩

⟨ie⟩

⟨ay⟩

⟨u⟩