All About the Magic E (VCe) Syllable Type
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Learn all about the Magic E (VCe) syllable type. Get information, visuals, and resources to help equip your students to easily read and spell words that contain this syllable type!
What is a Magic E (VCe) Word?
A Magic E word is a word that follows the Vowel-Consonant-e pattern.
They are also referred to as VCe words, CVCe words, Magic e words, or Silent e words. Most teachers (myself included!) will refer to them as VCe words and Magic E words interchangeably.
In Magic E words, the first vowel sound is long and the final e is silent. The e has an important job – it makes the vowel “say its name,” which is pronounced as the long vowel sound.
When teaching these common patterns, kids need to know these rules:
- a-e says ā (like cake).
- e-e says ē (like scene).
- i-e says ī (like bike).
- o-e says ō (like home).
- u-e says /yoo/ or /oo/ (like mute and tube).
⬆️ Students should actually say the word ‘consonant,’ which is represented by the for the dash between the vowel and the e. For example: “A consonant E says ā.”
The VCe pattern is incredibly common, so it’s important that kids understand the Magic e. Knowing this concept will equip your students to read and spell thousands of words accurately!
The VCe pattern is a super common pattern that’s found in many words. When students master this concept, they’re empowered to read and spell thousands of words with precision!
The VCe Syllable Type
A syllable is simply a word part. And words can be one syllable or more than one syllable. It’s important to remember that every syllable MUST include a written vowel.
There are 6 syllable types in English. These syllable types include closed, open, Magic E, R-controlled, vowel team/diphthong, and consonant+le.
In Magic E (VCe) syllables, the first vowel is long, followed by a single consonant, and a final silent e. Single-syllable words or multisyllabic words can be comprised of VCe syllables.
Here are some examples of words that contain the VCe syllable (as seen above):
- In the one-syllable word note, the long о̄ is heard, and the final e is silent.
- In the one-syllable word shake, the long ā is heard, and the final e is silent.
- In the two-syllable word insane, the first syllable ‘in’ is closed and includes a short vowel. The second syllable ‘sane’ is a VCe syllable where the long ā is heard and the final e is silent.
Kids should practice reading and coding words that contain Magic e syllables!
VCe Word Examples
Below are words that include VCe syllables in an easy-to-understand chart. Notice that in all of these words, the VCe syllable has a long vowel sound and the final e’s are completely silent. 🤫
| Single Syllable VCe Words | Multisyllabic VCe words | |
| a-e | snake, age, rate, whale, shape | parade, became, escape, awake, female |
| e-e | these, here, scene, Pete, eve | complete, Chinese, athlete, supreme, serene |
| i-e | time, five, life, slide, quite | outside, surprise, arrive, provide, exercise |
| o-e | throne, close, nose, hope, rose | suppose, telescope, telephone, microscope, remote |
| u-e | use, mule, cube, rule, June | diffuse, execute, volume, include, produce |
👉 Get an exhaustive, printable list of VCe words to use for dictation or more practice.
FAQ
In order to read and spell longer words accurately, we teach syllable types so readers can break apart multisyllabic words. Knowing the VCe syllable type will help students greatly when it comes to reading and spelling words accurately.
After explicitly teaching each syllable type and syllable division rules, kids practice by applying the patterns and knowledge to decoding words. As teachers, we can give them lots of activities and words lists on their level to help with this.
No! Not all words with a final silent e are Magic e words. Just think about the words come, awe, or were. In these words, the silent e is not doing the job of making the vowel say its name. That’s because the final silent e has 9 jobs in total!
FREE Silent E Teaching Resources
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Thank you for the kids feedback. We love knowing our resources are being used all over the world by great teachers like you!
Katie and Laura
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-Katie and Laura