114+ Short E Words (Free Printable List)

🍳 All About Short E

The letter E represents a vowel sound. It can be a long or short vowel sound (or schwa). Short vowels are usually taught first to young learners, because they are the most common.

When the letter E represents a short sound, it will sound like /ĕ/ – the sound you hear at the beginning of egg, elf, and enter.

The short /ĕ/ sound is heard at the beginning or in the middle of a word within a closed syllable.

Some words with a short e sound are:

• egg
• edge
• elephant
• hen
• bed
• shell
• speck

👉🏽Read more about the differences between vowels and consonants.

Short E and Short I Confusion

The short e and short i sounds can be difficult for students to discern and differentiate.

Many students consistently confuse these two short vowels, so explicit instruction and targeted practice are needed to ensure kids master the sounds and letters.

Here are some ideas to use to help kids who may struggle with these sounds!

• Use a mirror to show kids their mouth placement as they make the sound. Having a sound wall within view is important so kids can refer to it often.
• Use keywords and hand motions to link the sounds. Our phonogram cards use e – egg – /e/ and i – igloo – /i/.
• Incorporate vowel intensives as an instructional practice. This involves the teacher dictating the sound and having kids write the letter that represents this sound. Once kids can do this, teachers can make it a bit more challenging and dictate words or nonsense syllables, then have kids identify the vowel sound within the word.

Short E Words List

Below is an extensive word list of short e words, organized by word family.

Note: Words included on this list are all one-syllable words, and include CVC words and words with blends and digraphs, floss words, and soft sounds.

-ed Words

-eg Words

-em Words

-en Words

-ep Words

-et Words

-ex Words

-eck Words

-ell Words

-est Words

-end Words

-ent Words

Other Words

More Vowel Word Lists

As an OG-certified teacher, I love word lists! They can be used for so many things, including dictation, fluency, homework, sorting, assessment, and progress monitoring.