E final, in proper English words, never forms a syllable, and in
the most-used words, in the terminating unaccented syllable it is
silent. Thus, motive, genuine, examine, granite, are
pronounced motiv, genuin, examin, granit.
E final, in a few words of foreign origin, forms a syllable; as
syncope, simile.
E final is silent after l in the following
terminations,—ble, cle, dle, fle, gle, kle, ple, tle, zle;
as in able, manacle, cradle, ruffle, mangle, wrinkle, supple,
rattle, puzzle, which are pronounced a'bl, mana'cl, cra'dl,
ruf'fl man'gl, wrin'kl, sup'pl, puz'zl.
E is usually silent in the termination en; as in
token, broken; pronounced tokn, brokn.
ous, in the termination of adjectives and their derivatives,
is pronounced us; as in gracious, pious, pompously.
ce, ci, ti before a vowel, have the sound of sh; as in
cetaceous, gracious, motion, partial, ingratiate; pronounced
cetashus, grashus, moshun, parshal, ingrashiate.
si, after an accented vowel, is pronounced like zh; as in
Ephesian, confusion; pronounced Ephezhan, confuzhon
When ci or ti precede similar combinations, as in
pronunciation, negotiation, they
should be pronounced ze instead of she, to prevent a
repetition of the latter syllable; as pronunceashon instead of
pronunsheashon.
gh, both in the middle and at the end of words ia silent; as in
caught, bought, fright, nigh, sigh; pronounced caut, baut,
frite, ni, si. In the following exceptions, however, gh
are pronounced as f:—cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh,
rough, slough, tough, trough.
When wh begins a word, the aspirate h precedes w
in pronunciation; as in what, whiff, whale; pronounced
hwat, hwiff, hwale, w having precisely the sound of
oo, French ou. In the following words w is
silent:—who, whom, whose, whoop, whole.