Vowels: long "e" or short "e"

eine Feder

"e" followed by one consonant or an unpronounced "h", as well as the double vowel "ee" is generally long. It is pronounced similar to the "ay" sound in English "say", but with lips spread very wide.

"e" followed by two or more consonants is usually short. It is pronounced similar to the "e" sound in English "text", but a bit shorter .

Click on ► to hear the examples.

"e" followed by one consonant is generally long	"e" followed by two or more consonants is usually short
Feder	Vetter
wen	wenn
den	denn
beten	Betten
Degen	Decken
Wesen	Westen
reden	retten
Wesen	wessen

the double vowel "ee" is generally long	"e" followed by two or more consonants is usually short
Beet	Bett
Fee	Fels
Heer	Herr
leer	legst
Meer	merken
Schnee	schnell

"e" followed by an unpronounced "h" is generally long	"e" followed by two or more consonants is usually short
Kehle	Kelle
stehlen	stellen
Hehler	heller
mehr	Mensch
Reh	Regen
Sehne	Senne
wehren	werten

Now it's up to you.

Click on ► and listen carefully to the words which are read out to you. In each case, write the word you hear twice into the gap provided.

Then click on [Check] to see if you were correct.

And don't worry if you don't know the meaning of the words. The aim of this exercise is to practice the long and the short "e". Of course, you can look up the words you don't know in one of the online dictionaries below if you wish to do so.

Feder <-> Vetter	Feder
wen <-> wenn
den <-> denn
beten <-> Betten
Degen <-> Decken
Wesen <-> Westen
reden <-> retten
Wesen <-> wessen
Beet <-> Bett
Heer <-> Herr
Kehle <-> Kelle
stehlen <-> stellen
Hehler <-> heller
Sehne <-> Senne

Umlaute & Eszett:

Wörterbuch (LEO)

Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS)

Wörterbuch (Linguee)

Wörterbuch (dict.cc)

Wörterbuch (PONS)

Terminologie A - Z

Tip: If you don't belong to the lucky few who possess a photographic memory, write down what you learnt while doing this exercise.

Let's listen carefully: Vowels & Umlaute: long "e" or short "e"?