You should pick words from this list to read and spell; some of them have “special category” syllables like -ous, while others (like sergeant and ocean) have even stranger patterns.
Spelling words in EA
In most cases, a long e sound is produced when the vowels “e” and “a” are combined. A few words, such as bread and wealth, which produce a short e sound, are an exception to this rule. A different table below lists the exceptions. EA-Exception
Long e is made by words with the “ee” and “ea” spellings. To aid a child in learning how to spell these words properly, we created extensive e-worksheets.
The following word families were used to create the table below: -ea, -each, -ead, -eak, -eal, -eam. -ean, -eap, -ear, -east, -eat, and -eave.
three-letter words that start with ea
sea
eat
tea
ear
lea
pea
kea
yea
eau
ea-containing words with 4 letters
year
each
area
real
team
head
lead
easy
mean
read
near
east
deal
idea
hear
yeah
dead
fear
beat
seat
bear
heat
ease
wear
weak
peak
earn
dear
jean
dean
meal
meat
rear
gear
earl
seal
lean
leap
beam
leaf
tear
deaf
neat
plea
bean
peat
heal
reap
heap
leak
feat
eats
mead
zeal
seam
bead
pear
flea
beau
veal
urea
beak
shea
teal
teak
wean
sear
rhea
ream
peal
teat
weal
leal
ilea
olea
neap
pean
yean
uvea
peag
odea
toea
zoea
asea
ears
lear
leas
keas
feal
eaux
eave
eath
teas
peas
seas
yeas
Ea-containing words with five letters
great
early
clear
death
reach
leave
heart
learn
ready
least
speak
break
ahead
heavy
ideal
earth
meant
beach
clean
peace
treat
lease
dream
teach
ocean
cheap
cream
dealt
bread
steam
eager
eagle
react
realm
cease
sweat
wheat
steal
eaten
pearl
heath
feast
beast
beard
bleak
weary
steak
swear
peach
sneak
leach
tread
dread
shear
spear
freak
yeast
leapt
weave
cheat
plead
heady
smear
tease
stead
leafy
leash
gleam
wreak
eaves
leaky
apnea
heave
pease
glean
meaty
yearn
easel
tweak
bream
beaux
neath
knead
teary
leant
creak
sheaf
paean
pleat
weald
cleat
beady
eared
mealy
beano
seamy
wheal
bleat
rearm
peart
Ea-containing words with six letters
really
health
please
leader
nearly
create
reason
season
easily
appear
search
league
appeal
spread
threat
reader
wealth
leaves
beauty
nearby
steady
headed
stream
eating
dealer
repeat
reveal
bureau
defeat
breath
treaty
breast
weapon
breach
linear
beaten
heaven
heated
deadly
streak
thread
yearly
scream
guinea
uneasy
weaver
beacon
header
weaken
cereal
ordeal
meadow
heater
nausea
grease
repeal
learnt
peaked
creamy
preach
hearth
hearty
weakly
unreal
beaver
realty
bearer
peanut
upbeat
bleach
dreary
greasy
deacon
eatery
dearth
seaman
caveat
sweaty
sheath
crease
earthy
dreamy
steamy
wreath
dreamt
teapot
healer
squeak
sleazy
weasel
sneaky
beanie
cornea
seabed
subsea
pearly
beagle
queasy
unseat
leaden
seven letter words with ea in them
leading
already
release
greater
meaning
feature
instead
disease
eastern
reading
measure
reality
weather
teacher
learned
speaker
dealing
healthy
hearing
nuclear
realize
heavily
whereas
theatre
wearing
bearing
heading
readily
beneath
beating
leather
ideally
breadth
leasing
wealthy
heather
creator
unclear
cleaner
retreat
leaning
breathe
seating
realism
peasant
earnest
fearful
reactor
jealous
tearing
conceal
theater
plateau
leadoff
mileage
gearing
feather
seafood
seaside
oceanic
sweater
peacock
arrears
abreast
leakage
acreage
eyewear
stealth
lineage
leaflet
unheard
chateau
realist
headway
earthly
forearm
unleash
midyear
pageant
surreal
treason
measles
mislead
nouveau
breaker
firearm
cleanly
gearbox
bureaux
leaguer
cleanup
reagent
headset
appease
breakup
tearful
panacea
tableau
cleanse
abreast
ahead
already
head
bedspread
bedstead
behead
bread
breakfast
breast
copperhead
dead
deadly
deadlock
deadpan
deaf
displeasure
dread
dreadful
endeavor
feather
head
heaven
instead
jealous
leather
meadow
measure
ocean
pageant
realm
sergeant
steadfast
stead
steady
spread
sweat
sweater
treasure
treasury
thread
threat
treacherous
treachery
tread
treadle
weapon
weather
wealth
weather
lead (the metal)
long or short e in spelling “ea”
The word keep’s long e makes the sound (long e); it is a vowel. I make the sound “(long e”)” while holding my tongue very high in my mouth.
It’s not just a long e held for a shorter period of time when we say “short e.” Actually, the tongue has a different shape. My tongue is much lower in my mouth and is only slightly rounded upward to make the short e sound. Play the short e sound by saying (short e). The word “bed” makes that sound.
The word team, which is pronounced t-e-a-m, is an example of a word that is written with the letter e and has a long e sound. The word head, which has the letter ea in its spelling but is pronounced with a short e, is an example.
My expectation was that my frequency dictionary would reveal a simple pattern with few exceptions. I regret to say that the list of words was much more difficult than I had anticipated.
The top 2000 most used words contain 116 words with the ea spelling. A long e sound is used in the pronunciation of 68 of those words, or 59%. The better guess for how to pronounce the ea spelling in an unfamiliar word is the long e, if you want a very simple answer. You should stop listening now if you don’t want to become overwhelmed by the messy, complex details.
You see, the issue is that only 41% of the remaining words are spoken with a short e sound. The remainder of the words is divided into a variety of groups instead. Fortunately, with 22 words, the short e sound has the most words in this category.
The good news is that 78% of words with the spelling ea are pronounced with either a long e or a short e.
The rest of them, though, what about them?
The first group consists of the eight words with the spelling ear and the pronunciation schwa+r. Keep in mind that schwa+r actually just makes an r sound. In essence, the word earth has two sounds: (schwa+r) and (unvoiced th), earth.
We cannot automatically assume that all words with this spelling are pronounced with a schwa+r sound even though 15 of the words on our initial long e list are also spelled with the letter “ear.” Here, clear, near, and appearance are just a few examples. Therefore, the long e plus an r sound is a better guess if you were to try to pronounce a word with the spelling ear.
In conclusion:
Simply listening to a podcast won’t be enough for you to understand all of this, so I made two Pronuncian exercises to assist you. All of the words in the top 1000 most frequently used words in these exercises have audio, including the various pronunciations I just mentioned. While the free lessons for long e and short e, which cover all the common spelling patterns for those sounds, are only accessible to Pronuncian subscribers, everyone else can visit the exercises.
