How To Teach Long E Words & FREE Word List - Free Printable

This is a "Word Sort - e" worksheet designed to help students distinguish between words with a short 'e' sound and those with a long 'e' sound. The task is to categorize the given words into the correct columns.

Let me solve this step by step.

Step 1: Understand the Task

The goal is to sort the provided list of words into two categories:
- Short e: Words where the letter 'e' makes the short /e/ sound, like in "bed".
- Long e: Words where the letter 'e' makes the long /ē/ sound, like in "beet".

Step 2: List the Words

The words to be sorted are:
- bee
- red
- dress
- equal
- valley
- sent
- field
- tea
- eve
- best
- bench
- candy

Step 3: Analyze Each Word for its 'e' Sound

I will go through each word one by one to determine its vowel sound.

Words with Long 'e' Sound (/ē/):
- bee: The 'ee' combination makes the long 'e' sound.
- equal: The 'e' at the beginning is pronounced as a long 'e'.
- field: The 'ie' combination makes the long 'e' sound.
- tea: The 'ea' combination makes the long 'e' sound.
- eve: The 'e' at the end makes the long 'e' sound (silent 'e' rule).

Words with Short 'e' Sound (/e/):
- red: The 'e' makes the short 'e' sound.
- dress: The 'e' makes the short 'e' sound.
- valley: The 'e' in the first syllable makes the short 'e' sound.
- sent: The 'e' makes the short 'e' sound.
- best: The 'e' makes the short 'e' sound.
- bench: The 'e' makes the short 'e' sound.
- candy: The 'a' is the main vowel, but the 'e' is silent; however, the primary vowel sound is not long 'e'. The word "candy" has a short 'a' sound, but since we are sorting based on the 'e', it doesn't have a long 'e' sound. It's a trickier case, but it belongs in the short 'e' column because the 'e' is not pronounced as a long 'e'.

Wait, let me double-check "candy". In "candy", the 'e' is silent and does not make a long 'e' sound. The word is pronounced with a short 'a' sound. Since the task is to sort based on the 'e' sound, and there is no long 'e' sound in "candy", it should be placed in the "Short e" column.

Actually, I need to be more precise. The word "candy" does not contain a long 'e' sound, so it belongs in the "Short e" column.

Step 4: Final Sorting

Based on the analysis, here is the final sorted list:

Short e:
- red
- dress
- valley
- sent
- best
- bench
- candy

Long e:
- bee
- equal
- field
- tea
- eve

Step 5: Present the Solution

Here is the completed worksheet with the words correctly sorted:

---

WORD SORT - e

| Short e | Long e |
|------------------|------------------|
| red | bee |
| dress | equal |
| valley | field |
| sent | tea |
| best | eve |
| bench | |
| candy | |

---

This completes the task. The words have been sorted based on whether they contain a short 'e' sound or a long 'e' sound.