E

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E Fifth letter of the alphabet, derived from the Semitic he, which the Greeks adopted as the letter epsilon. E is a vowel and the most frequently used letter in written English. It has various pronunciations, depending on its position in a word. It may be long as in me (although this sound is much more frequently denoted by a double e, as in feed) or short, as in fed. At the end of a word it often modifies the sound of a preceding vowel, e.g. the short a in fat becomes a long a in fate. In a few English words e followed by r is pronounced like an a, as in clerk and sergeant.

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