ė / e

The Letters Ė and E

Level 1

Ė and e are different letters with different sounds. Ė is long and closed, as in kėdė. E is open, as in medis.

How It Works

Lithuanian has three e letters, and each has its own job:

  • ė is always a long, closed vowel. The tongue is high and the lips are spread, a little like English ay in day, but steady, with no glide at the end: kėdė (chair), tėvas (father), gėlė (flower).
  • e is an open vowel. Without stress it is short, like the e in bed, as in the first syllable of senelis (grandfather). When it is stressed it is usually long and more open, close to the a in English cat held longer: medis (tree), žemė (earth).
  • ę is the long open e, the same sound as a stressed long e: upę. See the nasal letters.

A few stressed e vowels stay short, for example at the very end of a word and in short words like bet (but). Dictionaries show this with stress marks.

The difference matters in endings. Gėlė ends in -ė when it is the subject, and gėlę ends in -ę when it is the object. Many feminine nouns end in -ė: see the second declension.

You will also hear the open e sound where the spelling shows ia. In geria (drinks), the i only makes the r soft, and the a after it sounds like e. See i as a softness marker.

Examples (5)

  1. Kėdė stovi kambaryje.

    The chair is in the room.

    Word by Word: Chair stands in-room.

    Both vowels in kėdė are the long, closed ė.

  2. Tas medis labai senas.

    That tree is very old.

    Word by Word: That tree very old.

    The stressed e in medis is open and long, close to the a in cat.

  3. Mano tėvas dirba mokykloje.

    My father works at a school.

    Word by Word: My father works in-school.

    Tėvas has a long ė. Without the dot it would be misspelled.

  4. Žemė yra apvali.

    The Earth is round.

    Word by Word: Earth is round.

    The first vowel is an open e, and the second is a closed ė.

  5. Eglė turi daug gėlių.

    Eglė has a lot of flowers.

    Word by Word: Eglė has many flowers-of.

    Eglė starts with an open e and ends in ė. Gėlių keeps the ė of gėlė.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving the dot off ė.

    Mano tevas dirba mokykloje.
    Mano tėvas dirba mokykloje.

    E and ė are different vowels. Tėvas (father) needs the long, closed ė.

  • Writing -ė where the object needs -ę.

    Aš matau gėlė.
    Aš matau gėlę.

    Gėlė is the subject form. When the flower is the object, the ending becomes -ę.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ė / eLevel 1The Letters Ė and E

Learn This First

This entry separates the sounds of two alphabet letters.