The fate of the letter E

[SimplyComplex]

No looking, actually, it was right there as soon as I saw this. I used to teach English, SC, so this kind of stuff comes quickly to me! :Green

oh, well, that makes sense then... me? I can't stand english! I'm terrible at it, don't understand it, and almost failed it except I had a lame curriculum in HS so didn't have to do much... I'm totally a math person.

[bzmomo7]

No looking, actually, it was right there as soon as I saw this. I used to teach English, SC, so this kind of stuff comes quickly to me! :Green

Okay! You guys want a discussion on this, really, huh???? :nutty Well, what do you think about the notion of a "silent" e. Does that change it to feminine? Does the "e" make other letters change their sound or do the consonants "force" the vowels to behave the way they do? For instance in the words "hop" vs. "hope"--we can say "e" forces the "o" to be long, but maybe really the "p" needs the "e" to be its helper the way a man needs his wife. (therefore making the "e" feminine--but a strong completer at that!) The reason why I might think this to be true is the rules that allow us to add suffixes to root words beginning with a vowel require the final consonant to be doubled (meaning the consonants actually keep the first vowel sound short--as in run to running) In a word like "hop" it goes to "hopping" (consonant in charge) and in "hope" to "hoping"--the silent "e" is dropped and is not present to force the first vowel to be long--it the presence of the one consonant that shows it is long, instead. Does that make sense? It is interesting that this only applies to suffixes that begin with a vowel...no change is needed when you add the suffix "s". I guess I'd vote all vowels fem. and possibly and consonants mas. (or I might have just been brain-washed by my teachers in elementary school with all of those "letter people" they used to teach us phonics!! Because all of the vowels were portrayed as fem. and consonants as mas.)

[5dumplings@home]

No, it is the E that changes hop into hope. E has a lot of strength, even if it is at times quiet.

[HappyChristian]

See, any combination of vowels gives strength to each other (/oe/, /ai/, /ea/, etc) inside the word. But!!!! When a vowel stands alone in a word and needs to say its long sound, the /e/ must be added in order to strengthen it. The consonant has nothing to do with it. Let's continue with the word "hop." The /o/ is saying its short sound. If we add /e/ the word becomes "hope." Duh. Now - when we add suffixes, there is more that comes into play, harking back to my post about /i/ and /y/ (although /y/ should rightly be called androgyneous, because it cannot make up it's mind whether to be vowel or consonant, and when vowel, whether to be male or female). Anyway...when we have the word "hope" and we want to change it, we drop the /e/ and add /ing/, thus creating "hoping." The /i/ is masculine, so the /o/ retains its long sound. If, however, we have the word "hop," we must double the consonant before adding /ing/ because, since the /i/ is masculine, it would change the /o/ to long. Thus we see that doubled consonants are also masculine...they cancel out the effect of the /i/. :Green

[bzmomo7]

See' date=' any combination of vowels gives strength to each other (/oe/, /ai/, /ea/, etc) inside the word. But!!!! When a vowel stands alone in a word and needs to say its long sound, the /e/ must be added in order to strengthen it. The consonant has nothing to do with it. Let's continue with the word "hop." The /o/ is saying its short sound. If we add /e/ the word becomes "hope." Duh. Now - when we add suffixes, there is more that comes into play, harking back to my post about /i/ and /y/ (although /y/ should rightly be called androgyneous, because it cannot make up it's mind whether to be vowel or consonant, and when vowel, whether to be male or female). Anyway...when we have the word "hope" and we want to change it, we drop the /e/ and add /ing/, thus creating "hoping." The /i/ is masculine, so the /o/ retains its long sound. If, however, we have the word "hop," we must double the consonant before adding /ing/ because, since the /i/ is masculine, it would change the /o/ to long. Thus we see that doubled consonants are also masculine...they cancel out the effect of the /i/. :Green

Not in a word like "go"--therefore, do you think "o" is masculine as well?

[HappyChristian]

Not in a word like "go"--therefore, do you think "o" is masculine as well?

No - if there is no consonant (as most consonants are masculine), it must be strong on its own (much like a single woman) and therefore says its long sound. But notice what happens when we add /ne/ to it...it shortens the /o/. Female contrariness!!! But when we add /es/ we have "goes" (long /o/) and when we have "going" long /o/ again. However, the past tense shows that contrariness again: "went." :lol:

[bzmomo7]

I'm thinking we might have to ban the letter "y" after your post that it can't make up its mind whether to be mas. or fem.!!!!! You know what us IFB think about such nonesense!

[HappyChristian]

You know, u mae have something there!! I have to run decorate a tree now so maebe we can trie to decide later what we should do with that recalcitrant letter!!! :Green (The skie is getting verie dark...it will probablie snow tonight)

[dadof4]

Oh, boy, what have I done? :lol:

[HappyChristian]

Oh' date=' boy, what have I done? [/quote']

Doesn't this thread remind you of the logic twistings of some doctrinal threads? We dun good, huh? :Green :lol:

[bzmomo7]

:nutty :nutty Hey, you know what happens around here when you go opening cans that should have remained closed! :can: Once the worms are out----we can drone on for pages and pages!!!!! (which is why we have a dead horse smiley with flies buzzing around it!!) :lol:

[Psalms18_28]

Ethan in the bible starts with an "E"


When I was in Kindergarten, all the vowels were girls and consonants were boys..

and Q and U got married.

[Madeline]

Ethan in the bible starts with an "E"


When I was in Kindergarten, all the vowels were girls and consonants were boys..

and Q and U got married.

:thumb It's all Greek to me! :-)

[Trish]

OKAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Ha! you all are so funny. :uuhm: I think I'm more convinced that vowels are feminine. Sometimes they have to stand alone, example being single women. I agree that the vowels do help out the consenents. Don't the consenents get bossy at times too, as in the letter 'r'. I guess some could say that is what a women is sometimes, but .... As for that letter 'y', what a trouble maker. :roll

[SimplyComplex]

Hmmmm..... every word has to have a vowel in it..... can't think of anything clever for that though... :cooldude: