Surplus -e endings

In addition to omitted consonant doubling after short vowels (offer - profit), using them needlessly (afraid - afford) and alternative spellings for some sounds (much, mud – touch, flood), the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ method for spelling long and short vowels (mate, mat, matter) is also seriously undermined by the use of surplus –e endings.

In the 16th century most words were sometimes decorated with an extra –e (olde worlde wordes), if a writer or printer felt like it, or there was spare space at the end of a line. In the 17th century most redundant -e endings were dropped. Unfortunately several dozen escaped the cull and survive still, predominantly after the letters n, t and v, and continue to make learning to read and write more difficult than need be.

The pronunciation of the 24 relatively common words ending with  –ine  (having a long i-e sound)
- combine, confine, decline, define, dine, divine, fine, incline, line, mine, nine, pine, porcupine, saline, shine, shrine, spine, swine, turbine, twine, valentine, vine, whine, wine -
is undermined by at least 16 words with –ine spelling -een (as in ‘canteen’)
- chlorine, clementine, gasoline, guillotine, machine, magazine, margarine, marine, plasticine, ravine, routine, sardine, tambourine, tangerine, trampoline, vaseline .
But the sound of –ine is made even more uncertain by the 16 words with a surplus –e after -in:
- destine, determine, discipline, doctrine, examine, engine, famine, feminine, genuine, heroine, imagine, intestine, jasmine, masculine, medicine, urine.
They make the spelling of all words ending with an -in sound less certain too:
- aspirin, basin, boffin, cabin, catkin, coffin, dolphin, gherkin, goblin, mandarin, margin, origin, penguin, pumpkin, raisin, sequin, tarpaulin, urchin, vermin, violin.

The surplus –e’s in –one (gone, scone, shone)
undermine the phonic reliability of the pattern in ‘bone, cone, phone, etc’.

Perhaps even more detrimental for literacy learning is the redundant –e in 30 –ate endings:
Accurate, adequate, affectionate, candidate, chocolate, climate, considerate, corporate, delicate, desperate, extortionate, fortunate, frigate, illiterate, immaculate, immediate, intermediate, intricate, laureate, legitimate, obstinate, palate, passionate, pirate, private, proportionate, senate, temperate, ultimate, vertebrate
(cf. acrobat, democrat).
They undermine the phonic reliability of words in which –ate has the regular -ait sound:
Crate, date, fate, gate, grate, hate, late, mate, plate, rate, skate, slate, state.
Accelerate, accommodate, accumulate, aggravate, agitate, amputate, appreciate, asphyxiate, assassinate, calculate, celebrate, circulate, commemorate, complicate, concentrate, confiscate, congratulate, create, cremate, cultivate, debate, decorate, dedicate, demonstrate, dominate, donate, eliminate, emigrate, estate, evacuate, exaggerate, exasperate, excavate, extricate, germinate, gyrate, hesitate, hibernate, humiliate, illuminate, illustrate, impersonate, indicate, inflate, infuriate, inoculate, interrogate, investigate, legislate, locate, lubricate, magistrate, migrate, navigate, obliterate, operate, participate, penetrate, pollinate, relate, rotate, saturate, suffocate, terminate, tolerate, translate, vaccinate, vibrate.

Even trickier are the 25 -ate endings which change their pronunciation according to usage or context (e.g.  advocate:  an advocat / to advocait):
Advocate, alternate, appropriate, approximate, articulate, associate, certificate, co-ordinate, degenerate, delegate, deliberate, designate, desolate, dictate, duplicate, elaborate, estimate, graduate, intimate, laminate, moderate, separate, subordinate, syndicate, triplicate.
This use of identical spellings for different sounds makes nonsense of spelling differentiations, such as ‘there/their’ or ‘it’s/its’, with which we give pupils a hard time.

The pointless –e’s of
Definite, exquisite, granite, infinite, opposite (cf. admit, bandit, benefit, culprit, hermit...)
don’t help with learning to read
ammonite , appetite, despite, dynamite, excite, ignite, invite, polite, recite, satellite, termite, unite.

The habitual decorating of a final ‘v’ with –e also obscures vowel length in reading
Have – save;
give, live – dive, drive, five, jive, skive, strive, thrive (cf. ‘spiv’);
Above, dove, glove, love, shove,
Cove, drove, stove, wove, alcove.

We can teach children that in longer words the –e of –ive tends to serve no purpose
- creative, decisive, defensive, detective, exclusive, expensive, explosive, extensive, forgive, fugitive, give, impressive, initiative, massive, motive, narrative, native, olive, perspective, positive, primitive, productive, progressive, prospective, radioactive, relative, respective, selective, sensitive, subjective -
but occasionally it does:
alive, arrive, revive, survive.

Dropping the 19 surplus –e’s after n and the 60 after t would do enormous good, but even just cutting them from ‘give, have’ and ‘live’ (to differentiate it from the adjective ‘live’) would be of some help.