Phoneme
/e/

/e/ as in "bed"

/e/ is a mid front vowel of General American English, as in "bed" and "pen." To produce it, jaw slightly open, tongue mid-front. Phoneme provides native-speaker audio and minimal-pair contrasts so learners can hear and practice this vowel.

/e/bed
bedalso: pen
Isolated sound
"bed"

How to make /e/

mid front vowel — jaw slightly open, tongue mid-front.

Also written as

/ɛ/
used by many American dictionaries and in narrow transcription

Sounds that learners confuse with /e/

Minimal pairs for /e/

/e/ vs /æ/
/e//æ/
bedbad
penpan
menman
petpat
betbat
tentan
fedfad
leglag