ea

In British English

Explore the diverse sounds of the English multigraph 'ea' in this lesson, focusing on its various pronunciations and how they influence word pronunciation.

'ea' as a digraph has five sounds that we are going to talk about here.

Digraphs are a set of two letters that stand together and produce a new sound.

Digraph	ea
Name	ea (pronounced /ˈiː ˈeɪ /)
Common Sound(s)	/e/, /i:/, /eɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /ɜː/

The Digraph 'ea'

Sound 1: /e/

'ea' in ead mainly sounds /e/:

spread /spred/

bread /bred/

thread /θred/

head /hed/

Sound 2: /i:/

'ea' in the middle or at the end of words sounds /i:/:

pea /piː/

seat /siːt/

teacher /ˈtiːtʃə(r)/

Sound 3: /eɪ/

'ea' in eak mainly sounds /eɪ/:

break /breɪk/

steak /steɪk/

Sound 4: /ɪə/

'ea' also sounds /ɪə/:

idea /aɪˈdɪə/

theatre /ˈθɪə.tə(r)/

appear /əˈpɪə(r)/

Sound 5: /eə/

'ea' in ear mainly sounds /eə/:

wear /weə(r)/

bearing /ˈbeə.rɪŋ/

tear /teə(r)/

pear /peə(r)/

Tip!

'ea' sounds /ə/ in the word 'pageant':

pageant /ˈpædʒ.ənt/

Sound 6: /ɜː/

'ea' also produces the sound /ɜː/:

early /ˈɜːli/

learn /lɜːn/

earn /ɜːn/

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