we see that the unsuffixed form with the silent e has the ‘long’ sound, while the suffixed form without the silent e has the ‘short’ sound. Many people have observed that the English spelling system is advantageous in that spelling is consistent (even though the pronunciation may differ) among words related in meaning.
While there are many more vowel letter-sound correspondences that could be listed here, their large number (Prator and Robinett (1985) list 57 different vowel-letter combinations with predictable pronunciations) and many exceptions make their usefulness to ESL students somewhat questionable. However, once students have mastered enough spelling, they usually become quite proficient at guessing the pronunciation of an unknown word based solely on the spelling.
Spelling in other languages
Many languages, including English, use the Roman alphabet. Differences between the sound-spelling correspondences of such languages and of English can often be the source of mispronunciations. For example, the spelling systems of languages such as Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian are more straightforward than the English spelling system in representing sounds. That is, there is usually a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and spelling. Speakers of such languages may pronounce every letter of an English word, assuming incorrectly that the English spelling system is like the spelling system of their native language. In addition, these speakers may assign the sound values of their spelling system to the letters of English. This often results in what we term a spelling pronunciation. Pronouncing words on the basis of one’s native language spelling system does not necessarily constitute a pronunciation problem. It may merely reflect a lack of knowledge regarding the often complex sound-spelling correspondences of English. If you have a large number of literate students from a language background using the Roman alphabet, it may be wise to familiarize yourself with the sound-spelling correspondences in that language. Then you can point out to students the places in which the sound-spelling correspondences of English and their native language differ.
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