Producing /ɛ/

How to produce /ɛ/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/ɛ/
open-mid front
Lips: neutral
Tongue: mid-front
Voicing: voiced
💡 Jaw slightly more open than /e/.

Key production cues:

Jaw slightly more open than /e/.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

1. Say /ɛ/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
2. Say /ɛ/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /ɛ-ɛ-ɛ-ɛ-ɛ/.
3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /ɛ/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: egg, end, bed
• Middle: wet, leg, red
• End / in clusters: head, ten, yes

/ɛ/open-mid frontArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗