Unrounded, half-open front tongue vowel

IPA mark	ɛ
IPA number	303
IPA character description	Latin minuscule epsilon
Unicode	U + 025B
HTML (dec.)	& # 603;
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
Audio sample ? / i [ ʔɛː ]

Phonetic and orthographic realization of the unrounded half-open front tongue vowel in different languages:

• German :
  • [⁠ ɛ ⁠] : standard pronunciation of the short accented <e>
    • Examples: n e tt [ nɛt ], e cht [ ʔɛçt ]
  • [ ɛː ]: Standard pronunciation of the long <ä>
    • Examples: K ä se [ kʰɛːzə ], w ä rst [ vɛːɐ̯st ]
  • [⁠ ɛ ⁠] : standard pronunciation of the short <ä>
    • Examples: Ä ste [ ʔɛstʰə ], H ä half [ hɛlftʰə ]

• English :
  • [⁠ ɛ ⁠] : standard pronunciation of the short accented <e>
    • Examples: l e t [ lɛt ], m e n [ mɛn ]

• French :
  • [⁠ ɛ ⁠] : è, ê, ai, ay, ei, ey ; e often
    • Examples: apr è s [ aˈpʁɛ ], f ê te [ fɛt ], m e rci [ mɛʁˈsi ], f ai t [ fɛ ], pl ei ne [ plɛn ]
  • [ ɛ̃ ]: in, im, ain, aim, ein, eim ; en, em to e, i, y
    • Examples: Customized in [ bəzwɛ ] mat in [ matɛ ] bi s [ bjɛ ] f aim [ fɛ ], pl , a [ plɛ ]

See also

• vocal
• Front tongue vowel
• Rounding (phonetics)