English Sounds & Spelling: English Sounds and Spelling (#7)

The / ey / and / e / sounds (the vowel sounds in gate and
get) are similar in pronunciation: both are made with the
tongue toward the front of the mouth, but / ey / is more
tense than / e /. To many learners of English, / ey / and
/ e / sound very similar or even the same. To a native
speaker of English, however, they are completely different.

Here are some examples of words in which the use of
/ ey / or / e / is the only difference: