How can I explain 'scene', 'scent' etc?

[EarthboundMisfit]

Both my sons (6) have tripped up on this sound today.
I told them the word but wondered how to explain the phonics.
Any tips welcome, thanks.

Scene is a split digraph (magic e) so the short e sound changes to a long e sound because of the e on the end of the word.

In scent there is no split digraph so the vowel remains a short sound.

Thanks. Does 'sc' followed by e always make an 's' sound?

I can't think of any 'sce' words that don't have an 's' sound. If you think about it, when c is followed by e, i or y it usually represents the 's' sound (city, cycle, ceiling etc) so 'sc' also represents 's' when followed by those letters.

Sc is an alternative spelling for the sound /s/

Thanks. Does 'sc' followed by e always make an 's' sound

No which is why we never teach "rules" sceptical

The sound /s/ can be spelt s, ss, se, ce, sc, st, c, cc, ps, sce (spelling X represents 2 sounds /k//s/ in exam and /g/ /s/ in exit )

Thank you! That helps.

http://www.sounds-write.co.uk/docs/soundswriteenglishspellingslexicon.pdf

mrz, I'm always fascinated by the examples on threads! Do you pronounce the first syllable in exit and exam differently, then? For me they are exactly (see what I did there?) the same!

Sorry Ive actually typed those "backwards"
exit -gs (gz)
exam - ks (ks) (In my accent but you would always teach to the child's accent) if they are the same in yours that makes life much simpler when teaching