The archaic kana ゑ (we), as well as many non-initial occurrences of the character へ (he), have entered the modern Japanese language as え.

Compare this to は (ha) and を (wo), which are pronounced "wa" and "o" when used as grammatical particles.

Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぇ, ェ) are used to express morae foreign to the Japanese language, such as ヴェ (ve).

In several Okinawan writing systems, a small ぇ is also combined with the kana く(ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぇ kwe and ふぇ hwe.

The hiragana え is made with two strokes: The katakana エ is made with three strokes: This is also the way to make the Latin letter "I" (although the correct upper case form does not look like the lower case Latin letter "l")