It depends on the position of the letter in the word: In word-initial position or after a vowel (in this regard the "soft signь and "had sign" ъ function as vowels, which is their historic origin  ), it is usually pronounced as ye in yese.g., in particular ye is the name of the letter in the alphabet.  e can also be a spelling variant of ё (yo): the dieresis is usually omitted, except in texts for chidren or foreigners. In such cases, word-initial (or after a vowel) е is pronounced as 'io' iniodine or yo in New York -- there is no way to predict this difference, other than knowing the complete spelling of the word, e.g.,  елка is a spelling variant of ёлка  (Christmas tree), thus its pronunciation is 'yolkah. Note that the letter ё, as well as its spelling variant е is always stressed, so елка in the sense of Christmas tree is pronounced as 'yolkah with ta stress on the first syllable.In some cases such omitting of the dieresis happens in the middle of the word -- you have to just guess the complete spelling, e.g., четырехколесный is a spelling variant of  четырёхколёсный(four-wheeled), so a secondary stress will be on the first yo and primary stress on the second yo since the second part is the root and thus 'yo' in it must bear a stress, while the first part is only a prefix (not in formal grammatical sens, but only an auxiliary modifier of the main root, so only a secondary stress is left for it, while the main root obeys the general rule for yo to be always stressed.  )Now well, after a consonant in the word it is pronounceddifferently: usually it modifies the consonant to become "soft", i.e. palatalized.As far as I understand there are no palatalized consonants in English, so this effect is difficult to explain:as far as I understand, inMerry, M is kind of palatilized, which csn be denoted asmi or as m' unlike in Marry, or, compare manvs.men then место (place) is pronounced asmiesto, or, m'esto with M as in Merry Note how this is consistent with the name of the letter, ie, so it virtually adds a "soft sign", similar to i to the consonant ; I'd write the pronunciation ofMerry in Russian as мери. After a palatalized consonant the sound itself is pronounced with slight trace of a smile as in men in contrast to man, or as in "base", where to my ear, "b" gets palatalized, kind of "bieys", which I would write asбейс To avoid this palatalization effect the letter э is used instead, which is pronounced identically, but does not palatalize the preceding consonant, i.e it does not imply an i before it Now well, after a "hard" (non-palatalized) consonant, е is pronounced identically to э, as in send/"pen", (not as in "sand", "pan"), sorry if I get the pronunciation of these words wrong, English is not my language.It's Russian  .

It depends on the position of the letter in the word:

In word-initial position or after a vowel (in this regard the "soft signь and "had sign" ъ function as vowels, which is their historic origin), it's usually pronounced ye as in yes, for example. In fact, ye is the alphabetical name of this letter. 

E can also represent an alternate spelling of ё (yo): the dieresis is usually omitted, except in texts for children or foreigners. In such cases, word-initial (or after a vowel) е is pronounced like yo in New York. There's no way to predict this difference other than knowing the actual pronunciation of the word, e.g., елка is a spelling variant of ёлка(Christmas tree), thus it's pronounced 'yolkah. 

Note that the letter ё, as well as its alternate spelling е, is always stressed, so елка in the sense of Christmas tree is pronounced as 'yolkah with the stress on the first syllable. In some cases, the dieresis is omitted from a ë in the middle of a word, and you just have to guess the actual pronunciation. For instance, четырехколесный is a alternate spelling of четырёхколёсный(four-wheeled), so the first yo has secondary stress, and the second yo has primary stress since the second part is the root and thus this 'yo' is necessarily stressed, while the first part is only a prefix (not in the formal grammatical sense, but only an auxiliary modifier of the main root, so only it can only take a secondary stress, while the main root obeys the general rule that yo is always stressed.)

After a consonant, e is pronounced differently: it usually modifies the consonant, making it "soft", i.e. palatalized. As far as I know, there are no palatalized consonants in English, so this effect is difficult to explain. Compare man vs.men, then место (place) is pronounced asmiesto, or, m'esto with the [m] as in merry. Note how this is consistent with the name of the letter, ie, so it virtually adds a "soft sign", similar to i to the consonant; I'd write the pronunciation ofmerry in Russian as мери. 

After a palatalized consonant, the sound itself is pronounced with a slight trace of a smile, as in men as opposed to man, or as in "base", in which, to my ear, "b" is palatalized, kind of "bieys", which I would write asбейс. In order to avoid this palatalizing effect, the letter э is used instead, which is pronounced identically, but does not palatalize the preceding consonant, i.e. it doesn't insert an i before it.

After a "hard" (non-palatalized) consonant, е is pronounced identically to э, as in send/"pen", (not as in "sand", "pan"), sorry if I get the pronunciation of these words wrong, English is not my language — Russian is.

It depends on the position of the letter in the word: In word-initial position or after a vowel (in this regard the "soft signь and "had sign" ъ function as vowels, which is their historic origin ), it is usually pronounced as ye in yese.g., in particular ye is the name of the letter in the alphabet. e can also be a spelling variant of ё (yo): the dieresis is usually omitted, except in texts for chidren or foreigners. In such cases, word-initial (or after a vowel) е is pronounced as 'io' iniodine or yo in New York -- there is no way to predict this difference, other than knowing the complete spelling of the word, i.g., елка is a spelling variant of ёлка (Christmas tree), thus its pronunciation is 'yolkah. Note that the letter ё, as well as its spelling variant е is always stressed, so елка in the sense of Christmas tree is pronounced as 'yolkah with ta stress on the first syllable.In some cases such omitting of the dieresis happens in the middle of the word -- you have to just guess the complete spelling, e.g., четырехколесный is a spelling variant of четырёхколёсный(four-wheeled), so a secondary stress will be on the first yo and primary stress on the second yo since the second part is the root and thus 'yo' in it must bear a stress, while the first part is only a prefix (not in formal grammatical sens, but only an auxiliary modifier of the main root, so only a secondary stress is left for it, while the main root obeys the general rule for yo to be always stressed. )Now well, after a consonant in the word it is pronounceddifferently: usually it modifies the consonant to become "soft", i.e. palatalized.As far as I understand there are no palatalized consonants in English, so this effect is difficult to explain:as far as I understand, inMerry, M is kind of palatilized, which csn be denoted asmi or as m' unlike in Marry, or, compare manvs.men then место (place) is pronounced asmiesto, or, m'esto with M as in Merry Note how this is consistent with the name of the letter, ie, so it virtually adds a "soft sign", similar to i to the consonant ; I'd write the pronunciation ofMerry in Russian as мери. After a palatalized consonant the sound itself is pronounced with slight trace of a smile as in men in contrast to man, or as in "base", where to my ear, "b" gets palatalized, kind of "bieys", which I would write asбейс To avoid this palatalization effect the letter э is used instead, which is pronounced identically, but does not palatalize the preceding consonant, i.e it does not imply an i before it Now well, after a "hard" (non-palatalized) consonant, е is pronounced identically to э, as in send/"pen", (not as in "sand", "pan"), sorry if I get the pronunciation of these words wrong, English is not my language.It's Russian .

It depends on the position of the letter in the word: In word-initial position or after a vowel (in this regard the "soft signь and "had sign" ъ function as vowels, which is their historic origin ), it is usually pronounced as ye in yese.g., in particular ye is the name of the letter in the alphabet. e can also be a spelling variant of ё (yo): the dieresis is usually omitted, except in texts for chidren or foreigners. In such cases, word-initial (or after a vowel) е is pronounced as 'io' iniodine or yo in New York -- there is no way to predict this difference, other than knowing the complete spelling of the word, e.g., елка is a spelling variant of ёлка (Christmas tree), thus its pronunciation is 'yolkah. Note that the letter ё, as well as its spelling variant е is always stressed, so елка in the sense of Christmas tree is pronounced as 'yolkah with ta stress on the first syllable.In some cases such omitting of the dieresis happens in the middle of the word -- you have to just guess the complete spelling, e.g., четырехколесный is a spelling variant of четырёхколёсный(four-wheeled), so a secondary stress will be on the first yo and primary stress on the second yo since the second part is the root and thus 'yo' in it must bear a stress, while the first part is only a prefix (not in formal grammatical sens, but only an auxiliary modifier of the main root, so only a secondary stress is left for it, while the main root obeys the general rule for yo to be always stressed. )Now well, after a consonant in the word it is pronounceddifferently: usually it modifies the consonant to become "soft", i.e. palatalized.As far as I understand there are no palatalized consonants in English, so this effect is difficult to explain:as far as I understand, inMerry, M is kind of palatilized, which csn be denoted asmi or as m' unlike in Marry, or, compare manvs.men then место (place) is pronounced asmiesto, or, m'esto with M as in Merry Note how this is consistent with the name of the letter, ie, so it virtually adds a "soft sign", similar to i to the consonant ; I'd write the pronunciation ofMerry in Russian as мери. After a palatalized consonant the sound itself is pronounced with slight trace of a smile as in men in contrast to man, or as in "base", where to my ear, "b" gets palatalized, kind of "bieys", which I would write asбейс To avoid this palatalization effect the letter э is used instead, which is pronounced identically, but does not palatalize the preceding consonant, i.e it does not imply an i before it Now well, after a "hard" (non-palatalized) consonant, е is pronounced identically to э, as in send/"pen", (not as in "sand", "pan"), sorry if I get the pronunciation of these words wrong, English is not my language.It's Russian .