Looking at the pattern "_a___e", I notice there are 6 letters with 'a' in position 2 and 'e' at the end. This matches many common English words like "nature", "marine", "castle", etc. The letter 'r' appears frequently in English words and is often found in words with this pattern. Since vowels 'a' and 'e' are already revealed, guessing a common consonant like 'r' has a good chance of success.