Pronounce English Accurately

Video Text

Vowels 1 and 2: long /iː/ versus short /ɪ/

Vowel Number One is /iː/, as in 'feet', 'lead' and 'me'.

It contrasts with vowel number two, /ɪ/, as in 'fit' and 'bid'.

/iː/ is a long vowel - there's the length mark - and it is made with spread lips - smiling as in 'cheese' - and the blade of the tongue is as high up as it can be, very nearly touching the hard palate.

The front of the tongue is raised to a position near fully close and fully front. The lips are spread.

/iː/ is the letter name of the letter 'E'.

It is long and tense and before /l/ is pronounced as a slight diphthong [iə]: 'feel' sounds like [fiəl] not [fiːl].

If I go a tiny bit higher /iː/ turns into approximant [j] and then fricative [ç].

The ARCHETYPAL SPELLINGS of /iː/ are 'ee', as in 'feed' and 'meet' and 'ea' as in 'feat' and 'meat'.

Also common are words with 'e' plus one consonant letter plus what children are taught in school is the magic 'e'.

'Magic e' is the term given in some primary teaching methods to explain how a final 'e' in the spelling changes the sound of the vowel earlier in the word.

Kids are taught that 'magic e' makes a letter say its name.

So for example 'hop' compared with 'hope' - the magic 'e' changes the short /ɒ/ vowel into the so-called 'long O', the name of the letter 'O'.

By adding the final 'e', 'pan' becomes 'pane' /peɪn/, 'Sam' becomes 'same' /seɪm/, and 'rat' becomes 'rate'.

Although it is an absolutely basic rule of English spelling this can sometimes be difficult for speakers with a different alphabet or different orthographic rules, especially when they come from a language which is spelt phonetically.

Examples of words with this 'magic e' are 'these' and all the words ending in '-ese', like 'Chinese', 'Japanese', 'Vietnamese', 'delete', 'complete', and 'theme'.

Other spellings of /iː/ include:

'i' in words of French origin such as 'machine', 'police', 'marine', 'magazine', 'prestige', 'routine'

'ie' as in 'field' and 'siege', 'thief' and 'thieve', 'grief' and 'grieve'

'ei' as in 'receive', 'perceive', 'conceive, 'deceive', 'deceit', 'conceit', and 'ceiling'

To help with knowing whether a word is spelt 'ei' or 'ie', we have the useful spelling rule 'i before e except after c'.

So that gives us 'field' and 'brief' and 'piece' and 'diesel' - all spelt 'ie' as there is no preceding letter 'c' - versus 'receive' and 'deceive' - all spelt 'ei' as they follow the letter 'c'.

But there are exceptions: 'seize' is spelt 'ei' even though there is no preceding 'c', as is 'caffeine'.

Generally the rule works, though - it's useful.

We have 'ey' as in 'key' and 'honey', 'money', ' 'donkey', 'monkey', 'pulley' trolley', 'turkey', and 'valley',

and, breaking all the rules, the 'eo' in 'people' and the 'ay' in 'quay', which is homophonous with 'key'.

Some more examples of /iː/:

'me'

'tree'

'sea, see'

'plea'

'fleas'.

As always, a voiceless consonant after the vowel clips the preceding vowel shorter; a voiced one lengthens the preceding vowel;.

'feet' - voiceless, shorter vowel

'feed' - voiced, longer vowel

'seat'- 'seed'

'beat' -'bead'

Now /ɪ/.

/ɪ/ is a short vowel - there is no length mark in the IPA - and the quality of the vowel is different, hence the use of a different symbol.

The front of the tongue rises to a frontal, closed position, but this is much less extreme than for /iː/. Unlike /iː/, which is long and tense, /ɪ/ is short and lax.

It is a monophthong and is produced with the lips just slightly spread.

Hear the difference between them:

/iː - ɪ - iː - ɪ - iː - ɪ - iː/

You can see my face is much tenser for /iː/, much more relaxed for /ɪ/.

/iː/ is much, much longer; /ɪ is clipped and short.

The blade of the tongue is still quite high, and frontal, but not as high and tense as for /iː/.

The archetypal spelling of /ɪ/ is the letter 'i', as in 'fit' and 'lid' and 'think', but there are a lot of other spellings.

With 'i': 'stick', 'swim', grip', 'pit', 'tin', 'fish', etc., etc..

Letter 'i' followed by a single consonant plus 'e' should normally be /aɪ/ as in 'hive' and 'live', but an exception is 'live'

Letter 'i' before a single consonant and then another syllable would be expected to be /aɪ/ as in 'arrival', but in frigid' and 'livid' it is /ɪ/.

Spelt with 'y': 'gym', 'gymnasium', 'symbol', 'sycamore', 'syringe', 'syrup', and 'typical'.

CUT OUT: In unstressed syllables, such as the first syllable in 'decide', there is FREE VARIATION between /ɪ/ and vowel number 6, the schwa sound /ə/.

So 'decide' can be pronounced either /dɪˈsaɪd/ or /dəˈsaɪd/, 'decision' as either /dɪˈsɪʒən/ or /dəˈsɪʒən/ and native speakers normally don't even notice the difference.

Most words ending in unstressed '-et', like 'bucket', 'hatchet', 'jacket', 'packet', 'planet' and 'lancet' are always pronounced /-ɪt/, not /-et/.

A few, like 'facet', can be either /-ɪt/ or /-et/

and you have to watch out for those which are pronounced in a French way, with /-eɪ/, like 'bidet', and 'valet'.

and those which are stressed on the final syllable, like 'Tibet', and 'cadet', which are pronounced /-et/.

Unusually, 'sherbet' is pronounced /-ət/.

An anomalous pronunciation is the 'e' in English, /ˈɪŋ.glɪʃ/, not /ˈeŋ.glɪʃ/, and 'England'.

The word 'sieve' looks like it should be pronounced /siːv/, with vowel number one, but is actually /sɪv/, with short vowel number two, /ɪ/.

A strange pronunciation is that both vowels in the word 'women' are number two, /ɪ/: /ˈwɪm.ɪn/.

Also the letter 'u' in 'busy' /ˈbɪz.i/ 'business' /ˈbɪz.nɪs/ is /ɪ/.

Most words ending in '-age', words like 'village', are pronounced /-ɪdʒ/.

There are many examples including 'village', 'image', 'baggage', 'manage', 'courage', 'message', 'package', 'wreckage', and many more. Also the place name 'Wantage'.

'Marriage' is /ˈmæ.rɪdʒ/, with only two syllables.

A smaller number of words ending in '-age' retain a more French-like pronunciation, as we saw earlier when we looked at the sound /ʒ/:

'massage' /ˈmæs.ɑːʒ/ or /ˈmæs.ɑːdʒ/, /məˈ.sɑːʒ/ or /məˈsɑːdʒ/,

'mirage' /ˈmɪ.rɑːʒ/ or /mɪˈrɑːʒ/,

'camouflage' /ˈkæ.mə.flɑːʒ/ or /ˈkæ.mə.flɑːdʒ/.

Another strange spelling/pronunciation combination is the letter 'a' in 'orange', which has number two vowel, /ɪ/, in the second syllable.

Words ending in '-y' like 'happy' are neither /ɪ/ nor /iː/, but somewhere in between. It's not /ˈhæp.ɪ/ nor /ˈhæp.iː/, but /ˈhæp.i/, with the tight quality of /iː/, but shorter like /ɪ/.

There are a very large number of minimal pairs distinguished only by the /iː - ɪ/ contrast.

Some examples:

'fit' /fɪt/ and 'feet' /fiːt/,

'ship' - /ʃɪp/ and 'sheep' - /ʃiːp/,

'hip' - /hɪp/ and 'heap' /hiːp/

'bin' - /bɪn/ and 'bean' /biːn/

'chick' - /tʃɪk/ and 'cheek' - /tʃiːk/

'chip' - /tʃɪp/ and 'cheap, cheep' - /tʃiːp/

This is a vital contrast to be able to perceive and to make as it's at the core of English phonology.

If your language has the same contrast - German does for example - then it will be no problem at all. Most languages do not, so it is much more likely is that your language does not have this contrast but has one vowel with a quality rather like /iː/ but with no equivalent of short /ɪ/. In that case you will need to work on perception and production.

In the lesson resources for this lesson there's a link to perception exercises for further practice on the /iː - ɪ/ distinction.

Practice sentences with /iː/ and /ɪ/:

Can we all meet here at three?

I'd like to speak with the queen bee, please.

Richard's the richest phonetician there is - I wish!

Tim will give an interesting interview at six.