The English 'i' and 'e' are hard for some non-native speakers, because in many languages these letters sound much the same. In English however, there are four sounds that these two letters make, and two variations of those sounds depending on the final consonant of the word.
1. The long 'e' is pronounced by drawing your lips back and raising the back of your tongue.
Beet, greet, heat, meet, meat, sheet, fleet, succeed, impede, neat.
2. The long 'i' is pronounced like 'eye'.
Hide, slide, abide, deride, cried, implied.
3. The short 'e' is pronounced 'eh'.
Get, bet, relent (the second 'e' is a short 'e'), spent, implement, pen.
4. The short 'i' is pronounced by opening your throat and not moving your lips at all when pronouncing the vowel sound.
Bit, written, sit, refit, twit, lid, lift.
Variations on these sounds, as well as the sounds of any vowel, depend on the final consonant in a word.
Unvoiced (this means that they are softly spoken) final consonants (k, s, f, p, t, ch, sh) signal that the vowel sound should be fast and clear. (beef, sit, wish, grief, pep, which, sis)
Voiced (more distinctly spoken) final consonants (v, g, z, j, a ‘zh’ sound, b, d) signal that the vowel sound is drawn out a bit more. (lid, read, bob, beg)
It may sound strange to say that such small words can have intonation, or emphasis within them. You might think that is just possible in words of more than one syllable. But you would be wrong. The final consonant makes the difference. When you say ‘beef’ or ‘pep’, you should be making a single, quick sound. Now say ‘lid’ or ‘bib’ or ‘lead’. Notice how the vowel sound is a little longer? If you listen carefully when someone else pronounces these words, you can hear that there are two sounds in the vowel, one higher than the other. Say these words aloud, or listen while someone else says them. See the difference?
|
slav |
slap |
| rag | rat |
| led | letch |
| pap | pack |
| nez | neck |
