Hello again in this lesson will keep working on the short i sound and will learn to distinguish it from
another very similar sound.
The long easy
the short eye is a difficult sound for many to hear but it's easy to identify since its spelling is
generally very consistent.
It's almost always spelled with a single I.
Let's take a look at some examples.
Will Fingo six considering all of these words are spelled with one eye and a syllable.
You may occasionally find words with the short eyes sound that are actually spelled with a y.
This is not a very common spelling but you do find it once in a while for example system myth GM and
mystery
and there are some very strange words that are fairly common that have completely different vowel letters
that are pronounced with a short eye.
Now these are big exceptions to the rule.
Let's take a look.
The word women that O in women is pronounced as a short eye.
Women.
Now this is the plural right.
This is for more than one woman for two for 10 for 100 women been
business.
Miss and busy known each of those words the red vowel is the one that is pronounced as a short.
I want to point out the word business.
Business is another one of those words that has a missing middle syllable.
The I in the middle of the word is not pronounced at all in this word becomes two syllables.
It's because this business and just a quick note the IPA symbol for the short eye is a capital letter
I.
Now let's compare the short eye to the sound which is a long e.
This sound is often substituted for the short eyes sound by many non-native speakers.
Most languages seem to have this long tense sound but it is often not as long and not as tense in other
languages as it is in English.
This is usually not a problem however but I bring this up because it is in a few words.
We have three common dirty words in English that can easily be said by accident.
If you're not careful with your pronunciation of the long e let's compare the two side by side long
and short I both our front vowels.
Which means that your tongue is pressed against your lower front teeth.
Again let's review the short i quite quickly.
Your mouth is slightly open.
Your muscles are relaxed.
This is one of the key components to this sound.
It must be relaxed.
Relax all your muscles.
You should have no tension at all including in your tongue.
Relax and soften your tongue.
Your lips are relaxed also.
They are not rounded.
They are not smiling.
The ear is pronounced like this.
Air its typical spelling again is one single eye.
Now let's compare that to the long A.
The IPA symbol for the long is a lower case i notice in this sound your mouth is almost closed.
Your muscles are all very tense.
All of your jaw your tongue is tight and tense the lips are spread into a smile.
The typical spellings for this sound are the EPA and a Y at the end of words.
So let me give you a quick example between the two.
The first one air air.
Take a look at my face and how relaxed it is and how low pitched that sounds.
Now take a look at the long e.
Notice my face.
He knew very clearly see a big smile.
You see a lot of tension in my face and it sounds higher pitch.
It's a longer sound so easy as compared to ear the ear the ear the mouth position is similar but the
huge difference here is relaxed versus tense.
Now I want to do a side by side comparison of very similar words.
The only difference in these words is the vowel sound.
The words in the left hand column all have short eyes.
The words in the right hand column have long e.
Now take a look at my mouth and listen as I say each pair of words so you can see and hear the difference.
Notice the difference in my mouth opening.
It is very subtle.
Eat is much larger.
It sounds longer as well.
Binde bead Ben Bede
Phil feel Phil feel
10.
Teen 10 teen now I want to warn you about those dirty words.
Don't accidentally say something you don't mean to say.
So the ones with the little star next to them are all bad words in English.
All right so let's be prepared.
But we're the non-native speaker tends to get into trouble here is not pronouncing the long the long
enough and tense enough for the native speaker to hear the difference between these words.
So here our problem is actually with the long ears sound which most of you have in your native language.
But remember the English version tends to be tenser and longer.
So let's go ahead and do them together.
Pardon my language sometimes in English we actually say Pardon my French when we say a dirty word kind
of a funny expression but pardon my French.
Let's go ahead and do the words side by side.
The first one the bad word bitch bitch.
The good word beat.
Be lengthened that.
Make sure there is a lot of tension in your mouth.
B.
All right back to the bad word.
Shit shit.
And the good word.
Sheet.
Sheet laying out a light sheet.
Bedward Yes.
Good word.
Peace peace.
So I hope in each of those you've actually noticed visually what's happening in my mouth and face you'll
notice for those long words you're seeing a lot larger mouth opening you're seeing my teeth a lot more
pain.
That is Kanchan that's in my muscles my face muscles and my tongue muscle as well.
Good luck with those words.
Now let's do some more auditory discrimination.
So we're training your ear to hear the difference between these two sounds.
So I have several sentences now for you for practice in each sentence has two very similar words inside
them right so you circle which one the here whether it's the first or the second.
The first ones all have a short I sound a second one has a long E each sound.
So which d here I need some pens.
I need some bands
he beat his opponent he beat his opponent.
Don't touch my heel don't touch my heel.
He had his will redone he had his will redone
why.
Tim is amazing.
My Tim is amazing.
Do you want these.
Do you want these
rewind the video and keep listening until you're confident you have the correct answers.
This is going to be difficult to hear.
You will need to listen to it again and again and again and then check your answers and the answer key.
If you got any wrong listen again this can definitely be a hard sound to distinguish if you're not used
to it.
Don't give up.
Keep practicing a little bit more practice for you on this sound.
I want you to write in the correct IPA symbol above the short i in the long e words.
Let me give you some examples here.
Please sit in the middle seat.
All right please.
Has a long enough.
So you're going to write a lowercase i lowercase.
I again is the IPA symbol for the uppercase I the Big I is the IPA symbol for it.
The short line.
So please.
Is he so long long he said is a short.
I in short I.
Middle of a short i and seat is a long Let's do another.
The team will eat at six in the evening.
That team will eat at six in the evening.
Team as long will is a short.
I eat along a six as a short i.
In short I Eve is a long way and Ning is a short i.
You'll find more sentences like this in the workbook.
Keep practicing and I'll see you soon in the next lesson.
Thanks for watching.