Introduction
This is perhaps the most common of all minimal pair problems experienced by learners of English as a second language. It’s a very important sound pair to master because of the high frequency of the two sounds. Furthermore, there is a large number of minimal pairs, meaning that confusion of these sounds will cause you to misunderstand and be misunderstood.
What are the differences between /ɪ/ and /i:/?
Watch this video to find out what the differences are and to hear some example words contrasted (video 2.09 minutes).
Exercise 1: Contrasting the sounds
- Listen to the word pairs, focusing on the two different sounds.
- • Then repeat, again focusing on saying the different sounds for /ɪ/ and /i:/
- Focus on the short sound in the first word and the long sound in the second word.
| /ɪ/ (short) | /i:/ (long) | |
| sit | seat | |
| ship | sheep | |
| bit | beat | |
| slip | sleep | |
| lid | lead | |
| chip | cheap | |
| lip | leap | |
| bin | bean | |
| it | eat | |
| hit | heat | |
| bitch | beach |
Exercise 2: Listening
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the word you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
Exercise 3: Practice pronouncing the sounds.
Exercise 4: /ɪ/ versus /i:/minimal pair phone numbers.
Learners: Read the instructions in the slides.
- This game can be played alone or competitively with other learners.
- Click the > arrow to go to the next slide and the < arrow to go back to the previous slide.
- Teachers: Click the button below for instructions.
© Paul Smit 2006-2021