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American English minimal pairs

Minimal pairs: ship and sheep

/ɪ/vs/iː/

Hard for speakers of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Russian and Japanese, whose languages have one “i” sound where English has two.

The difference. For /iː/ spread your lips and hold the vowel; for /ɪ/ relax your mouth and keep it short.

Practice all pairs

15 word pairs

Say both words in each pair. If Tono colors one of them amber or red, that is the sound to work on.

Contrast sentences

Both sounds in one sentence: the real test of whether you can switch between them.

  1. Please do not sit in that seat. Practice
  2. Is it a ship or a sheep? Practice
  3. Those shoes do not fit my feet. Practice
  4. I will fill it if you feel like it. Practice

How to practice minimal pairs

  1. Listen to both words in Tono first, one after the other, until you can hear the difference.
  2. Say the pair slowly and exaggerate the difference. Check that both words come back green.
  3. Say the contrast sentences at normal speed. That is where the mix-up usually comes back.

Step-by-step help with these sounds: Ship or sheep: how to pronounce /ɪ/ and /iː/ in English

More minimal pairs

Spanish minimal pairsFrench minimal pairsGerman minimal pairs