English pronunciation guide
Ship or sheep: the English /ɪ/ and /iː/ sounds
Ship and sheep, live and leave, fit and feet. English separates a short, relaxed /ɪ/ from a long, tense /iː/. Most languages have only one “i” sound, somewhere between the two, so both words come out the same. Length helps, but the real difference is the shape of your mouth.
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Short i
Short and relaxed. Tongue a little lower, lips loose, jaw slightly open.
ship, sit, live, fill
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Long ee
Long and tense. Lips spread as if smiling, tongue high and forward.
sheep, seat, leave, feel
How to make the sounds
- For /iː/, spread your lips into a small smile and push your tongue high and forward. Hold it: this vowel is long.
- For /ɪ/, relax everything. Let your jaw drop a little and your lips go loose. It is shorter, and it sounds a little like a quick “eh”.
- Say the pairs slowly and exaggerate: a long, smiling “seat”, then a short, lazy “sit”.
- Both vowels get shorter before /p/, /t/ and /k/, so in words like ship and sheep the mouth shape matters more than the length.
American dictionaries often write the long vowel as /i/ without the length mark. It is the same sound.
Minimal pairs
- ship sheep
- live leave
- fit feet
- sit seat
- hill heel
- chip cheap
- bit beat
- still steal
15 minimal pairs: ship and sheep
Tricky words with these sounds: women
Practice with real sentences
Tap Practice to open the sentence in Tono, listen to it, and say it. Scored against the US English model.
- This ship is big enough for the sheep.Practice
- Please sit in this seat.Practice
- Did you live there, or did you just leave?Practice
- My feet do not fit in these shoes.Practice
- Fill the kettle and heat the milk.Practice
- He will eat it with a little cheese.Practice
- We need six more pieces.Practice
- Is it easy to reach the hill?Practice
Common mistakes
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Everything sounds like /iː/
Common among speakers of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Russian and Japanese: “it is” becomes “eet ees”. Relax your lips and shorten the vowel for /ɪ/.
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Length without shape
Some learners stretch /iː/ but keep the tongue in the same place for both. A long vowel with the wrong shape still sounds wrong. Smile for /iː/, relax for /ɪ/.