{"id":64820,"date":"2021-03-17T12:38:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lingobest.com\/free-online-english-course\/?p=64820"},"modified":"2022-12-16T11:37:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T11:37:57","slug":"english-pronunciation-i-vowels-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lingobest.com\/free-online-english-course\/english-pronunciation-i-vowels-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pronounce \/\u026a\/ and \/i:\/ in English, Plus Exercises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Think about the words sit<\/em> and seat<\/em>. Do they sound different to you? Or the same? Try to say them out loud and pay attention to the sounds \u201ci\u201d and \u201cea\u201d. The same happens with live<\/em> and leave<\/em>. These two English vowel sounds are closely linked. If you struggle with making those sounds, don\u2019t you worry! It\u2019s common for English learners to have difficulties when making them, and this blog post will most certainly help you feel more confident when pronouncing these words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we\u2019ll review the vowel sounds in English<\/strong>, give you some examples of them with English words, and provide you with exercises that can be very helpful when studying the difference between \/\u026a\/ and \/i:\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recap: the basics of English pronunciation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember how many letters are in the English alphabet? That’s alright if not. There are 26 letters. Five of them are vowels<\/strong> (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 letters are consonants<\/strong> (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, letters are different from sounds. There are more than 40 vowel and consonant sounds in English. In some words, for example, the number of letters is the same as the number of sounds. Other times, two letters make one sound (green <\/em>for instance). And often, you\u2019ll find that some letters are silent, like the \u201ct\u201d in listen<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that can confuse English learners is when two words have the same spelling but different pronunciations<\/strong>. That happens with the words read<\/em> in the present tense and read<\/em> in the past tense. Also, some words have the same pronunciation but different spellings<\/strong>. That\u2019s the case with know<\/em> and no<\/em>. You can learn more about words like this with our post about homophones<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to review more basics of English pronunciation, read this blog post<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long vowel sound \/i:\/\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is a long sound that we make with the mouth spread, just like if we were smiling. You know why we say cheese when we smile? That\u2019s why, because it forces us to smile. We usually spell it \u201cee\u201d or \u201cea\u201d. Here are some examples for you to practice out loud. Listen to the audio to practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n