Minimal pairs: /ɪ/ and /e/

The vowels /ɪ/ and /i/ are variants of one category whose use depends on the position of the vowel in a word. They are not interchangeable, however: it is impossible for speakers to pronounce /i/ instead of /ɪ/ in native English in any environment. 

Ex. I. Look at the following words containing the short vowel /ɪ/ and find their counterparts containing the short vowel /e/.

a. bill/Bill, bin, bit, bid, bliss   b. Brit, din, fill, fins, fitter   c. gin, git, gist, hill   d. Jill, kin, lid, list   e. mill, miss, mint, nick/Nick   f. nil, nit/knit, pig   g. pick, pin, Pippa, pit
h. rich, rid, rip, river, since   i. sit, sill, will, whipped, wrist   j. win, wince, whist, wit

Ex. II. Which words contain the vowel /i/? How is it usually spelt?

winner, lucky, firm, happy, chimpanzee, kitty, print, edgy, mill, witty, ginger, giddy, hill, wintry, binge, study, dear, womanly, hear, daily, greatest, weekly, birth, monthly, limp, thirty, thirteen, forty, fourteen, fifty

KEY
I. a. bell, Ben, bet, bed, bless; b. Brett, den, fell, Fens, feta (cheese); c. Jen, get, jest, hell; d. gel, Ken, led, lest; e. Mel, mess, meant, neck; f. knell/Nell, net, peg; g.peck, pen, pepper/Peppa, pet; h. wretch, red, rep, revver (engine), sense; i. set, sell, well, wept, rest; j. when, whence, west, wet

II. lucky, happy, kitty, edgy, witty, giddy, wintry, study, womanly, daily, weekly, monthly, thirty, forty, fifty
The usual spelling is <y>.

Minimal pairs: /iː/ and /ɪ/

A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ in terms of just one contrastive sound. In other words, they would be homophones (words pronounced identically) if it weren't for just one sound. For example, the words ship and sheep are a minimal pair, because the only sound that makes their pronunciation different is the vowel: ship has /ɪ/ while sheep contains /iː/. Here I omit technical terms such as phoneme or allophone or a discussion whether a long vowel can be treated as two vowel sounds rather than one since this is not a post about linguistics.

Ex. I. The words written below contain the short /ɪ/ sound. Find their counterparts containing long /iː/.

a. bin, bit, biz   b. did, dim, dip  c. fill, fist, fizz   d. gin, grid, grin, grit   e. hid, hip, hit   f. ill, is he (spoken fast)
g. kill, kin, kipper, knit   h. lid, lip, list, live (verb)   i. mid, mill  

Ex. II. The words written below contain the long /iː/ sound. Find their counterparts containing short /ɪ/.

a. kneel, peat, peak, peal/peel, peep   b. read, ream, reap, seal, seat, seen, seep   c. teal, team, teen, weep, ween, wheat, wheeze



KEY
I. a. bean/been, beat/beet, bees; b. deed, deem, deep; c. feel, feast, fees; d. Jean/Gene, greed, green, greet; e. heed, heap, heat; f. eel, easy; g. keel, keen, keeper, neat; h. lead (verb), leap, least, leave; i. mead, meal

II. a. nil, pit, pick, pill, pip; b. rid, rim, rip, sill, sit, sin, sip; c. till, Tim, tin, whip, win, wit, wiz

Pronunciation of the letter "y"

Ex. Look at the following words containing the letter "y" and put them in groups according to the sound that the letter "y" represents (sometimes together with a letter next to it).

1. /ɪ/ 2. /aɪ/ 3. /i/ 4. /eɪ/ 5. /j/

Aberystwyth, by, cry, deny, gym, flirty, happy, lucky, obey, Powys, sashay away, scruffy, stray, trolley, try, yeti, yonder, yucky


KEY
1. /ɪ/ Aberystwyth, gym, Powys,
2. /aɪ/ by, try, cry, deny
3. /i/ flirty, happy, lucky, scruffy, trolley, yucky (second "y")
4. /eɪ/ obey, sashay away, stray
5. /j/ yeti, yucky (first "y")

Pronunciation of digraphs beginning with the letter "a"

Ex. Look at the following words containing the letter "a" and put them in groups according to the sound that the digraph beginning with an "a" represents. The options include short vowels, long vowels and diphthongs.

1. /ɑː/ 2. /ɔː/ 3. /aʊ/ 4. /eɪ/ 5. /eə/ 6. /iː/ 7. /ɒ/

aardvark
aerial, algae,encyclopaedia, maelstrom
gait, hair, lair, maim
chaos, Laos, Taoism
auburn, auction, Australia, authority

KEY
1. /ɑː/ aardvark 2. /ɔː/ auburn, auction, authority 3. /aʊ/ Laos, Taoism
4. /eɪ/ chaos /'keɪɒs/, gait, maelstrom, maim,
5. /eə/ aerial (the second "a" is /ə/), hair, lair
6. /iː/ algae, encyclopaedia
7. /ɒ/ Australia

When in doubt, I consulted the Cambridge Dictionary at dictionary.cambridge.org.

Pronunciation of the letter "a"

English spelling is famous for its complex rules and the different ways in which it is connected to pronunciation. In today's exercise we are dealing with the pronunciation of "a".

Ex. 1. Look at the following words containing the letter "a" and put them in groups according to the sound that the letter "a" represents (sometimes together with letters next to it). The options include short vowels, the schwa, long vowels and diphthongs.

1. /ɑː/   2. /æ/   3. /ə/   4. /eɪ/   5. /eə/

above, air, among, ago, baker, bass, class, dance, father, gran, grant, mat, mate, mare, mayor, nag, part, sofa, stare, start, state, tan


Ex. 2. How does the pronunciation of the stressed vowel change in the following words?

1. nation - national   2. status - statutory   3. class - classic/classical   4. mass - massive
5. photograph - photography (consider both o's and the a)   6. base - basic
7. compare - comparison   8. parent - parental (consider the a and the e)


KEY
Ex. 1. 
1. /ɑː/  dance, father, grant, part, start
2. /æ/   class, gran, mat, nag, tan
3. /ə/   above, among, ago, sofa,
4. /eɪ/  baker, bass, mate, state
5. /eə/ air, mare, mayor, stare

Ex. 2.
1. /eɪ/ - /æ/

2. /eɪ/ - /æ/
3. /ɑː/ - /æ/

4. /æ/ Correction: no change ("mass" does not have /ɑː/)

5. first "o" /əʊ/ - /ə/, second "o" /ə/ - /ɒ/, "a" /ɑː/ - /ə/

6. /eɪ/ no change

7. /eə/ - /æ/

8. "a" /eə/ - /ə/, "e" /ᵊ/ - /e/ (the upper index schwa means it is optional)

When in doubt, I used the Cambridge Dictionary at https://dictionary.cambridge.org.

Homophones 1

Ex. Which of these words are homophones, that is words pronounced the same but spelt differently? Some of the following words do not match other words. The default accent is RP.

air, aren't, aunt, bare, bear, beat, beer, beet, boar, boor, bore, caught, court, ere, feat, feet, flew, flu, flue, hair, hare, heir, here, hoard, horde, hour, Lear, leer, mast, moor, more, must, our, pair, Paul, pear, peer, pier, pole, Pole, poll, root, route, sandwich, sand witch, shore, soar, sore, sure, weather, wet, whet, whether

KEY

air - ere - heir; aren't - aunt; bare - bear; beat - beet; boar - bore (and 'boor' unless we pronounce it /bʊə/) caught - court; feat - feet; flew - flu - flue, hair - hare; hoard - horde; hour - our; Lear - leer; moor (unless 'moor' is /mʊə/) - more; pair - pear; peer - pier; pole - Pole - poll; root - route; shore - sure (unless 'sure' is /ʃʊə/), soar - sore, wet - whet, weather - whether
no pair: beer, here, mast, must, Paul, sandwich (no /d/); sand witch

Update /'ʌpdeɪt/

As you can see, I have posted very little over the past year. This is something I hope to change in the near future since I am going to start teaching British English phonetics in October. This means that I'll do my best to post as many pronunciation exercises as possible, focusing on issues that are particularly relevant to native speakers of Polish. Unfortunately, I won't be able to include recordings - you'll have to make do with other sources such as howjsay.com. Stay tuned for more.