Minimal pairs: /e/ and /eɪ/

Ex. 1 Look at the following words containing the vowel /e/ and find their counterparts containing the diphthong /eɪ/.

bed, Ben, Bess, den, fell, gel, get, Jen, Ken, let, Mel, men, met, pen, red, rend, sell, tell, wed, well, when, wet, wreck, wren

Ex. 2 The following borrowings contain a final /-e/ in the original French. Which sound is used in English?

ballet, bouquet, chalet, crochet, duvet, fiancé(e), pâté, soirée, soufflé

KEY
1. bade, bane, base, Dane, fail, gaol/jail, gate, Jane, cane, late, mail/male, main/mane, mate, pain/pane, raid, rained, sale, tale, wade, wail, wane, wait, rake, rain

2. /-eɪ/ is pronounced because English phonology does not allow most short vowels to occur in the final position.

When in doubt in Exercise 2, I used the Cambridge Dictionary at dictionary.cambridge.org.

Weak forms

Some functional words exist in two forms: strong and weak. The strong form has a full vowel while in the weak form the vowel is reduced, e.g. to /ɪ/ or the schwa /ə/.

Ex. Write whether the underlined forms are strong or weak.

1. 'I have never been to Paris.' 'You have! We went there ten years ago.'
2. 'It was you who ate all the biscuits!' 'Me? What are you talking about?'
3. 'He is over there, on the chair.' 'Or is he?'
4. 'The woman we met is Brad Pitt's cousin.' 'The Brad Pitt's? It's incredible!'
5. 'Sheila can swim like a pro.' 'Yes, she can!'
6. 'Is my pencil on the shelf or under the sofa?' 'No, I said, "on the sofa".'
7. 'You simply must try it!' 'I'm full. I must've eaten too much earlier.'
8. 'Been is the past participle form of be.' 'All right. I've been told it's called the third verb form.'
9. 'I will be here tomorrow.' 'You will? I thought you were leaving at dawn.'
10. 'Meet me at five.' 'At five? Or after five?'

KEY
1. weak, strong, 2. strong, weak, 3. weak, strong, 4. weak, strong, 5. weak, strong, 6. weak, strong, 7. strong, weak, 8. strong, weak, 9. weak, strong, 10. weak, strong

Minimal pairs: /e/ and /ɜː/

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

bed, Ben, bet, Beth, bled, deck, en (letter), Fens, lend, lent/Lent, Ned, nest, sled, ten, tent, wed, wedding, weld, west

Ex. 2. Would the answers to Ex. 1 be pronounced differently in a rhotic accent? Provide examples of such accents.

KEY
1. bird, burn, Bert, birth, blurred, Dirk, earn/urn, ferns, learned, learnt, nerd, nursed, slurred, turn, turned, word, wording, world, worst
2. Yes, all of the answers to Ex. 1. would contain /r/ following /ɜː/ in a rhotic accent, e.g. that of Standard American English, Canadian English, Irish English or Scottish English. Some sources use the symbol /ɝ/ instead.

The spelling of words containing /ɜː/

The spelling of words containing /ɜː/ can be tricky for speakers of languages such as Polish. The exercise below deals with some commonly mispronounced words.

Ex. Write the following words transcribed in IPA using ordinary English spelling. Then put them in groups according to the spelling of the vowel  /ɜː/.

a. /wɜːk/ b. /wɜːd/ c. /wɜːld/ d. /wɜːst/ e. /ˈmɜːki/ f. /fɜː/ g. /fɜːm/ h. /lɜːn/ i. /bɜːθ/ j. /fɜːn/ k. /kɜːs/ l. /'wɜːʃɪp/ m. /ˈtɜːtl̩/ n. /tɜːm/ o. /ˈtɜːki/, p. /'dʒɜːməni/ q. /'dʒɜːni/, r. /dʒɜːnl̩/

KEY

a. work, b. word, c. world, d. worst, e. murky, f. fir/fur, g. firm, h. learn, i. birth, j. fern, k. curse, l. worship, m. turtle, n. term, o. turkey/Turkey, p. Germany, q. journey, r. journal

EAR - learn

ER - fern, term, Germany

IR - fir, firm, birth

OR - work, word, world, worst, worship

OUR - journey, journal

UR - murky, fur, curse, turtle, turkey/Turkey