All vowels in English can be pronounced with either a short sound and or a long sound. For example: “paper” and “paternity”. Today, let’s work on the vowel “i” which tends to be difficult for French speakers. First, let’s review all English vowels together: a, e, i, o, u.
Short “i”, like SIT — Long “i”, like BIKE
Here are some words with the long “i” first, then the short “i”:
- file/fill
- mice/miss
- fight/fit
- night/knit
Short “i” sound, like SIT
imagine, engine, famine, pig, quick, bit, zip, hill, brick, sick
Long “i” sound, like BIKE
bike, stripe, file, night, bright, light, site, high, why, fly, apply, satisfy
Practice: make a sentence with the following words:
sit / site
hit / height
pin / pine
file / fill
fight / fit
Some words have both sounds in the same word: crisis [cry-sis]