ESL Blogs

The Long i Sound /i:/

Welcome to our second pronunciation lesson!  Can you remember what we discussed a few days ago?  In my previous blog, we learned about the short vowel sound called - the schwa /ə/, pronounced ‘ah’ or ‘a’. This is the most important sound in English. If you haven’t read my blog yet, please check out here.

This time, I’d like to share with you some information about another vowel sound – the long i sound pronounced /i:/(ee). It’s also a part of the monophthong which means a single vowel sound. You can watch a video below from the BBC Learning English showing how to pronounce the /i:/ sound. Listen closely and keep playing the video until it becomes easier for you to pronounce it. Actually, it’s ‘a piece of cake’ to imitate it!

If you’ve been using a variety of dictionaries, you would notice different symbols for the long i sound /i:/ . Don’t get confused if you see this symbol /i/ because this is a short vowel /ɪ/ sound as in ‘ih’ for insist, tip and kit. This symbol is usually found in American dictionary such as Merriam-Webster.

Since we’re learning British English here, we’ll use this /i:/ symbol for the long i vowel sound as in ‘easy’ /ˈiːzi/ and ‘sheep’ /ʃiːp/. Got it?

Pronunciation Challenge

Now let’s proceed to the pronunciation challenge. You may record these words and sentence if you want to. The letters in bold indicate the stress for the /i:/ sound.

Chilean   seized    cheesecake   easily.

The Chilean boy seized the cheesecake easily.

IPA Challenge

Can you translate the following pronunciation information into standard English words? Write your answers on the comment box below.

Example :   /ˌiː zi ˈ piː zi/ easy-peasy

1. /ːːiː θiː ˈ əʊpiː ːə/
2. /biː tʃ/
3. /ˈfrːiː dəm/
4. /ˈ pːiː ənɪst/
5. /tʌkˈ siː dəʊ/
6. /ˌ siː ːniˈ ɒrəti/
7. /ˈ biːˌ haɪv/
8. /ˈ wiː lˌ bærəʊ/
9. /ˈ æθliː ːt/
10.  /ˌ skɪtsəʊˈfrːiː niə/

How’s the lesson? Have you found this easy to remember? I hope you would be able to perfect this one. I’m looking forward to your participation. Believe that you can do this! Good luck! :)