English Pronunciation: Common Minimal Pairs | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello, everyone.

I’m George,

and today we’re going to look at something

that most learners of English find very difficult.

The difference between /i/

and /i:/. If you master these sounds,

your pronunciation will become much clearer

and you won’t make mistakes like this:

How was your trip in London?

Yes, it was very good.

I saw a giant battle-sheep in the River Thames.

A battle-sheep?

Yes, it was a sheep with big guns.

Hmm, a battle-sheep with big guns.

Cool.

Watch what happens

to my mouth when I make the /i:/ sound. /i:/.

Now, watch what happens when I make the /i/ sound. /i/.

For both sounds,

my tongue touches my bottom teeth,

but for the longer /i:/ sound, my mouth becomes wider,

so that I’m almost smiling.

For example, /i:/, beat.

/i:/, seat.

Whereas, when I make the shorter /i/ sound,

my mouth doesn’t move much at all.

For example, /i/, bit.

/i/, sit.

Okay, so now we’re going to have a quiz.

I’m going to say one

of the words and you have to guess which word I’m saying.

For example, bin.

The answer was bin.

For the actual quiz, I’m going to cover my mouth.

Are you ready?

Let’s go.

Seat.

Bit.

Gin.

How did you do?

If you didn’t do so well,

don’t worry, you can practise quizzing your friends,

and this will force you to think

about the differences between the sounds.

You can also practice with this tongue-twister.

Pete bit each bit of meat.

So you can say it faster and faster,

and you’ll improve in no time.

Thank you very much for watching.

If you enjoyed this lesson,

don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel.

If you’re interested

in improving your pronunciation further,

check out the Cambridge University Press coursebook,

Ship or Sheep, linked in the description below.