American English - IH [ɪ] Vowel - How to make the IH Vowel

In this American English pronunciation

video, we’re going to go over how to

pronounce the IH as in SIT vowel.

This vowel can be a challenge for non-

native speakers. The tendency is to

replace it with the EE vowel. But for

the IH vowel, the jaw drops more, so the

tongue isn’t as close to the roof of the

mouth. Let’s study the mouth position.

There’s a relaxed jaw drop. The tip of

the tongue stays forward, lightly

touching the back of the bottom front

teeth. The top, front part of the tongue

arches up towards the roof of the

mouth.

Let’s see this vowel up close and in slow motion.

Relaxed jaw drop. Tongue tip forward.

Top, front part of the tongue arches up

towards the roof of the mouth. This

vowel is stressed in the word ‘fix’.

Same mouth position.

When this vowel is in a stressed word

or syllable, like ‘fix’, it has an up-down

shape, IH, fix, IH. When it’s in an

unstressed syllable, it will be flatter and

lower in pitch, quieter: ih, ih. It’s

unstressed in the word ‘office’, ih.

Let's take a look.

The mouth position is the same, but a

little more relaxed.

Let’s compare the stressed IH in ‘fix’, on

the top, to the unstressed IH in ‘office’.

Notice that the jaw is more dropped for

the stressed syllable. For the

unstressed IH, the jaw is less dropped.

This is typical. Unstressed vowels are

shorter, so there isn’t as much time to

make the full mouth position.

Stressed IH: fix, IH

Unstressed IH: office, ih

IH, ih, IH, ih

Example words. Repeat with me:

Which, instead, begin, divorce, busy, print.