E and I sounds – English Pronunciation

In this English Video lesson by special request Ronnie is explaining the pronunciation of words with “e” and “i” letters as these are really tough for the most ESL students.

The basic English vowels are “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”.

For people in Spanish, Japanese, Korean, etc. speaking countries, it’s very hard to learn the pronunciation of English sounds for the letters “e” and “i” as their native pronunciation of these letters is completely the opposite.

The pronunciation clue for you is:

e – eee

i – eye

The vowels combinations “ea” and “ee” are pronounced the same like “ee” (the double “e” sound). And the words ending with “it” are pronounced like “it”.

Check out the video for the pronunciation of following example words:

beat – bit

heat – hit

meet – mitt

feet – fit

sheet – shit

Note that some of the words could have the different spelling but the exact same pronunciation, like “meet” and “meat” (I would meet you at the station. I like to eat meat.)

And, of course, be careful with the last one. Having learned to pronounce this word right, you’d better remove it from your vocabulary completely. Be nice guys and gals!