Pronuncian Lessons

Sound

English Pronunciation

Vowels: short i /ɪ/

Listen to the short i sound

How to pronounce the short i sound

The lips are relaxed and the central/front area of the tongue is in the central/high area of the mouth for this sound. The overall neutrality and relaxed tongue and lip position is why it is one of the pronunciations used for unstressed vowel, schwa. (See Schwa Lesson.)

short i illustration

Common short i spellings

spelling example audio other pronunciations for spelling

consonant-i-consonant (CVC rule) it
lip
spin

none

[1] i spelling followed by the letter r
When the consonant following the letter i is the letter r (as in the words stir and sir), the sound is usually pronounced as the schwa+r instead of the short i sound followed by the r sound (see the r-controlled vowels lesson for more details).

The short i sound in suffixes

short i sound in suffixes

-ate suffix^[2] -ed suffix^[3]

accurate padded

delicate celebrated

unfortunate landed

literate traded

passionate skated

[2] The -ate suffix is pronounced with a short i sound only when the word is being used as a noun or a verb. (See -ate suffix lesson for the alternative pronunciation.)

It should be noted that words that contain the -ate suffix are stressed on the third from last syllable.

[3] The -ed suffix is pronounced with a short i sound only when the sound before the -ed is a t sound or a d sound. (See -ed ending lesson for the alternative pronunciations.)