The /ɪ/ Sound | Learn English | British English Pronunciation

All about the /ɪ/ sound on the British English IPA chart.
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The short vowel sound /ɪ/ might look like the letter I, but it is not pronounced like the name of the letter I, it is pronounced as /ɪ/. A short sound.
Now, it may not sound like the names of any of the letters of the alphabet that represent vowels, but it does look like the letter I, and it is the letter I that we most commonly use to spell the sound /ɪ/.
You can most clearly hear the short vowel sound, /ɪ/, in short monosyllabic words that have only the one vowel sound, /ɪ/, in them, like big, dim, fib, hit, lip, pig, rib, sin, tip, wit, zip.
Though most do, not all three letter words that have the letter I in the middle have the /ɪ/ sound. Take the word sir for instance.
/sɜ:/
Notice that the sound /ɪ/ can be spelt in several different ways, using different combinations of the vowel letters, a, e, i, o, u.
The most common spelling is with the letter I as we have seen.
As we saw with the word sir, a letter I in a word is not always pronounced as /ɪ/. Examples of other pronunciations can be found in the words machine, fire, and special.
/məˈʃi:n/ /fɑɪə/ /ˈspeʃl/
But we can also use the letter E to make the sound /ɪ/, as in the word English.
/ˈɪŋglɪʃ/
You can also see that the letter I in English is also pronounced as /ɪ/.
Take a look at the phrase, England's pretty houses, and you will see other examples of the use of the letter E to make the sound /ɪ/.
/ˈɪŋgləndz/ /ˈprɪtɪ/ /ˈhɑʊzɪz/

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