The next letter in this series looking at vowel sounds in English is the letter ‘i’.  This is an interesting vowel because it is one of the only letters of the English alphabet that is a word in itself, as in the word for the first person pronoun in English ‘I’.  The only other letter that shares this characteristic in English is also a vowel and it is the letter ‘a,’ which is the indefinite article used with words that start with a consonant.  Today we are looking at how to make the two sounds of the letter ‘i.’

i (short vowel sound)

This sound is made with the jaw slightly open, the lips unrounded, and the tongue slightly tense at a mid-level in the mouth.  The tongue does not move as you make this sound.

Example words:
bridge
children
fifth
ink
mist
pit
think
width

i (long vowel sound)

This sound is made with sound moving from the back to the front of the mouth.  To make this sound the lips are open and move to a more closed “smiling” position.  The jaw and tongue start out relaxed and as they move up in the mouth they become tense.  Hint: try to make this sound in slow motion and pay attention to how your mouth changes in shape.

Example words:
advice
arrive
drive
fine
ice
mile
nice
reptile

Here is another quick grouping exercise for you to practice what you just learned about the short and long sounds of the letter ‘i. ‘ Look at the six words below and group them by whether they have either a short or long ‘i’ sound.  Hint: There are three words with short ‘i’ sounds and three with long ‘i’ sounds.

Once you have finished deciding which group each word belongs to you can check your answers by clicking on this link where you can also hear the words being said: http://www.abcfastphonics.com/vowel-letters/vowel-i.html.

insect
bird
iceberg
kite
panic
bite