The Sounds of I

Posted on by

Each vowel letter of English uses three or four different vowel sounds, but there is something unique about the letter “I” — it shares its sounds with the letter “Y”. They are sort of like “twins”. Whenever the letter “Y” is acting as a vowel, it uses the same sounds as “I”.

There are three basic sounds for the English letter “I”: Long-I, Long-I-2 (old-style), and Short-i.

Long-I

Long-I is the normal Long-vowel sound for “I”, because it is the same as the name of the letter “I”. Some common words with this sound are: like / write / time / line / right / kind / while / life / side / five / ice / sign / child / tie / item / my / why / type / style / rhyme / cycle / deny / apply / rely.

Long-I-2

The second Long sound that the letter “I” (or “Y”) uses is the “old style” Long-I — it is the sound that the letter “I” used hundreds of years ago, before the English vowels made a shift. A few words with the letter “I” retained the old sound, which is the same as the Long-E sound today. Here are some examples: ski / chic / police / machine / tangerine / mobile / souvenir / antique / magazine / unique / many / only / funny / baby / lady / very.

Short-i

Short-i is pronounced in the front upper part of the mouth, and it is very important to relax the tongue to avoid confusion with the Long-E sound (see This or These). There are quite a few frequently used words with the Short-i sound, so it is important to learn to relax the tongue well. Some words are: with / six / which / if / give / thing / think / big / list / inch / spring / quick / sing / myth / gyp / gym / cyst / lynx / system / rhythm / symbol.

(Words covered in Short-i in Frequent words:  is / it / its / his / him / will / did / still.)
(Words covered in This or These: this / bit / chip / itch / fill / hit / lip / living / sit / sick.)

Schwa

In addition to the basic Long and Short-vowel sounds, any vowel letter can also use the schwa sound. This happens in weak (unstressed) syllables, especially in a syllable that is adjacent to the strongest syllable of a word. In the following words, the letter “I” (or “Y”) is in an unstressed syllable: pencil / decimal / practice / office / chemical / flexible / dactyl.

Some tricky cases

The following words can be confusing because they are homographs. 

L-I-V-E: this word could be a verb or an adjective, and they are pronounced differently. When it is a verb, it has a Short-i: “live”. When it is an adjective, it is pronounced with a Long-I: “live”.

W-I-N-D: this word could be a noun or a verb. As a noun, it has a Short-i: “wind”. As a verb, it has a Long-I: “wind”. 

So remember, when you see the letter “I”, it will be pronounced with one of the four choices: Long-I, Long-I-2, Short-i, or Schwa. It is very unusual for an “I” to use some other sound.

7 thoughts on “The Sounds of I”

  3. In your examples for short i of spring and sing, don’t these two words definitely have a different sound than the other short i words? In other words, is sing supposed to sound like sin with a g at the end? The i in sin definitely does not sound like the i in sing. TI me the i in sing sounds like the e in tree.

    Reply ↓

    • You are hearing a difference that most people don’t really notice. The vowel is Short-i for both “sin” and “sing”, but since “N” is pronounced in the front of the mouth, and “NG” is pronounced in the back of the mouth, this affects the vowel position slightly.

      However, if your vowel for “sing” sounds like a Long-E as in “tree” then your tongue is not relaxed fully for the Short-i of “sing”. Long-E and Short-i are essentially relaxed/tense versions of the same vowel place. This the focus of the topic: “This or These?” https://pronunciationcoach.blog/2011/11/26/this-or-these/

      Reply ↓

    • The word “onion” is very unusual. The letter “I” is acting like a “Y” consonant sound in that word. Very rare in English!
      The letter “Y” can act as both a consonant and a vowel, but vowel letters do not normally act as consonants.

      Reply ↓

Leave a comment