Here are the next two vowel sounds
we're going to target /i:/ as in 'leave' and
/e/ as in 'let'. So the first thing you may
have noticed about these two sounds is
that the first one is long and the
second one is short. The first vowel /i:/
as in 'leave'. You can hear it's longer than
normal /i:/ /i:/ Look at the shape of the
mouth: it's wide. When we utter this
sound, your mouth should be widened /i:/
leave. OK, now compare that with the
short one: /e/ you can hear it's very very
short /e/ /e/. However it's similar in that
the shape of the mouth is also wide /e/
let. Can you see the mouth? /e/ /e/. It's
quite wide, similar to the first sound /i:/
/e/ /i:/ /e/ so the shape of the mouth is
very similar. The difference is one is
long, the other is very very short.
Now let's go to the target sound
practice for the first sound /i:/ the long
vowel sound. Look at the symbol on the
left. You can notice that the symbol
is the letter 'i' with a colon, the two
dots. The two dots in the IPA
alphabet, which is the pronunciation
alphabet, means that it's a long sound. So
the two dots represent a long sound /i:/
I'd like you to listen
and repeat each word after me. Meat. Free.
See. Agree. Chinese. Please. Magazine. Nineteen.
People. Did you notice the spelling? Make sure
you start to notice the patterns in the
spelling between the different sounds.
This sound /i:/, the long vowel sound, very
often has the spelling E-E for example
'free' F-R-E-E or 'seen' S-E-E-N. So just start to notice some of these spelling
patterns because some of the patterns
are very often represented by the same
sound. Not always, but very often. Just
keep this in mind. Now let's move on to
the second target sound practice. We're
going to focus on the short vowel /e/
Remember this is much much shorter than the first sound. The mouth is wide, just
like the first sound but it's much
shorter /e/ it's just a burst of air /e/
as in 'let'. So let's look at the target
sound practice word list. Notice the
symbol on the left. It's simply the
letter 'e'. This symbol represents the
sound /e/ in English. It's different
from the alphabet don't forget this. The
alphabet (ABCDE) is just how we spell words. The symbol on the left is 'e' but this is
representing a sound, not a spelling. Just keep this in mind. Listen and
repeat after me.
Pet. Head. Except. Protect. Many. Excellent.
Energy. Anything. Bread. Did you notice
the spelling? Very often for the sound /e/
we have the letter 'e' representing it. For
example 'pet' P-E-T, pet. Sometimes we have
the letter 'a' representing this sound. For
example 'many' M-A-N-Y, many. But
sometimes it's different. The letter 'a'
can also represent other sounds.
Just start to notice that the spelling
in English doesn't always represent the
same sound. There are different
sounds that can be represented by the
same spelling. Now this is an important
part of these lectures: the minimal pairs.
Let's move on to the minimal pairs for /i:/
and /e/. This will really start to help you
distinguish the difference between the
two sounds. So we have /i:/ on the left and
/e/ on the right. Listen to each pair and repeat them
after me. Meet, met. Seat, set. Cheek, check.
Teen, ten. Feel, fell. Bean, Ben. I hope
that has helped you to distinguish the
two sounds. Remember when we're doing
these exercises you can always pause the
video to repeat after me and you can
always go back again. Don't just complete
the exercises once. You can do it two,
three, four times, as many times as you
wish so that you can really start to
master the sounds both in listening and
speaking. So it's important also
when you're learning pronunciation to
really master the listening part of the
sounds as well as the pronunciation
itself. Let's move on now to the
sentences, a very important part as well
because when you utter the sentence with the target sound, you're using it in
context as well. Let's practice. Here
are the target sounds in use. The first
sentence is targeting the long vowel /i:/
Listen and repeat after me focusing on
the target sound. Can you see the
beautiful green leaves?
OK well done. The second sentence is targeting the
second sound, a shorter sound. Remember the mouth is wide, but the sound is much
much shorter /e/. So listen and repeat. Theweather is getting better and better. And
sentence three has a mix of the two
sounds. Again listen and repeat. Have you
ever been to Greece? It's an excellent
place to see real history. So there we go.
Remember now don't stop there: you can go back practice these exercises
again and again. But also, move on to the extra resources that I provided for you.
Download the MP3s, the PDFs as well. And watch the extra video so that you can
see the shape of the mouth close up, and you can really start to mimic how I produce the sound myself.
But importantly, I think most importantly, are the MP3s.
Because with the MP3s, you can listen again and again and again.
And you can repeat after me. Then you can really start to master the sound
and improve day by day. So grab them right now, and I'll see you in the next lecture.