Shit or Sheet? ‘i’ Vs ‘ee’ Vowels – Do you get these mixed up? English Pronunciation training

Shit or Sheet? ‘i’ and ‘ee’ sounds – English Pronunciation

Is it Shit or Sheet? Have you ever pronounced the word ‘sheet’ incorrectly? Don’t be embarrassed!

A lot of students have told me that they’ve had embarrassing moments because of these 2 words! So, let’s deal with them once and for all.

As you know, the ‘i’ /ɪ/ is a short vowel and the ‘ee’ /iː/ is a long vowel.

Don’t cut your ‘ee’ short, and an extra tip that really helps, is to lengthen it even more with a bit of a ‘slide’ –

‘ee’ – your pitch or intonation goes up and down at the same time.

Let’s say ‘she’ this way. ‘shee’   shee – ‘shee went out.’ Not ‘shi ‘ went out’

Now, let’s do ‘sheet’ – make sure you slide up and down with your intonation and hold the ‘ee’ long enough.

 ‘i’ /ɪ/ Vs ‘ee’ /iː/ vowel practise – Let’s say it together:

Shit – it’s short

Sheet – it’s drawn out.

Shit

Sheet

Practise Sentence:

Can I have a sheet of paper?

Even if I’m speaking quickly I still make my pitch go up and down, and stay on the ‘ee’ long enough inside the word.

I hope you have found this helpful.

Also, for more practise material check out this lesson on commonly mispronounced words.

For more in – depth training check out our British, Australian and American online courses.

If you found this video helpful, please share it with someone who would benefit from it 🙂 Have you ever gotten these two vowel sounds mixed up? Comment below with your story!

Bye for now