English has two front, high vowels: /i/ and /ɪ/. They are produced at the front part of the tongue. The vowel /i/ is made with the highest tongue elevation, and so the mouth is almost closed without lips touching each other. English natives call the vowel /i/ the long-E sound. It is the most frontal vowel, making it a tense vowel.
The other front, high vowel /ɪ/ is made with the front part of the tongue lowered slightly but not quite to the mid position. The mouth is slightly open. So /ɪ/ is called the mid-high front vowel. Also, the vowel is made slightly towards the central part of the mouth, making it a lax vowel.
Being able to pronounce /i/ and /ɪ/ correctly is very important since there are many pairable words that sound the same except for the vowel sounds. And some of these include swear words: bitch vs beach; piss vs peace; shit vs sheet. Non-native speakers may have experienced saying something like “I like to go to the bitch,” “I hope for world piss,” and “Where can I buy a bedshit?” The correct pronunciations are these:
I like to go to the beach
I hope for world peace
Where can I buy a bedsheet?
As stated earlier, the main distinction between /i/ and /ɪ/ is tenseness. /i/ is a tense vowel. To produce this tense /i/ sound, slightly draw the lips back and raise the back of the tongue. By contrast, /ɪ/ is a lax vowel. To produce the /ɪ/ sound, the tongue is high, but the rest of the vocal tract is relaxed. Just let the air come out from the lungs. The mouth is more open for /ɪ/. Let’s begin with words with these phonemes.
/i/ words
Several different letter combinations can make the tense /i/ sound. We categorize words with the /i/ sound by their letter combinations.
with the letters "ea":
beach, bead, beat, bleach, breathe, cheat, clean, cream, creature, deal, dream, each, eagle, easy, eat, heal, heat, increase (noun), increase (verb), jeans, leader, leaf, lean, leave, meal, mean, meat, pea, peach, peak, please, reach, read, repeat, reason, reveal, scream, sea, seal, seat, steal, steam, stream, teach, team, treat, weak
with the letters "ee":
agree, between, keep, feel, feet, fleece, free, meet, need, see, seem, street, week, apogee, bumblebee, employee, honeybee, jubilee, Lee, manatee, pedigree, refugee
with the letter "e":
even, region, theme, complete
with the letters "ie":
achieve, believe, brief, chief, field, piece
with the letter "i":
police, Luis, Clarice
with the letters "eo":
people,
/ɪ/ words
These are words with the lax, /ɪ/ sound.
with the letter "i":
begin, did, in, it, is, his, him, interest, kit, little, sit, six, Swiss, this, will, with
with the letter "y":
crystal, hymn, physics, rhythm, symbol, symmetry, symptom, typical
with the letter "u":
busy, business
with the letter "o":
women
/ɪ/ vs /i/ minimal pairs
These are minimal pair words for /ɪ/ vs /i/. The first word of each pair has the lax /ɪ/ and the second word has the tense /i/ sound.
bit, beat
bitch, beach
bin, bean
bid, bead
biz, bees
chick, cheek
chit, cheat
chip, cheap
did, deed
dip, deep
fist, feast
fill, feel
fit, feet
gin, gene
grid, greed
grin, green
hid, heed
hill, he’ll
hit, heat
his, he’s
hip, heap
ill, eel
is, ease
it, eat
itch, each
kid, keyed
kip, keep
knit, neat
lick, leak
lip, leap
mill, meal
pick, peek
piss, piece
piss, peace
pitch, peach
pill, peel
risen, reason
sit, seat
slip, sleep
still, steal
shit, sheet
sick, seek
sin, scene
sin, seen
still, steel
sill, seal
sim, seem
skid, skied
skim, scheme
till, teal
tin, teen
/i/ vs /ɪ/ in sentences
The following sentences have words with the tense /i/ sound:
Please leave the scene after you each eat.
There are heaps of eels swimming deep at the beach.
These pieces are cheap, so they leak.
The teen peeled a heap of peaches for her meal.
He was seen stealing a sheet.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
Row, row, row, your boat Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream
The following sentences have the /ɪ/ sound:
Fill it with chips
A tick bit the kid, making him ill.
I am itching to lick the icicle.
I will fill the tin with pills.
The dill on the hill could fill a whole bin.
The following sentences have both sounds:
I grin when I find green beans in the sale bin.
(grin vs green, bin vs bean)
This chip is delicious and cheap. Eat it.
(chip vs cheap, it vs eat)
I need to sit in the seat, because my feet do not fit in these shoes.
(sit vs seat, fit vs feet)
We each had an itch to take a dip in the deep sea.
(itch vs each, dip vs deep)