In some languages, you can look at a written word and know almost immediately how to say it. You can also hear a word and know exactly how to write it down. These are properties of phonetic languages. But English is not a phonetic language. In English, often the same letter or group of letters can be said in different ways.
Our question this week comes from Virginie in France.
Question:
Hello! It's always a little bit hard for me to get the right pronunciation of the letter -i in a word. Is it pronounced "I" or "e"? How do I know when to say one or the other? – Virginie
Answer:
Hello, Virginie.
This may come as a surprise, but the letter -i can have more than one sound. In fact, it can be pronounced six ways in American English alone!
(ɪ) as in kick and sit
(aɪ) as in mine and time
(i:) as in junior and lenient
(i) as in regime and vaccine
(Ə) as in audible and permissible
And (ae) as in timbre
But do not worry! There are a few things that can make things easier:
Although English is not a phonetic language, there are some spelling patterns, or combinations, whose sounds are more dependable than others.
Listen to the following words and then look at the spelling. The word meanings are not important:
regime
gasoline
routine
marine
vaccine
In words with two or more syllables that end in the letters i-n-e and i-m-e, the –i is often pronounced (i).
And that's Ask a Teacher.
I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.
Alice Bryant wrote this report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
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Words in This Storypronunciation – n. the act or way of saying something
audio – adj. of or relating to sound or its reproduction
click – v. to choose something by pressing a control device
syllable – n. one or more sounds in a word