Take a look at The Italian man who went to Malta for a giggle about how long and short vowels can go drastically wrong. This shit is crazy! This sheet is too short. I’m not going to be a bitch. I’m not going to the beach. I need to fill my glass. I need to feel better.ĭon’t call me a twit. Don’t tweet about me. The dog is licking me. The roof is leaking. The first sentence has a short vowel sound. Try some longer sentences with these pronunciation sounds. That probably sounds complicated, so to begin with just remember that you smile at the beach but not at a bitch. When you make the i sound, your tongue and jaw drop just a little. English speakers often say “cheese” when they’re having a photo taken and this is because it puts a smile on their faces. When you make the ee sound, your tongue should be in the middle of your mouth, and the corners of your mouth should lift a little, like a smile. First, you should think about the position of your mouth and your tongue. There are lots of pairs of words you can practise to learn the difference between the two sounds. This is often because, in many European languages, i is pronounced ee. The most common mistake is with the short i and long e sounds. A good way to practise long and short vowel sounds is by using minimal pairs like fit and feet. This is when it becomes really important to know your fit from your feet. short vowel soundsĮnglish speakers use long and short vowel sounds to distinguish between otherwise similar words. As you can see above, long vowels are not just longer versions of the short vowel. It’s important to remember that long and short vowel sounds are completely different. We see short vowels in words like b at, r ed, f it, h ot, and c ut. They are more common than long vowel sounds.

Short vowels do not sound like their letter in the alphabet. They are called long vowel sounds because we hold them for longer than the short sounds. We see these long vowels in words like ate, eat, b ite, b oat, and use. So, if you can pronounce a e i o u (as in abcdefg…) then you can pronounce long vowel sounds. Long vowel sounds are pronounced like the letters of the alphabet. Try our plans Long vowel sounds in English

What is a long vowel