Transcript of AE 975 - How To Pronounce Beach vs Bitch | Australian English Pronunciation Lesson

G'day, you mob. Man today is going to be a good episode. This is a common error that English learners, English speakers make between these two different vowel sounds, ɪ and i:. I think this is probably the most common error that I get asked about from students, how do I fix this? How do I learn to pronounce these differently? Because I hate saying certain words, like the ones that I'll display on screen here. Anyway, are you ready?

Let's get into it. The lesson is going to be broken up into 4 different parts, in part 1, we are going to focus on pronouncing the ɪ vow sound. In part 2, we'll focus on the i: vowel sound. In part 3, we are going to do a comparative pronunciation exercise where we will use minimal pairs. These are pairs of words that differ by just one sound. One will have ɪ, the other word will have i: in them.

And this will help you produce the subtle difference in these sounds, in this part. And then in part 4, we're going to do a little listening comprehension exercise to train your ear so that you can hear the difference between these 2 vowel sounds. And remember, guys, I have detailed tutorial videos about how to pronounce these sounds, how to place your tongue, how to position your mouth.

And I'll tell you about how to get access to those later on in this video. Okay, so without any further ado, are you ready? Let's get into part 1. All right, so in part 1 here, let's go over the vowel sound ɪ, which is represented by this symbol in IPA. Okay, for those of you listening to the podcast, check out the video on YouTube and you will be able to see this symbol.

So, you're going to hear the vowel sound ɪ in words like "it, bin and lip". This vowel sound is usually spelt in these different ways. Again, guys, check out the video on YouTube if you want to see all the different ways that this ɪ vowel sound can be spelt. There are 10 different ways, quite a lot.

So, let's practise this sound, guys. I'm going to say the vowel sound ɪ 3 times to begin with, and then I'm going to say 10 different words that include the ɪ vowel sound in them. Are you ready? Let's do it. "ɪ. ɪ. ɪ. Bin. Chip. Bitch. Shit. Ship. It. Did. Mitt. Hill. Skim." How'd you go? Should also mention the ɪ vowel sound in English is a short vowel sound. i: which we'll go over in a sec, is a long vowel sound. i:.

All right, time for part number 2, so now we're going to go over the vowel sound i:, which is represented by this symbol on screen right now in the IPA. So, you'll hear the i: vowel sound in words like, "eat and bean and leap". The vowel sound has a huge number of different ways that it can be spelt, and I will show those on screen for you right now.

The only little caveat or note that I want to mention here is that if you hear the i: vowel sound at the ends of words, so, for example, "marry or leaky", it can be pronounced slightly shorter. But really, if you pronounce it as the usual long vowel sound, no one is ever going to get confused. Okay?

So, in this exercise, guys, I'm going to say the i: vowel sound 3 times and then I'm going to go through 10 different words that include the vowel sound. Are you ready? Let's go. "i:. i:. i:. Bean. Cheap. Beach. Sheet. Sheep. Eat. Deed. Meat. Heal. Scheme." Now it's time for part 3 and in this section, we're going to work on your pronunciation of these two sounds ɪ and i: side by side by using minimal pairs. But before we get into that.

I know how important good pronunciation is to English learners, just like you. My students often tell me about how they worry about not sounding professional at work, not being able to communicate clearly and lacking confidence when they speak, which often holds them back from speaking at all. I've helped thousands of students overcome these issues and level up their English pronunciation inside my Australian pronunciation course.

The course helps students level up their speaking confidence, allows them to communicate easily and effectively and most importantly, to sound more Australian. When you join the Australian pronunciation course today, you're going to get instant access to detailed video tutorials for every single vowel sound and consonant sound in Australian English.

You're going to get video exercises and tongue twisters, so that you can perfect these sounds and sound much more like an English native speaker. And you're going to get access to 25 Advanced Pronunciation lessons that cover things like the Australian R, the syllabic N and the syllabic L, all of these advanced things that you can learn to sound much more like a native Australian English speaker.

So, join today, and let's level up your pronunciation skills together. I'll see you in there. Anyway, back to the lesson. So, remember, minimal pairs are incredibly important for learning how to pronounce these slightly different sounds, to get these distinct differences mastered in your pronunciation.

So, what we're going to do is we're going to go through 10 different minimal pairs where one word will have the ɪ vowel sound and the other word will have the i: vowel sound. You ready? Let's go. "Bin. Bean. Chip. Cheap. Bitch. Beach. Shit. Sheet. Ship. Sheep. It. Eat. Did. Deed. Mitt. Meat. Hill. Heal. Skim. Scheme." All right, time for part four.

So, in this last section here, we're going to work on your listening skills, where we're going to try and differentiate between these 2 sounds ɪ and i:. So, don't be discouraged if you find this exercise a little difficult at first, just repeat it a number of different times.

Remember, repetition is key for learning how to hear the difference, for training your ear, to hear the difference between these two vowel sounds, which then will allow you to more easily pronounce the difference when speaking English.

So, what we're going to do, I'm going to display minimal pairs on screen, these 2 different words, but I'm only going to say one of the words, and it's your job to write down which one you hear. Write down the letter A for the ɪ vowel sound, as in the word "it". And write down the letter B for the long i: vowel sound, as in the word "eat". Are you ready? Let's go.

"Bean. Cheap. Bitch. Shit. Sheep. It. Deed. Mitt. Hill. Scheme." How'd you go? So, for those of you listening to the podcast episode, remember, you can check out the video on YouTube if you want to see all of the answers and everything else come up on screen. But if you're listening, the answers were B, B, A, B, A, B, A, A, B. I hope you got them all right. So, with that, guys, thank you so much for joining me.

Don't forget, if you want to improve your Australian English pronunciation and you want to get access to those tutorial videos that will show you how to pronounce each of these different sounds, go down into the description and join the Australian pronunciation course or head over to www.aussieenglish.com.au/apc

Like the video if you liked it. Share it with someone else interested in Australian English and make sure you subscribe and hit that bell notification button if you want to see the next lesson. I'm Pete, this is Aussie English. Thanks for joining me. See you next time. Toodle loo.