E P Tips

English Pronunciation Tips

  • About
  • Acknowledgments
  • Ear-training
    • Ear-training 1
    • Ear-training 2
    • Ear-training 3
    • Ear-training 4
    • Ear-training 5
    • Ear-training 6
    • Ear-training 7
  • Intonation
    • How to sound re-assuring
    • Reflexives and the tonic
    • Tonic
    • Wh-questions
  • Mini dictionaries
    • Animals
    • Archaeology
    • Architecture
    • Astronomy
    • Birds
    • Chemical elements A – E
    • Chemical elements F – N
    • Chemical elements O – S
    • Chemical elements T – Z
    • Finance
    • Geography
    • Geological periods
    • Grammatical terms
    • Greek letters
    • Herbs and spices
    • Literary terms
    • Meteorology
    • Music
  • Miscellaneous
    • Affricate sequences
    • Because
    • Berry
    • Change of voicing
    • Close
    • Garage
    • Graph
    • Hello, sailor!
    • Hello, soldier!
    • house
    • Kilometre
    • Months
    • No syllabic n, thank you!
    • Perhaps
    • Regular noun plurals
    • Shrinking words
    • Some flowers
    • Some irregular plurals
    • Stranding
    • Stranding 2
    • That
    • Tricky pairs
    • Use
    • Usual
    • ðz and zð (how to cheat)
  • Names
    • -bo(u)rne
    • -borough -burgh
    • -bury
    • -cester
    • -chester
    • -ese
    • -folk
    • -ford
    • -ham
    • -mouth
    • -ness
    • -port
    • -sex
    • -son
    • -stone & -ston
    • -wich
    • Beautiful places
    • Canada
    • Caribbean
    • Dorset, Somerset
    • Glamis and Wemyss
    • holm, hulme
    • Ireland
    • Keighley
    • Mainwaring
    • More troublesome place-names
    • New places
    • New Zealand
    • Scotland
    • Some given names
    • Some troublesome place-names
    • Two-part place-names
    • USA
    • Wales
  • Oddities
    • Bass
    • Blancmange
    • Broad
    • Brooch
    • Chamber
    • cheese and geese
    • Choir
    • Christ
    • Courtesy
    • Cushion
    • Equation
    • Fever and lever
    • Funny business
    • Gaol and margarine
    • Gross
    • Iron
    • Leisure, seizure
    • Mauve
    • Mayor
    • Meringue
    • Mortgage
    • Quay
    • Scone
    • Shoe
    • Sponge
    • Subpoena
    • Vineyard
    • Wrath
    • Yacht
  • Prefixes
    • Aero
    • bio-
    • By(e)-
    • Cata-
    • Circum-
    • Com-, con-
    • Hyper-
    • Hypo-
    • Mis-
    • Para-
    • Peri-
    • Poly-
    • Tele-
    • Un-
  • Sitemap
  • Sounds
  • Spelling to sound
    • <-se> Episode 1
    • <-se> Episode 2
    • <-se> Episode 3
    • <a> is not ʌ
    • <ai>
    • <al>
    • <au>
    • <bt>
    • <cc>
    • <ch> = k
    • <ch> = ʃ
    • <ea> = e
    • <eak>
    • <ear> = ɜː
    • <ease>
    • <ei> = eɪ
    • <eigh>
    • <eo>
    • <g> = ʒ
    • <gain>
    • <ge> and <gi>
    • <gn>
    • <i> = iː
    • <mb>
    • <ng>
    • <ng> again
    • <o> = uː
    • <on> = ʌn
    • <ood>
    • <ose>
    • <ost>
    • <ou> = uː
    • <ou> = ʌ
    • <ough>
    • <ound>
    • <oup>
    • <our> = ɜː
    • <ove> = ʌv
    • <ove> does not = ʌv
    • <qu> = k
    • <s> = ʒ
    • <ss>
    • <th> = t
    • <ui>
    • <w(h)a> and <qua(w)>
    • <wor> = wɜː
    • Initial <th> = ð
    • Silent <h>
    • Silent <s>
    • Silent <w>
  • Stress
    • -aire
    • -eer
    • -esque
    • -ette
    • -ic and -ical
    • -ity
    • -ocracy
    • -oo
    • -oon
    • -proof
    • -worthy
    • Abbreviations
    • Blue, green, red
    • Roads and Streets
    • Stress variation
    • Stressful Christmas?
  • Symbols
  • Transcriptions
    • Transcription 1
  • Vowels
    • No schwa!
    • Vowel alternation: aɪ ~ ɪ
    • Vowel alternation: eɪ ~ æ
    • Vowel alternation: iː ~ e
    • Vowel alternation: əʊ ~ ɒ
    • ə elision in the first syllable
  • Word endings
    • -(m)ony = (m)əni
    • -(n)gue
    • -ac
    • -ade
    • -age = ɑːʒ
    • -ance
    • -ane
    • -ary and -ory
    • -ate
    • -chief
    • -cious
    • -eous
    • -et
    • -ex(e)
    • -ful(ly)
    • -gm
    • -i = aɪ
    • -ice
    • -ine
    • -ious
    • -ique
    • -ite = ɪt
    • -less
    • -ment
    • -mn
    • -ngle
    • -nomy & -tomy
    • -olic
    • -on
    • -oose
    • -oric(al)
    • -our
    • -our = aʊə
    • -path
    • -pathy
    • -re
    • -sis
    • -sten & -stle
    • -ture
    • -ward(s)
    • Non-silent <e>

Vowel alternation: iː ~ e

The table below lists pairs of related words. In the words in the left-hand column the vowel in the stressed syllable is iː, while for the words in the right-hand column it is e.

iː e
breathe breath
clean cleanse
compete competitive
convene convention
deal dealt
deceive deceptive
dream dreamt
extreme extremity
heal health
impede impediment
intervene intervention
lean leant
legal legislate
mean meant
meter metric(al)
obscene obscenity
read read (past tense)
regent regicide
repeat repetitive
serene serenity
semen seminal
species specimen
steal stealth
supreme supremacy

With thanks to Petr Rȍsel for additions
2014_04_30
Updated 2014_06_19

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    Latest update: 2015_04_18
    Number of tips: 246
    Number of tips with sound: 42

    Latest changes:

    Updated and added sound to -ese

    Added sound to Funny business

    Added sound to Graph

    Added sound to That

    Added sound to Tricky pairs

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