The vowel sound / ı / as in ‘pit’

• Read the instruction to learn how to make the short sound / ı /.

The tongue is in the front part of the mouth but slightly retracted. The air narrow but a little wider than in the English /i:/. The tip of the tongue is near the lower teeth. The lips are spread or neutral, the jaw is lowered, the distance between the jaws being bigger than for /i:/.

• Listen to the target sound and the words and repeat. Look at the mouth diagrams to help you position your lips, tongue and jaw for the target sound. Transcribe the words.

/ ı ı ı /

Spelling variations for the / ı / sound.	Highlighted bold letters are pronounced as / ı /.
i a e y	him, hilarious, hideous, hint, whim, vision, spirit village, cabbage delete, defeat, delusion crypt, synonym, symbol, symptoms, hymn

• Read these words with the sound /ı/. Transcribe them.

Pick, pink, kit, tin, finish, daily, will, fill, pit, many, crystal, remain, sit, kid, pretty, become, alley, donkey, fit, pig, money, climate, sibling, vicinity, little, missis, live, skip, delete, drift, kitten.

• Listen to the sentences and repeat. Read each sentence aloud slowly at first, then as if you were telling it to someone in a natural way.

1. Those lettuces taste like cabbages.

2. Bill lifted the lid of the bin tentatively and found not a single thing.

3. Tell Jill I think this is a silly little game.

4. I can’t stay a minute longer in this miserable little pit!

5. Tim Grim is a solid respectable man and is a pillar of society.

6. This simple thing, a wedding ring, is a symbol, the oldest in history.

7. Climbing over a rocky mountain, skip the rivulet and the fountain.

• Listen and copy the intonation and voice modulation on the CD.

Here’s a first-rate opportunity

To get married with impunity,

To indulge in the felicity

Of unbounded domesticity.

You shall quickly be personified,

Conjugally matrimonified,

By a doctor of divinity,

Who resides in this vicinity.

• Listen to the words with sounds / i: / and / ı /in contrast and repeat. Look at the mouth diagrams to help you position your lips.

/i:/	/ ı /	/i:/	/ ı /
reason been ease sleep cheap wheat leap feet team	risen bin is slip chip wit lip fit Tim	beast queen deal need leek people greed leave sneaky	bit kin dill Nick lyric pitch grid live snip

• Listen to the words and repeat. Read, paying attention to the spelling of /i:/ (highlighted as bold and underlined) and / ı / (highlighted as bold). Transcribe them.

Believe, reveal, defeat, recede, retrieve, receipt, greasy, easy, sneezing, thesis, seeing, serene, relieve, repeat, meeting, yielding, seizing, freezing.

• Listen to the sentences and repeat. Read each sentence aloud slowly at first, then as if you were telling it to someone in a natural way. Mind the highlighted letters.

1. The width of the sleeves still needs to fit my neat linen jacket.

2. I’m not particularly keen to give the victory to a different team.

3. These silver rings belonged to Queen Elizabeth.

4. Tim is completely out of Nina’s league and she isn’t keen on being chased by him.

5. There is a little something missing in this meal. Have you tried to add some dill?

6. My next of kin, Mr. Bean, is a Dean of Leeds University.

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15. Learn the following graphical rules:

• Vowel / i: / is represented in spelling by:

11. the letter ‘e’ in open and historically open syllables (be, meter, these)

12. the digraphs ‘ee’ (meet, see)

‘ea’ (meat, seat)

‘ie’ (piece, field)

‘ei’ (ceiling, receive)

Rare spelling: ‘ey’ (key)

‘ay’ (quay)

‘eo’ (people)

‘i’ (ski, machine)

• Vowel / ı / is represented in spelling by:

1. the letters ‘i’ and ‘y’ in stressed closed syllables (sit, window, myth, syllable)

2. ‘y’, ‘ey’, ‘ai’, ‘ay’ when unstressed (city, money, mountain, Sunday)

3. the letter “e” in prefixes (before, decide)

Rare spelling: the letters ‘e’, ‘a’ and ‘u’ when unstressed and sometimes stressed (alphabet, pretty; climate; minute, busy, mortgage)

16. Find Ukrainian equivalents to the proverbs and sayings, learn them:

/ i: /

1. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

2. No sweet is without some sweat.

3. Extremes meet.

4. Seeing is believing.

/ ı /

1. As fit as a fiddle.

2. As busy as a bee.

3. Little pitches have big ears.

4. Between the devil and the deep sea.

5. Still waters run deep.

6. Speech is silver but silence is gold.

7. Betwixt and between.

• Listen to the tongue twister. Learn it by heart. Practice saying it as quickly as you can. Be careful not to mispronounce the target sound. I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish,

But if you wish the wish the witch wishes,

I won't wish the wish you wish to wish.

• Practice reading the tongue twisters as quickly as you can. Be careful not to mispronounce the target sound. Learn them by heart.

1. Miss, miss, little miss

When she misses she misses like this.

2. Six little kittens lost their mittens

It’s a pity they were so pretty.

3. Little pretty Mrs. Smith lives in this vicinity.

• Listen to the dialogues. Intone them. Learn and reproduce, paying attention to the pronunciation of the sound / ı /, intonation and tempo.

Dialogue 3

- Does it fit?

- Yes, it fits, but it isn’t very pretty.

- This pink one’s very pretty.

- But it’s a bit big.

- Well,… this silk one isn’t big.

- No,… but it’s a bit frilly.

Dialogue 4

Jim’s a brilliant physicist.

- Jim’s a silly nitwit.

- Criticism! Nothing but criticism! If it isn’t Jim, it’s Billy and if it isn’t Billy, it’s…

- Billy’s ridiculous!

- Philip, it’s silly to criticize everybody!

- Yes, Jill, it is. Now, why are you criticizing me?