PHONETICS: /iː/

In British English, the Phonetic Symbol  /i:/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "tree" and "seat". It is called a long vowel. 

Some common words which practice this pronunciation include the following:

• with "ea": beat - breathe - cheat - cream - deal - dream - each - eat - heat - jeans - mean - please - reach - scream - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - weak;

• with "e" or "ee": eel - feel - he - keep - key - me - people - she - speed - street - three - we;

• with "ie" or "ei": belief - believe - receipt - receive;

• others: suite;

• homophones: genes/jeans - heal/heel - meat/meet - pea/pee/P - peace/piece - sea/see/C - scene/seen - steal/steel - suite/sweet - tea/tee/T - weak/week - we'll/wheel.

While /i:/ is similar to the Spanish letter "i", it is actually much longer, and some Spanish speakers may have difficulty distinguishing between the vowel sound /i:/ in "seen" and that of /i/, as in "sin", which is shorter than the Spanish "i".

Written by Victoria Overton

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.