Did or Dead? Big or Beg? American English Pronunciation

Learn the difference between the /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ vowel sounds. Practice pronunciation of /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ with minimal pairs exercises, using words like "bit" and "bet," "hid" and "head," or "gym" and "gem." Improve your American accent with essential pronunciation exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist. By the way, we have a website: https://soundsamerican.net/ Quick Links: • Inro 00:00 • Can you hear the difference between /ɪ/ and /ɛ/? Quiz: 01:14 • Key distinctions between /ɪ/ and /ɛ/: 02:23 • Pronunciation exercise: 03:26 Related Videos: #AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #MinimalPairs ►Vowel Sound /ɪ/ as in "it" - American English Pronunciation https://goo.gl/HJ3kDs ►Vowel Sound /ɛ/ as in "bed"- American English Pronunciation https://goo.gl/m4WCwT [THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, KOREAN, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel. In this video, we'll compare two vowel sounds: /ɪ/ and /ɛ/, as in the words "big" and "beg." In our previous videos, we learned how to make them. Remember the videos for the /ɪ/ sound, as in the word "it" and the /ɛ/ sound, as in the word "bed"? This time we'll focus on the differences between these two sounds. Most non-native English speakers can distinguish the /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ as different sounds, but they often distort or confuse these vowels when pronouncing them. And that's what other people hear as an accent. In this video, we'll help you fix this by practicing the /ɪ/ and the /ɛ/ and contrasting them in word pairs. Before we begin, let's check how well you can differentiate between the /ɪ/ and the /ɛ/ sounds. You'll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced. For example, "b*g." Can you guess what word you heard? Let's try a few more word pairs. How did you do? Don't worry if you didn't get all the words right. You'll improve if you complete the pronunciation exercises which are coming up in just a minute. Here are the 2 key distinctions between the /ɪ/ and the /ɛ/: First, look at the position of the lower jaw: • For the /ɪ/ sound, the mouth is open very little./isn't very open • For the /ɛ/ sound, the mouth is half open. Second. Look at the tongue: • For the /ɪ/ sound, the tongue is raised high in the mouth. • For the /ɛ/ sound, the tongue is in the middle of the mouth. Let's pronounce these sounds one after the other: /ɪ/ - /ɛ/, /ɪ/ - /ɛ/, /ɪ/ - /ɛ/ [Pronunciation exercise] Now that you've revised how to make these sounds, let's start practicing. Don't skip this part, as the only way to improve your accent is to practice as much as possible. You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. After that you'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. Repeat each word after the speaker, the first word will have the /ɪ/ vowel sound, and the second will have the /ɛ/ vowel sound. Let's begin! • bid – bed • big – beg • bill – bell • bit – bet • bitter – better • built – belt • dessert – desert • did – dead • disc – desk • fill – fell • gym – gem • hid – head • hill – hell • jill – gel • knit – net You're done! Congratulations! To check, how much you've improved, you can do the word pairs test again. Click this link to go back and compare the results. By the way, did you know that the letter 'e' can represent both the /ɛ/ and the /ɪ/ vowel sounds? For example, /ɛ/ as in "beg" and /ɪ/ as in "begin." The rule is simple, the /ɛ/ is found in the stressed syllables and the /ɪ/ is found in the unstressed ones. Thanks for watching! Hope you find it useful. Stay tuned on our Sounds American channel!