In this video we are going to practise hearing the difference between long and short vowel sounds in various sets of minimal pairs.

Remember, minimal pairs are pairs of words that sound almost exactly the same. In fact, they are almost identical in their pronunciation and only differ in one sound in the same position.

For example, the two words ‘fit’ and ‘feet’ ( fɪt & fi:t) form a minimal pair because they only differ in their vowel sound. The vowel sounds are both in second position and the only difference is in fact a short vowel sound (= /ɪ/) and a long vowel sound (= /i:/).

There are many minimal pairs in English and so learning to hear the difference is really important, so you understand people correctly. It is also the first step before you can learn to pronounce the words correctly yourself. After all, what you can’t hear, you can’t say! In this video we are going to focus on minimal pairs with ɪ & i: and ɒ & ɔ:.

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