00:00This is the ee sound, as in the words be, me, need.
00:14It's a vowel sound and its technical name is the closed front unrounded vowel.
00:22Remember that the key to pronunciation is physical
00:25and the name tells us about how the sound is made physically.
00:30In this case, your tongue is high and at the front of your mouth.
00:36Unrounded refers to your lips because they are stretched out as if you are smiling and not rounded.
00:44All vowels are made through the mouth and are voiced so you vibrate your vocal cords to make the sound.
00:51It's similar to the i sound but the two little dots mean that it is a longer sound.
00:58ee, not i.
01:01To produce the sound, put your tongue high and at the front of your mouth,
01:06stretch out your lips and make a long voiced sound.
01:10ee, ee, ee, ee.
01:17The e sound is normally spelled with the letter ee or double ee, as in the words three, see and these.
01:29But it can also be spelled with the letters ee, ae, as in the word leave.
01:36Like with all vowels in English, the spelling can be very inconsistent.
01:40And you will always find alternative and unusual spellings of the vowel sounds.
01:45It's one of the most difficult things in English, but you just have to learn it.
01:49Here are some more words that start with the ee sound.
01:54eeach
01:56eeasy
01:58eeat
02:00eeat
02:02eeast
02:04Here are some words that have the ee sound in the middle.
02:10feel
02:12cheap
02:14seem
02:16and between
02:19Here are some words with the ee sound at the end.
02:25hee
02:28shee
02:30wee
02:33free
02:35So that's it for the ee sound.
02:40But we've made additional videos on each of the groups of sounds.
02:44Vowels, diphthongs, single consonants and consonant pairs.
02:48As well as a video explaining the overall phonetic chart.
02:52You can also click on any of the symbols behind me to see a similar video to this with lots of examples and an explanation about how to pronounce that sound.
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