The Short "i" Sound
The short i sound causes a huge problem for non-native speakers. This sound is not even found in some languages, so it is not only hard to pronounce, it is difficult for some speakers to even hear at first.
How to physically say it. It's helpful to think about the location of your tongue, jaw and lips when you make different sounds, and comparing three sounds in English that have very similar pronunciations have proven useful in the past. When you say each of these sounds, your mouth and tongue are in slightly different positions.
All three sounds are said with your lips open, but the position of your lips, tongue and jaw are in a different position for each word. For example:
The "long E" sound (used in "teen" (teen)) is said with your jaws almost closed, the middle/front part of your tongue is higher in your mouth than for any other sound, and the sides of your tongue are touching your top teeth.
The "short I" sound (used in "tin" (tihn)) is said with the middle/front part of your tongue down just a little lower than when you say the long "e."
The "short E" sound (used in the word, "ten" (tehn) is said with the middle of the tongue lower yet (rounded just slightly upward.)
The short i pronunciation is used:
When "i" or "y" is located between two consonants, or is followed by one or two consonants at the end of the word:
in sit tip lip bit fish wish with miss slip in it if is
myth symbol system
Exceptions:
If the second consonant is followed by a silent "e" at the end of a word, the preceding vowel (separated from the "e" by one or more consonants) will be pronounced as a long vowel (e.g. price (prais), kite (kait), pike (paik).)
Some words with a "y" in them have a long "i" sound. For example, "cycle" uses a long "i" sound, while "bicycle" has a long "i" between "b" and "c", but the "y" between the two "c"s is pronounced as a short "i".
When "i" is followed by a double consonant
dinner slimmest hippie filling
When there are two consonants between two vowels, the first vowel gets a short pronunciation.
distant billet mistake
When i is used in the suffix (word endings), "ive":
active subjunctive excessive alternative
When "i" begins a word that was borrowed from Latin or French, it is pronounced as a short "i."
international indefinite inadequate
Non-phonetic words that don't make sense based on their spelling:
give (gihv) busy (BIH zee) build (bihld)
Listen: A good thing to do is listen to people speaking American English. Most news Voice of America announcers speak a "neutral" American English (without a regional accent.)
Voice of America ( http://learningenglish.voanews.com/ ) is a site that has news articles, along with the transcript of each article, so you can listen to the articles or listen and read the transcript at the same time. The Voice of America news announcers speak more slowly than the normal English speech.
Some other news sites that will give you an opportunity to hear American English spoken at a normal rate:
NBC News: http://www.nbcnews.com
PBS: www.pbs.org
Resources: https://pronuncian.com/pronouncing-short-i-video Visit this site to hear the short "i" sound in various words.
