In this American English pronunciation
video, we’re going to learn how to
pronounce the EE as in SHE vowel.
This vowel is common to many
languages.
To make it, the jaw drops just a little bit.
The tongue tip stays behind the bottom
front teeth. The middle/front part of
the tongue arches up towards the roof
of the mouth, diminishing the space
between the tongue and the roof of the
mouth.
The corners of the lips pull a little wide,
ee. They’re not quite relaxed.
Let’s see this sound up close and in
slow motion.
A little jaw drop, tongue tip down and
forward while the top front of the
tongue arches towards the roof of the
mouth. The corners of the lips pull out.
In the word ‘please’, the EE vowel is
stressed. Same position.
When stressed, the vowel has the up-
down shape of a stressed syllable: EE.
When unstressed, it’s lower and flatter
in pitch, quieter, and faster, ee. This is a
very common ending unstressed vowel
in American English because of all of
the words that end in Y, like the word
‘busy’. Let’s see this word up close and
in slow motion.
Jaw drops, top front of tongue arches
up, and the corners of the lips pull out.
Let’s compare the stressed EE in
‘please’, on top, with the unstressed EE
in ‘busy’, on the bottom. You can see
the mouth position for the unstressed
EE is a little more relaxed. The jaw
doesn’t drop as much.
A more relaxed mouth position for the
unstressed version of a vowel or
diphthong is very common because
they are shorter. So, there is less time
to make the full mouth position.
Stressed EE: need, EE
Unstressed: busy, ee
EE, ee. EE, ee.
Example words. Repeat with me:
Keep, early, police, coffee, meet, each.