Short English pronunciation lesson by Hadar Shemesh contrasting the high tense vowel (as in we, she) with the lax/relaxed vowel (as in fish, ship, rich). The speaker describes tongue height, muscular tension, lip shape, and a practical tip—drop the jaw slightly—to produce the lax vowel.
See we and she. Okay? It's a high vowel. High because the tongue is high. It's a tense vowel because all the articulation organs are really tense. The lips pull to the sides a bit. Eee. We, she. Okay? And that is in comparison to the relaxed I sound that also exists in American English. Now, as you can see, it's a little lower here, a little lower on the chart. And that means that the tongue is a little lower. So one of the ways to do that is to just drop your jaw a little bit. It's a relaxed sound. It's the laxed sound. And we find it in words like fish, ship, and rich.
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