A short spoken tutorial by Hadar Shemesh that teaches the difference between the vowel sounds in "sheep" (tense /iː/) and "ship" (lax /ɪ/). The instructor explains articulatory differences (tongue height, lip spreading, jaw opening), duration (sheep is longer), and gives minimal-pair examples and practice sentences to help learners perceive and produce the contrast.
Chapters
Hey. Today we're going to talk about the vowel pair sheep versus ship. Sheep and ship. In most languages, there is actually one pure E sound. And therefore the two sounds here, the two vowels, sheep and ship, sound the same. Sheep and sheep. In order to make that distinction and to improve your accent, we're gonna learn today how to perceive the differences between those two sound sounds and how to produce the different vowels. We're going to begin with the tense E as in sheep. It's called tense because a lot of muscles are engaged in making it. The lips pull to the sides a bit, as you can see. She, E, E, E. Sheep. The tongue pushes forward. The body of the tongue is rolling forward until this part, this part of the tongue is almost touching the upper palate. You can even feel vibrations here, E, E as you produce the sound. As I said, the lips pull to the sides a bit and it's a longer vowel. Usually seat. It's not seat. Seat. It's seat. We. Sweet. Please. Not please. Please. Reach. Sleep. Now, in comparison, the relaxed I as in ship is a more open vowel. So the jaw drops a bit. There is a space of about one finger between the upper and bottom teeth. Sit. Si. I. The tongue is lower. The body of the tongue is lower. There is more space between the body of the tongue and the upper palate, so you won't feel those vibrations. And it's a shorter sound. Sit, kid, finish. Imagine like you want to say this vowel, the e vowel, the pure E that you have in your language, but you're very lazy and you don't want to make the false sound. Sit. You can make that face as well. Sit, kid, finish. Now, it's not a schwa. Sit. Sit. You don't reduce it completely, so it's somewhere in between. Some people say it's somewhere between E and E. Okay. Sit. List. Fit. All right. Now let's compare. It's best when we compare them. Then we can really hear the differences. Sheep versus ship. Reach. Rich. Cheap chip. It's a cheap computer chip. It's a cheap chip. Feel. Fill. Leave and live. Leave me alone and let me live. Leave me alone and let me live. Yeah. Sheet and shit. Good. Keep practicing and next time you invite someone to go to the beach with you, I hope you won't get that awkward look. Yeah, I'll go to the beach with you. Beach bitch. Yeah, alright. So keep practicing. Work on those two vowels. There are plenty of pairs that you can find. Open your ears, see if you can hear the differences. And that's it. And good. Luck. I'll see you on the next video. Bye.
