You're living or leaving?

3 Sept 2025 · 1 min

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0:40

A short YouTube video (transcript) by Hadar Shemesh explaining how the pronunciation difference between the words "live" and "leave" changes sentence meaning. The speaker contrasts the lax short vowel in "live" with the tense, higher vowel in "leave", describes tongue and lip positions, and models example sentences ("I'm going to live here." vs. "I'm going to leave here.").

Chapters

Did you say that you're gonna live here or that you're gonna leave here? Because I didn't get it. Not pronouncing the difference between the words live and leave can actually change the meaning of your sentence. Live has a lax I sound. Live, live, live. It's not leave. The tongue is not high. It's relaxed. Le I live. The word leave has a tense e sound. It's usually a little longer. The tongue is really high, and the lips pull to the sides a bit. Leave, live, leave. I'm going to live here. I'm going to leave here.