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Hello and welcome to the Coffee Break English show.
I'm Josie and this week Mark is not here but we're joined by another member of the Coffee
Break Languages team.
Hello Josie, hello everyone.
I am Mauricio.
I'm Italian and I'm part of the Coffee Break Italian team.
Now Mauricio, you're not a native speaker of English but you are an English speaker.
That's correct.
I use English every day and I keep learning new things about English every day.
Yeah and every week here on the Coffee Break English show we're helping you to improve
your English.
And you can subscribe to our podcast feed wherever you listen to podcasts or if you want
to watch us you can subscribe to our YouTube channel.
So let's move on to our topic for today.
Yes.
Today we're talking about pronunciation and we're talking about the difference between the
sounds, E and I.
Okay, E, I.
That's right.
We like in the words eat and it.
Okay, I see.
All right.
Okay, are you ready?
I'm ready.
Go.
So Mauricio, E and E, eat and it.
Yes.
Eat as in I eat pasta.
Perfect.
And eat it as for example it is raining.
That's right.
Okay.
The reason why these vowel sounds are quite difficult to pronounce is that English has
five vowel letters.
Yeah.
So we have A, E, I, O and you.
That's right.
Yes.
But do you know how many vowel sounds English have?
Sure.
It's more than five.
It's more than five.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We have 12 vowel sounds in English.
Okay.
How many do you have in Italian?
We have between five and seven depending on your accent.
Wow.
Okay.
So it's quite a big difference.
It is.
It is.
And learning English, I had to learn this new, well, they are new for me.
This new vowel sounds.
Absolutely.
It's going to be interesting to focus on these two specifically.
Yes.
Because I struggled in the past.
Okay.
I'm looking forward to hearing some of your stories.
Okay.
Let's start with a vowel sound that I know you have in Italian, which is the E
sound in the word eat.
Okay.
Right.
So this is a long vowel sound.
Your jaw, this bit of your face, is not relaxed.
It's quite tense as if you're smiling.
E.
E.
That's right.
So words which contain this sound could be feet as in I have two feet.
Okay.
Anything else, Mo.
We could say, for example, sheep, for example, I count sheep to go to bed.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
It's a good technique to fall asleep.
And we could have beat as well as in my football team beat your football team in the
match last night.
That was a tough game.
And of course, we have eaten, as we've already said, there are lots of other words with this
vowel sound.
So let's move on to the sound, E.
Yes, I'm going to struggle with this one a bit more.
It's going to be E.
That's right.
That's correct.
That's perfect.
Do you have this sound in Italian?
We don't really have this sound in Italian.
So most of the time, if there's a word that has a sound in it, then we're going to
say E instead.
That's a common way of recognizing an Italian speaker speaking English, for example.
Yeah.
And that's a really common problem that people have.
The sound E, this long one, exists in a lot of languages, but the sound E doesn't.
Yes.
So to pronounce E, we need to put our jaw this bit, quite relaxed, open a little bit,
like this.
And the tip of your tongue is behind your bottom teeth and you say E.
Perfect.
Okay.
So this sound is in words like fit as in I go running to keep fit or ship as in there's
a big ship sailing on the ocean.
Yes, another word with the sound is bit.
Am I right?
That's right.
Yeah.
For example, I speak a bit of German.
That's right.
Or the dog bit me.
Yeah.
For example.
That's right.
So bit has two meanings.
I speak a bit of German as I speak a little German.
And the dog bit me is the past tense of bite.
Exactly.
So Mauricio, have you ever had any trouble with these sounds, any misunderstandings?
I think so.
For example, because I'm from Italy, the sound, it's in the name of my country.
So sometimes people could just spot the fact that I was Italian by just saying I'm Italian
of saying of Italian.
So it's not really misunderstanding, but it's more of not being clear in pronunciation.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I see what you mean.
That's a common one.
Or another one, maybe that...
Oh, yeah, actually, sometimes I have difficulty with this and these as well.
Sometimes I make mistakes.
It's not a huge mistake, but it happens that I mistake this for these.
For example, okay, for example, this table is quite big and these microphones are very
powerful.
Yes.
For example.
Yeah, I see what you mean.
That's another good pair to add to our list.
Yes.
So I think we should do some practice sentences.
Okay.
I'm ready.
Okay.
So we're going to train you and also train our listeners in these sounds.
So I'm going to say a sentence which includes both the I sound and the E sound.
Okay.
Then Maruzio, I'd like you to repeat it.
And then we'll leave a space for the listeners to repeat so that you can practice.
Perfect.
So our first one is, I sit on the seat.
I sit on the seat.
Perfect.
And now the listeners.
I sit on the seat.
Great.
The next one is, can I eat it?
Can I eat it?
Perfect.
Great.
Good.
And now the listeners.
Can I eat it?
Good.
Our next one.
The shoes fit on my feet.
The shoes fit on my feet.
Great.
Okay.
The shoes fit on my feet.
And our final sentence is that a ship or a sheep?
Is that a ship or a sheep?
Great.
Okay.
Is that a ship or a sheep?
Okay.
Very good.
Excellent pronunciation.
Very good.
Excellent pronunciation.
Thank you so much.
Well, this has been very useful for me.
Thank you, Josie.
But what if I keep making mistakes about these two sounds?
Is it like a massive mistake or is it not that much of a problem?
Well, to be honest, with pronunciation, I think that as long as people understand
you and you feel confident when you're speaking, it's okay.
But as we've seen, there are a lot of words with e and e, which are very similar.
So there is maybe a chance people could misunderstand you.
I see.
So it's worth just practicing the pairs of words that we've seen to help your confidence
build and help improve your pronunciation.
Should we repeat the sounds one last time?
Good idea.
So we've got e, e, and e.
Perfect.
Great.
Okay.
That's it for today.
Well, I really enjoyed reviewing these two sounds in English, and I hope you enjoyed
this lesson as well.
Thank you so much for joining us, Mauricio.
Thank you for having me.
We'll see you in a future episode.
Now, if you would like some more examples and information about this pronunciation point
written down, you can look at our blog post.
To find that, the link is in the description.
And if you'd like more help with your English, you can receive regular free email lessons
by visiting coffeebreaklanguages.com slash English.
We'll be back next week.
And in the meantime, look out for our next mini lesson in your inbox.
See you soon.
See you soon.
Happy coffee breaking.
