IPA phoneme \iː\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/iː/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "fleece", "tree" and "seat". Sometimes the triangular colon /ː/ is replaced by a normal colon, as in /i:/. Most American dictionaries don't write the triangular colon at all: fleece /flis/.

Often this phoneme is pronounced as a dipththong [ij] or [ɪj]. See IPA phonetic symbol [j].

This phoneme is informally called **“long E”**.

## Common words

Some common words which practice this pronunciation include the following:

* with "**e**": appr**e**ciate, equal, **e**ven, **e**vening, evil, f**e**male, fr**e**quent, imm**e**diately, legal, m**e**ter, m**e**tre*BrE*, previous, proc**e**dure, r**e**cent, region, s**e**cret, senior, s**e**quence, sp**e**cies, v**e**hicle

final "**e**": be - he - me - she - we
With magic e: athlete - compete - complete - concrete - delete - extreme - gene - scene - scheme - theme - these
* with "**ea**": beach - bead - beat - bleach - breathe - cheat - clean - cream - creature - deal - dream - each - easy - eat - feature - heal - heat - increase - jeans - lead *(verb)* - leader - leaf - lean - leave - meal - mean - meat - pea - peach - peak - please - reach - read - repeat - reason - reveal - scream - sea - seal - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - treat - weak - weasel

* with "**ee**": agree - between - deep - degree - fee - feed - feel - fifteen - free - green - indeed - keep - meet - need - proceed - screen - see - seed - seek - seem - sheet - sleep - speech - speed - street - succeed - sweet - three - tree - week
* with "**ei**": ceiling - conceive - deceive - leisure*AmE* - perceive - receipt - receive
* with "**ie**": achieve - belief - believe - brief - chief - field - niece - piece - relief - skied
* with **"i"**: gasoline - machine - magazine - police - routine - sardine - technique - vaccine
* others: key - people - ski - suite

For unstressed final /iː/ (happy, coffee, money, recipe, taxi, zombie) see Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/ § Unstressed syllable. See the same section for unstressed /iː/ before a vowel (as in associate or curious).

## Less common words

* with "**e**": anesth**e**sia, cathedral, d**e**cent, Egypt, genius, Indonesia, ingr**e**dient, interm**e**diate, Korea, l**e**ver*BrE*, Norwegian, ob**e**dient, obesity, P**e**ter, St**e**ven, strategic, Sw**e**den, Swedish, tedious, thesis, V**e**nus

With magic e: supreme
* with "**ea**": New Zealand
* with "**ee**": eel - Greece
* with "**ie**": grief - shield - thief
* with "**i**": Argentina - Christ**i**ne - Costa Rica - kiwi - liter*AmE* - litre*BrE* - Puerto Rico
* with "oe" or "e": amoeba/ameba*AmE* - foetus*BrE*/fetus - oedema*BrE*/edema*AmE* - Oedipus - oenology*BrE*/enology*AmE* - oesophagus*BrE*/esophagus*AmE* - subpoena /səˈpiːnə/

See Decoding exercises: "oe"
## Homophones

* bee - B; feat - feet; genes - jeans; heal - heel; meat - meet; pea - pee - P; peace - piece; sea - see - C; scene - seen; steal - steel; suite - sweet; tea - tee - T; weak - week; we'll - wheel;

## Rhymes

* feel - deal; free - sea - me - ski - B; niece - increase - Greece

## These words don't rhyme

* fever - never; fiend - friend; leader - header; leaf - deaf; police - service - advice; skied - died;

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

While **/iː/** is similar to the Spanish letter "**i**", it is actually much longer, and some Spanish speakers may have difficulty distinguishing between the vowel sound in "seen" and that of **/ɪ/**, as in "sin", which is shorter than the Spanish "**i**".

A problem much easier to correct is when students pronounce below their level of English. In words that are similar to Spanish, many people are confused by the spelling. The may pronounce "region" (Spanish *región*) as \*/ˈredʒən/ or "obesity" (Spanish *obesidad*) as \*/ɒˈbesɪtiː/. Any attempt at /iː/ they make will be much better than pronouncing /e/. See Decoding and spelling exercises: /e/ vs /iː/.

## References

1. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary. See for example various.
2. ↑ Geoff Lindsey, The British English vowel system, 8 March 2012.

## See also

* Decoding the letter E
* Homophones
* Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/
* Silent e

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation