Producing /i/

How to produce /i/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/i/
close front unrounded
Lips: spread
Tongue: high-front
Voicing: voiced
💡 Smile slightly, tongue high and forward.

Key production cues:

Smile slightly, tongue high and forward. Often held longer than /ɪ/.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

1. Say /i/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
2. Say /i/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /i-i-i-i-i/.
3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /i/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: eat, each, see
• Middle: tree, green, keep
• End / in clusters: week, people, city

/i/close front unroundedArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗