A tutor once told us about a lesson in which a Korean student was talking about a trip to New York. The student happily mentioned that she visited “Fief Avenue.” “What Fief Avenue?” the tutor thought to herself.

After a few seconds, the tutor realized that her student meant, “Fifth Avenue.” However, she mispronounced the “i” sound in “fifth” and then left out the -th sound in “fifth,” leading our tutor to hear “fief.”

Chances are, you’ve probably had students who confused these sounds as well. Perhaps they said “sheep” instead of “ship” or “eat” instead of “it,” and so on and so forth. For clarity’s sake, we’ll call the “i” sound the bit vowel and the “ee” sound the beet vowel.*

Because the bit vowel is rarely found in other languages, it’s difficult for many English learners to learn. But with the right tips, mastery is possible! Let’s take a look at some easy ways to teach our students the difference! 

Note: Some tutors may know these sounds by the names, “short i” and “long e.” Since these terms can easily lead people to think they’re referring to the duration of the vowel, we’ll refer to them as the “bit” and “beet” vowels instead.

Start with Easy Vowels

For students from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, it helps to first realize that the bit vowel is not the “ee” sound in their language.

Instead, they can think of the bit vowel as somewhere between the two vowels they know: beet (い 이 衣) and bet (え 애 爺).

There are many ways you can help your student pronounce the bit vowel.

1. Transition

Have them transition from the beet to the bet vowel slowly and they should be able to hit the bit vowel somewhere in the middle!

2. Emphasize the Height of the Mouth

If they seem to need a little more help, try to show the difference in the mouth height when pronouncing the three vowels. For example, put one finger between or in front of your lips like this to show how wide your mouth needs to be for the beet vowel:

Then put two fingers to show how far apart their lips need to be to make the bet vowel. And then somewhere in between those two, they will find the bit vowel.

3. Point Out Your Chin

Yet another way you can help them pronounce the problematic vowel is to point out how much the jaw drops by placing your hand under your chin while you make each vowel sound. 

Start with the beet vowel. Then drop your jaw a little bit to make the bit sound. Finally, drop it more to make the bet sound.

4. Say an Easy Vowel First

You can also encourage your student to say one of the vowels they’re more familiar with (beet or bet) before they try to say the bit vowel, like in this video:

For example, before they say, “bit,” they can say the “bet” vowel a few times, raise their jaw a little, and then pronounce the “bit” vowel. That way, they can start with a more familiar vowel and then slightly adjust their mouth to reach the desired vowel.

If you’re teaching students who don’t have the bet vowel in their language (e.g. Arabic-speaking students), you can use the boot vowel instead. See a demonstration of that here.

Tongue Positioning

If your students are still struggling with the bit vowel, the next thing you can do is tell them how to position their tongue. 

(If you aren’t aware that the tongue moves when we make vowel sounds, don’t worry! Just wash your hands, and touch the tip of your tongue with a finger. Then say “EE OO” a few times, and you should be able to feel your tongue moving back and forth.)

Anyways, when we pronounce the bit vowel, the tip of our tongue touches the bottom of the front teeth, whereas when we make the beet vowel, our tongue is close to the roof of our mouth, but not touching it.

So make sure to remind your student to touch the front bottom teeth with their tongue if they’re struggling to make the bit vowel!

Final Tips & Tricks

If you’re working with a Taiwanese student, you can send them this Youtube video, in which a pronunciation teacher humorously explains a direct equivalent of the bit vowel in Chinese!

If you have extra time, quiz your student. Say some words in the following list and ask them to guess which ones you’ve pronounced:

You can send this image to your student and have them point up or down to show which one they hear. After they get five of these correct in a row, switch and have your student say a word while you pick the right vowel. (Alternatively, you can use this pronunciation exercise from our IELTS Speaking Practice materials.)

Finally, students who need extra help may find this lesson by Cambridge English helpful.

👋 That’s it for now!

Have you noticed your student mispronouncing the bit vowel? Which of these tips do you think you’ll use? Happy tutoring!