American English “short” vowels: use minimal pairs to practice efficiently!

This short article is the first of an introductory series on English pronunciation, with the goal of giving an overview of some key concepts and tools. In this article we will learn about simple vowels, also known as "short" vowels (later we will learn that this term is misleading!)

The quality of your pronunciation is the most important aspect of your English speaking—without clear pronunciation, native speakers will have difficulty understanding you, even if your grammar and vocabulary are perfect! If your listeners give you confused looks or seem uninterested in what you have to say, how you speak might be your biggest problem! Thankfully, there are many tools for improving. Today we’ll learn about “minimal pairs,” a powerful tool in linguistics that can help with our practice!

Learning to describe vowel sounds

In English there are simple vowels and complex vowels. Simple vowels are made from a single, pure sound, while complex vowels are made from a pair of sounds that flow together. In General American English, there are seven simple vowels, which can be remembered with the following mantra: "pit, pet, pat, pot, paw, putt, put." To a speaker of General American English, each of these words are distinct in sound, with each of them having a different vowel sound. Trying to learn all seven vowels at once is difficult though, so instead let's try to focus on just one pair of sounds, [ɪ] in "pit" and [ɛ] in "pet."

Let's start with the 'i' in "pit." This symbol is used in IPA (that’s the International Phonetic Alphabet! It’s used to talk about similarities in pronunciation between different languages) to describe "near-close near-front unrounded" vowel sounds. This description is a little confusing at first: let's explain each piece. "Near-close" means that the tongue is kept "close" to the top of the mouth. "Close" vowels are the opposite of "open" vowels, where the mouth is wide open and the tongue is very low. You can think of "near-close" as meaning "relatively high."

Next, "near-front" means the tongue is moved forward, with the vowel sounding in the front of the mouth. This is contrast to "back" vowels that are pronounced closer to the back of the mouth.

An example of a simple vowel chart. It shows how high/low and how front/back each vowel is pronounced. The left side represents the front of the mouth.

Looking at the chart, [ɪ] and [ɛ] are both front vowels, but [ɪ] is pronounced with the tongue higher.

Finally, "unrounded" means that the lips are flat, not rounded into a circle. Note that this last trait has to do with lip shape, not tongue position, and is not shown in the chart above. These three characteristics (tongue high or low? tongue front or back? lips round or not round?) can be used to generally describe most vowel sounds.

Now let's look at that IPA description again! As we learned earlier, in IPA [ɪ] refers to a "near-close near-front unrounded" vowel. So that means a vowel that is high and front in the mouth, and with lips not rounded. Listen to the word "pit" a few times, and repeat it to yourself aloud. Feel the position of vowel in your mouth and note the shape of your lips.

Let's compare this vowel to the [ɛ] in "pet." IPA uses [ɛ] to describe a vowel that is "open-mid front unrounded." That is, the vowel is relatively low, at the front of the mouth, and with lips unrounded. The clearest difference between [ɪ] and [ɛ] is the height: one is high and one is low. Listen to the audio for "pet" now and repeat it aloud, feeling the difference in height.

The power of minimal pairs

The words "pit" and "pet" are a special kind of pair of words in phonology. These two words are called a "minimal pair." This is because they have exactly one difference in their pronunciation, in this case it is their vowel. Other examples of minimal pairs are "pit" and "bit" which differ in initial consonant, and "pit" and "pin" which differ in final consonant. By listening carefully to these pairs spoken by native speakers, we can practice hearing and speaking sounds clearly and without causing confusion.

Some examples of minimal pairs. These word pairs can be used to practice not only vowels, but consonants as well.

The highlighted letter in each word is the key sound to focus on. The words are identical in pronunciation except for that one sound.

Take a moment to practice saying each word. See if you can feel the precise difference in each pair!

This makes the goal of pronunciation practice clear: to learn what sounds exist in a language, and to practice similar sounds until you can hear the differences and speak them clearly. If you can achieve this, communicating with native speakers will become much easier and a lot more fun!

Wrapping up

If you would like to dive deeper into vowel pronunciation using minimal pairs, I have written a complete guide! English Vowels is the first part of my series on English pronunciation for ESL students. This first release goes over all the vowels in the English language. 35 audio practice files are included to help you master each vowel by imitating a native speaker, and minimal pairs are contrasted so you can avoid common mistakes in English vowel pronunciation. To help visualize each sound, vowel charts for the English vowels are provided, complete with an adaptation of the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) to clarify similar sounds.

Next time I'll introduce complex vowels in English, sometimes called "long vowels" (and we’ll learn why this term is confusing). I’ll teach a trick that will make these vowels easier to hear and pronounce for yourself, and try to help clear up why “short” and “long” can be more confusing than helpful for learners. Once you have learned about simple and complex vowels, you will have most of the background theory needed to really master English vowels!