grammatical question..?

Question

I've never understood why sometimes the letter " I" is read "i", for example in the word "find"
while sometimes it is read like the letter "e" for example in the word "english".. when it must be read like "i" and when like "e"?

Answer 1

English has Germanic roots, originally deriving from the same language as German and Icelandic, among others. The unique thing about English, however, is that it has evolved to include words from many, many other sources. The pronounciation and spelling of a word in English depends largely on what language the word originally came from. For example, the "f" sound can be produced either by the letter f as in "find," or the letters ph as in "photograph." The "ph" way of spelling that sound is present in words which derive from ancient Greek.

To further complicate matters, centuries ago English underwent something called "the great vowel shift" by linguists. For some reason, the pronounciation of vowels changed. In most modern languages, the long letter 'i' is pronounced "ee" - but in English, it is most commonly pronounced like in the word "find." The end result of this is that words which were part of the language before the vowel shift are pronounced one way, and words added from other languages after the vowel shift are pronounced a different way.

Unfortunately, there is no single set of rules which can tell you how to spell and pronounce each word in English. It is possible to figure it out by examining the origin of the word, but that is a lot of work and is generally unnecessary. The easiest way to figure out how to pronounce a word you are unfamiliar with is to look up the word in a dictionary. English dictionaries always write out the pronounciation of the word after the word itself, usually in parentheses. The pronounciation is written out using letters and some symbols, and you can usually find a list of the symbols and how they sound at the beginning of the dictionary. Also, you can always ask a librarian, teacher, or professor how to pronounce unfamiliar words.

I have provided some links for you that might help you understand why words are pronounced the way they are, and help you find pronounciations for new words. Good luck!

Answer 2

Don't you wish the English language was simple. I do. It's just the way English is structured, which makes it one of the most difficult languages to learn. In contrast, my native tongue makes no distinction between "e" and "i". Neither does it have the English long "a" and short "a". "A" is sounded as "ah or uh". Also, "o" and "u" are sounded the same.

Answer 3

there is no set rule for knowing how a vowel sound is pronounced in english. You have to learn each word one by one.

Answer 4

The long /i/ in English changed from the sound [i:] (as in 'week') to the diphthong [ai] (as in 'find') some time between Chaucer and Shakespeare. The short /i/ has retained its pronunciation of [i] (as in 'bit').

Answer 5

I found a very good website that demonstrates the differnet vowel sounds. www.inglesfacilonline.com