Pronounication of the letter "E"

[mor88]

Hi guys,

I was just talking to a guy from the mall and he asked me to repeat saying the letter "E" three times and he thought he heard "B". So I went home and searched up the pronounication of the letter "E". I believe I have always pronounced it "Yee" instead of "Ee" (what dictionary.com says).

I made a recording below of me pronouncing "E" as "Yee" the first time (my natural tendency), then the sentence "I'm going to check my e-mail". Then the second time, I'm pronouncing "E" as "Ee". Can you guys please help see if my "Yee" pronounciation is incorrect and I should pronounce it "Ee" instead?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v5c6m4ls5oq6u1l/New Recording 111.m4a?dl=0

Many thanks!
Howard

 

[Tdol]

I can't get it to download- I am in a remote area - but in phrase my email, I would link the two words so that it sounded like yee. However, I would not pronounce the letter that way.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

That's an interesting question!

The first pair in your recording is wrong. The second pair is right.

That's what's called a long E. E has other pronunciations, and it's often silent.

But it's never pronounced "yee"!

 

[J&K Tutoring]

Your saying 'yee' is quite typical of Chinese students, and I wish I knew where it comes from. Don't do it! ​

In spoken English, we do 'link' certain words according to the sounds they begin or end with, and this is one of the things that can make spoken English difficult for learners to understand. I constantly struggle to get my Chinese students to say ALL of their words- they very often leave off final consonant sounds.

English speakers naturally link final consonants and initial vowels: 'Bob opens an envelope' sounds like 'Bo bopen sa nenvelope'. This linking helps to make the consonants that end words more clear. The consonant sounds are shifted to the beginning of the next word which begins with a vowel sound.

I often use this example with my students: Let's imagine you have checked into a hotel, and you want to watch TV. You pick up the remote and push the button, but nothing happens! You pick up the phone, dial the front desk, and say, "I can't operate the TV." What the person on the other end would probably hear is, "I can operate the TV", because the 't' is rather lost. If, however, you say something more like, "I can toperate the TV", then the 't' sound is much more clear, and the meaning of the sentence is understood.

There are other ways we link words. There are two ways to link final vowels with initial vowels, depending on the vowel sounds involved. Long 'i' and long 'e' are linked with a small, consonant 'y' sound, as you did in your "... my e-mail". It sounds like "... my yee-mail" just as a native speaker would say it.

The other way to link vowel sounds is with a small 'w' sound, as in 'How are you?' It sounds more like, 'How war you?'. 'Go away' sounds like 'Go wa way.'

 

[bubbha]

If you speak Mandarin, E is pronounced like the number "1" in Mandarin. Though it's spelled "yi" in Pinyin, it's pronounced "ee". It helps if you begin with a glottal stop, a sound heard in between the syllables of the Mandarin word 答案 (da'an).

It might be harder if your language is Cantonese.