I (letter)

I is the ninth letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced just like I, eye and aye (Î, eŷe and aŷe: the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).

Use in English

I represents various vowel sounds.

The short sound: fíll, íf, guíld, buíld, síx, twín, líd, kíd, Índia, tíff, gíft, gíve, líve, wíth, hís, bít, quít, Ítaly, knít, contrítion, nutrítion, optícian, sít, líd, quíp, ríp, quíz (cf. cýst).

íe substituting for final ỳ before the suffixes -ed and -s also has this sound: wòrríes, hóbbíes, flúrríes (all -íz) wòrríed, rállíed, cárríed (all -íd). It should be noted that some younger BrE speakers are regularising these words to hóbbìês (-êez) wòrrìêd, etc.

The long sound is a diphthong consisting of à + ê: sîde, clîent, plîant, nîght, whîte, sîgn, mîne, trîumph, tîe, sîze, lîfe, nîce, vîe, pî, number = pîe eat, hî, hello = hîgh up. Also, unstressed in final position: álibî, nûclêî (cf. spŷ) and before two consonants: pînt, lîthe, blîthe.

Some British speakers emphasise their social superiority by pronouncing the î before r in words like wîre and fîre like à, so that fîre sounds like fàr: this is not a practice to recommend to foreign learners. Similarly, the pronunciation (here of fîre again) can be as extreme as a very long *fú in the American South.

îe substitutes for final ŷ before suffixes -ed and -s: crîes, flîes, drîed, prîes, relîed.

A third sound, long also, = ê, usually from Latin languages: machìne, elìte, Janìne, Christìna, polìce, Argentìna, skì, ballerìna, and unstressed: piâno (where it resembles the consonantal sound of y) Nàzì, Chrístìne or Christìne, mézzanìne, qùarantìne, and also Benìn. This ending can also be -îne: fîne, dîne, undermîne, and -íne when unstressed: exámíne, detërmíne, ërmíne.

i before e except after c remains a good rule, and the same applies to w with the exception of wìêld. ei after c also has the ì sound: decêit, cêiling, recêive - and similarly after w: wêird, wêir - though not in wèigh, wèight heavy (= wây how, wâit time).

The third sound of ì merges into a preceding s to make the zh sound in -sion: vísion, derísion, lêsion, télevísion, revísion and into preceding c and t to make the sh sound in -cious and -tion: précious, spêcious, ignítion, nâtion, creâtion, posítion, abstráction, inténtion, méntion and into x to make a ksh sound in -xious: ánxious, nóxious (*ánkshəss, *nókshəss).

There can be a similar effect before the suffixes -cia, -sia and -tia: Galìcia (-ìssiə) Patrícia (-íshə) Alícia (more often -íssiə than -íshə) Âsia (*Ashə or Âzhə) amnêsia, Maláysia, Indonêsia (all for most speakers -zhə) Croâtia (*Crôwâshə) milítia, inërtia (both -shə) - and in AmE with Tunisia (*Toô-nìzhə) but not in BrE (Chû-nízìə).

The ïr sound: gïrl, fïrst, bïrth birthday (= bërth ship), gïrth, fïr tree (= für cat) and stïr, is the same sound as in nërve, türn and wörm wriggle (cf. wårm hot, wŏrn wear).

A list of irregular i’s:

spelling	pronunciation
again	*əgén	əgâin
against	*əgénst	əgâinst
croissant	*kwússón (French nasal -on)
impasse	(regular) ímpasse	(irregular) *ámpasse (á or à)
lingerie	BrE *lánzhəry	AmE *lànjerèy (è stressed)
meringue	*meráng
reveille	*reválly
said	*séd

Final i is usually unstressed î: álibî, nùclêî, rábbî, Mâgî. Also: pî number (= pîe eat) - but not usually in monosyllables: skì, dôh-rè-mì (mì = mê mine) and not in nationalities: Sàudì (*Sòwdi), Pakistānì, nor in girls’ names: Térrì, Dórì, Nâomì, Jácquì (-kì) nor in Italian words: raviôlì, spaghéttì, conféttì, Rossìnì.

Double i is very rare and usually accidental: skìíng, Shìîte, râdìî and Hawàiì (*Ha-wài-ì: three syllables).

-ice: In monosyllables: twîce, nîce, trîce, thrîce, vîce, lîce, prîce and in: sácrifîce, devîce, advîce but -íce usually in words of more than one syllable: pôultíce, crévíce, nótíce, láttíce, Véníce, hóspíce, órifíce, nóvíce. But: polìce.

-ive: Adjectives have an unstressed -íve: obtrûsíve, abûsíve, tålkatíve, demónstratíve, contémplatíve, progréssíve, regréssíve, inclûsíve and nouns: môtíve, explêtíve, dîgestíve (noun or adjective) while verbs have a stressed -îve: contrîve, arrîve, deprîve, revîve, but: líve (verb) lîve (adjective) alîve (adjective).

-ible, or -able (see also under a): sénsible, respónsible, póssible, éligible, suscéptible, convërtible.

In more recent formations from nouns and verbs -able is usual: êatable (cf. édible) pálatable, unbreâkable, unrepêatable, classifîable, relîable (in)dispénsable and also, to prevent -ii-, vîable. ii does, however, occur in two words, skìing and Hawàìi (*Həwàì). See under a for the suffixes -icle, -ical, -acle, and -age (*-íj).

The merely negative prefix dís- (distâsteful, disâbled, disinclîned) sounds exactly like another, dýs-, which means bad: dýsentery, dysléxia, dysfúnction.

i is redundant in friénd, pláit, sûit, frûit, jûice, slûice, crûise, brûise, recrûit, pursûit, nûisance, pàrliament, cárriage, márriage (both -ríj).

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing