This is a “short” or “checked” vowel sound, so is always followed by a consonant.
8 responses to “i”
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you need ui and more for u too
I can’t think of any words with the sound /I/ as in “pin” that have it spelt “ui”, are you talking about build and built? I classify them as “bu” because of buy and buoy, just because that way I have one category for three odd words instead of three new categories. I can’t think what other words have this sound spelt with the letter “u” apart from busy and its derivatives, but if you know some, please tell me about them. All the best, Alison
Perhaps ‘guilt’?
Hi Ross, I’ve filed ‘guilt’ with ‘guitar’ and ‘guess’ and ‘disguise’ because I don’t usually put words with harder spellings on lists which demonstrate easier spellings. The letter u in these words is part of a ‘gu’ spelling, and is there to separate the ‘g’ and the front vowel, because when you have ge, gi or gy, the ‘g’ is usually pronounced /j/. See https://www.spelfabet.com.au/spelling-lists/sorted-by-sound/g/gu-as-in-guess. Hope that makes sense. Alison
Biscuit?
I think of the ui in biscuit and circuit as an unstressed version of the ui in suit and fruit, see http://www.spelfabet.com.au/spelling-lists/sorted-by-sound/unstressed-vowel/ui-as-in-biscuit. I’m not sure what to do with the letter ‘u’ otherwise.
I looked down this list think that biscuit ought to be somewhere here. By the time I had said it ten times to myself, I realised I was hearing the neutral (lazy?) schwa sound. You’re right, biscuit and circuit have the unstressed vowel for the second syllable.
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