Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 127th episode. Hello Portuguese speakers. Many of you

have asked me for a special episode and here's part one, vowels.

I'm breaking this show up into parts, because episodes that talk about specific language issues

cover so many different concepts. It's just too much for one show.

So part one will cover five vowels issues and part two will cover

five consonants issues. Since I still can't get into a huge amount of detail, I'll also

link to the free pronunciation lessons for each issue. That way you can learn more if you want to. Here we go. Issue number one, pronouncing

the short I as a long E. This is a problem not just for native Portuguese speakers, but for almost

all non-native English speakers. You know that you have this problem

if you're scared to talk to native speakers about going to the beach or to ask them for a sheet of paper.

Your listeners may overcorrect and never really be sure which sound you're intending to say.

The short I is the vowel sound in the word sit.

I. Sit.

The long e is the vowel sound in the word keep.

E.

Keep. The tongue needs to be dropped

a bit lower in the mouth

to produce the short I sound

learning to relax the tongue a little

will also help

listen to the difference

...