/i:/ is the vowel that we find in the word FLEECE. I put that word in capitals because that is how that vowel is often referred to by linguists: the fleece vowel - or FLEECE for short. (This is not random, the word was specifically chosen for a number of specific reasons.) It is the vowel sound at the end of the word guarantee. In transcriptions of British English it has a colon [ : ] in the symbol to describe the length.
/ɪ/ is the vowel in the word KIT. It is known as the kit vowel - or KIT for short. It is the vowel we find in prefixes and suffixes, the bits we stick onto the beginnings and ends of words. So, for example it is the vowel we hear in --ing verb endings.
The vowel represented by /i/ at the ends of words in dictionaries is usually referred to as the happy vowel - HAPPY. This vowel may sound like either FLEECE or KIT, but is always short in duration.
If you say the < y > sound that we find in the word yes, and then say the < e> we find in the word end, the kit vowel is somewhere between the two sounds. This is the first vowel in the word infinitely. This word would sound very odd to a native speaker if it was said with a fleece vowel, /i:/! It would sound like a made-up word: eenfinitely.
The Original Poster asks if there is a big difference between these vowels. If we are talking about the physical difference between the sounds, the answer is: no. In fact, it is very unusual to have two vowels that are so similar in one language. They are very close together. In most languages these would count as one vowel. However, if we are talking about the meaning, or the effect on a listener, the answer is: yes! There is a big difference. There are very, very, very many words that we can be confused about if you say the wrong vowel. For example, the words peace and piss. Nobody wants to say Piss man!, when they mean Peace man!.
If you want to type IPA script, this website is very useful
Hope this helps,
Peace!
The preposition of has two forms. The weak form /əv/ and the strong form /ɒv/.
The spelling of this word is strange because it uses an F instead of a V. However, English spelling is always strange, so this is not very surprising!
We usually use the weak form of this word. We use the strong form when the word is stressed or when it appears without a Complement afterwards:
- I'm thinking of you. /əv/
- What are you thinking of? /ɒv/
In the first example, the word of is followed by its Complement, the word you. We use the weak form here. In the second example, the word of is at the end of the sentence. There is no noun phrase or other Complement after the word. We use a strong form here.
In relaxed casual speech, the weak form of the word of may sometimes be reduced to a schwa, /ə/ or just to /v/:
- "a bottle ə water"
- "a bottle v water"
Best Answer
In 1988, research by J. C. Wells for the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary showed that only 27% of British English speakers pronounce the "t". Subsequently, 1993 research showed that only 22% of Americans pronounce the "t".
Whether things have changed in the subsequent thirty years I don't know. The major dictionaries include both variants, but continue to put the silent-'t' pronunciation first.
The silent 't' is considered traditional, and the 1965 edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage lamented the fact that the pronunciation with a "t" had become widespread. It saw this as part of the "speak-as-you-spell movement" in which native speakers were increasingly pronouncing things as they were written instead of in a more traditional way. Of course, in most cases this actually involves returning to an older pronunciation (and this is true of "often").
The Oxford English Dictionary records that the t-less pronunciation was avoided by careful speakers in the 17th century (despite having been used by Queen Elizabeth I) but subsequently became standard. Pronouncing the "t" was later regarded by some authorities as a "hypercorrection".