Spelling the long vowel sound /ī/:
i-e, igh, y,
ie
| /ī/as in ice-cream |  |
 |
How to spell the long /ī/ sound: |
1) In some words of more than one syllable you just need the letter i, for example:
| item | icon | idea | idol | iris | iron |
| ivy | ivory | crisis | final | pilot | silent |
(more on this in the next Unit - Syllables: Vowel and Consonant Patterns)
2) Sometimes you need to add another letter, for example:
 |
 |
 |
 |
| as in kite | igh as in light | y as in sky | ie as in tie |
| Add e on the end. Most words
use i-e to spell the long /ī/ sound. Some examples: |
Some words use igh. The letters
gh have no sound here. Some examples: |
Use y on the end and sometimes
in the middle. Some examples: |
Only 4 words use ie on the end. |
| bribe tribe hide wide bride life wife bike like file mile pile crime time fine whine* wine* shine spine ripe stripe rise wise bite* quite write* dive drive fire tire* wire admire desire entire require advise invite beside divide ...and many more |
high nigh sigh thigh bright fight flight fright knight* might* night* plight right* sight* slight tight delight nightmare twilight highlight  height |
by* my cry dry fry fly ply sly spy shy sty why apply comply imply supply defy deny rely reply July identify magnify multiply byte* rhyme cycle dynamic hyphen hydrogen pylon python typhoon paralyse hygiene psychology psychiatry |
die* lie pie tie These ie words are made by adding a suffix to words which end in -y. For more on these words, please see Unit 9, Suffixes. cries cried ties tied spies spied dries dried fries fried replies replied etc. |
| Notes: 1) Words marked * are homophones. Please see page 17. 2) Words ending in -ice are in Unit 20 |
|||
 |
Go to next page: some practice in the long /ī/ words |
dictionary
y in the middle
y in the middle