Leave vs. Live

Question

I am a native Spanish speaker and I can't hear the difference between "live" and "leave."  Are there any tips or suggestions you all have for me?Thanks!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Hi, amylopez, Thanks for joining us. Welcome to English Forums!

As far as I know, there's no vowel sound in Spanish resembling our "short i." So your pronunciation of "leave" is probably the one that's correct (like the Spanish "i" in Licha). Do you have the same problem with "heat" and "hit"? "Seat" and "sit"?

"Live" is not a good one to practice on, since it has two very different pronunciations. The verb, "I live in the city," has the short "i," like "hit." The adjective, "We had a live band at the party," has what we call a "long i," in which the letter says it's own name. It has the vowel sound of "sky," which is a two-part sound, or dipthong, ah - ee.

Just practice saying all the one-syllable words with a short i vowel. Start with "it" and then stick each consonant in front of it (some don't work). bit, dit, fit, hit, kit, lit, mit, nit, pit, sit, wit, zit.

There's a site, howjsay.com, where you can type in words and listen to the correct sounds. Just try to imitate them.

Best wishes, - A.

CalifJim · Answer

Welcome to English Forums!

amylopezI can't hear the difference between "live" and "leave."

Hmm. If you can't hear these, I don't know what suggestion would help. Are you sure you can't hear them?

Have a native speaker say them mixed in a list like: live, leave, leave, leave, live, live, leave, live, live, leave (without showing you the list).

You write what you think you heard in each case. If you end up with a totally random list of guesses, as indicated by a score near 50%, then there's not much you can do. Concentrate on other parts of your English lessons, and come back to this issue later. You may find that you are better at hearing the differences after you've had more exposure to English.

CJ

Avangi · Answer

I must have been half asleep when I wrote that post. I know for some people it's difficult to speak and to listen at the same time. Perhaps alternately is better.

Since you're trying to train your brain, I think one activity informs the other. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As Jim suggests, exposure is vital. Your brain is smarter than you think!

Kooyeen · Answer

Hi, and welcome to EnglishForward!

I'm Italian, so I know what your problem is. Mine was a different one though: it's not that I couldn't hear it, it's just that no one had ever told me there were two different vowels in English for those words. Every person I know just say "leave" when they read "live", and no teacher of mine has even correct anyone or even mentioned "live" was supposed to have a different vowel. When I started to learn English by myself and got my first pronouncing dictionary I was so surprised to hear "did" was not pronounced like "deed"!!!

I believe you can hear the difference, but you have always been used to considering these two vowels as a single one, so whenever you hear one or the other you automatically associate it with the one in "leave", which is the only one you have considered so far. This happens to Italians too: they hear someone say "I live in Italy" and they repeat "I leave een Eetaly", using only the vowel in "leave".

Listen to these: you can find more on MerriamWebster.com

http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/l/leave001.wav
http://media.merriam-webster.com/soundc11/l/live0001.wav

I believe you will be able to hear the difference, and from now on, consider those two sounds as different vowels. I don't know Spanish, but if it's like Italian then the vowel in "live" is like something that is halfway between your "i" and your "e" in Spanish.
Then practice this:
http://www.manythings.org/mp/m30.html
It'll make you hear the difference between minimal pairs. On that same site you can learn and practice about other minimal pairs too, which I presume you may need (like the difference between "bed" and "bad")

Good luck and don't give up, minimal pairs are important if you want to enjoy spoken English.

Anonymous · Answer

Enter the text in a [url=http://nosayudamos.ning.com/page/page/show?id=2048686%3APage%3A9603]text reader[/url] to hear what it sounds like. This should help you to be able to hear the difference in the 2 words.

Leave vs. Live

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