I (letter)

I is the ninth letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced just like I, eye and aye (Î, eŷe and aŷe: the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).

Use in English

The ïr sound: gïrl, fïrst, bïrth birthday (= bërth ship), gïrth, fïr tree (= für cat) and stïr, is the same sound as in nërve, türn and wörm wriggle (cf. wårm hot, wŏrn wear).

A list of irregular i’s:

spelling	pronunciation
again	*əgén; or əgâin
against	*əgénst; or əgâinst
croissant	*kwússón (French nasal -on)
impasse	(regular) ímpasse or (irregular) *ámpasse (á or à)
lingerie	*lànjerèy (è stressed)
meringue	*meráng
reveille	*reválly
said	*séd

Final i is usually unstressed î: álibî, nùclêî, rábbî, Mâgî. Also: pî number (= pîe eat) - but not usually in monosyllables: skì, dôh-rè-mì (mì = mê mine) and not in nationalities: Sàudì (*Sòwdi), Pakistānì, nor in girls’ names: Térrì, Dórì, Nâomì, Jácquì (-kì) nor in Italian words: raviôlì, spaghéttì, conféttì, Rossìnì.

Double i is very rare and usually accidental: skìíng, Shìîte, râdìî and Hawàiì (*Ha-wài-ì: three syllables).

-ice: In monosyllables: twîce, nîce, trîce, thrîce, vîce, lîce, prîce and in: sácrifîce, devîce, advîce but -íce usually in words of more than one syllable: pôultíce, crévíce, nótíce, láttíce, Véníce, hóspíce, órifíce, nóvíce. But: polìce.

-ive: Adjectives have an unstressed -íve: obtrûsíve, abûsíve, tålkatíve, demónstratíve, contémplatíve, progréssíve, regréssíve, inclûsíve and nouns: môtíve, explêtíve, dîgestíve (noun or adjective) while verbs have a stressed -îve: contrîve, arrîve, deprîve, revîve, but: líve (verb) lîve (adjective) alîve (adjective).

-ible, or -able (see also under a): sénsible, respónsible, póssible, éligible, suscéptible, convërtible.

In more recent formations from nouns and verbs -able is usual: êatable (cf. édible) pálatable, unbreâkable, unrepêatable, classifîable, relîable (in)dispénsable and also, to prevent -ii-, vîable. ii does, however, occur in two words, skìing and Hawàìi (*Həwàì). See under a for the suffixes -icle, -ical, -acle, and -age (*-íj).

The merely negative prefix dís- (distâsteful, disâbled, disinclîned) sounds exactly like another, dýs-, which means bad: dýsentery, dysléxia, dysfúnction.

i is redundant in friénd, pláit, sûit, frûit, jûice, slûice, crûise, brûise, recrûit, pursûit, nûisance, pàrliament, cárriage, márriage (both -ríj).

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing