Minimal pairs practice in real sentences

Practise one line now

Open the live and leave exercise

The exercise opens on one line from Andy Puddicombe’s talk at 0:15: “We live in an incredibly busy world.” Say “live” short and relaxed; a long vowel would turn it into “leave”. Listen, record your version, then open Compare and play your take next to the speaker.

What Sada can and cannot tell you

Sada checks which of your words came across and how your timing compares with the speaker. It does not grade individual sounds, stress or pitch. Speech recognition also uses the rest of the sentence: in “We live in an incredibly busy world”, “leave” makes no sense, so a slightly long vowel may still be written as “live”. A word shown as heard is not proof that the vowel was right; a word shown as missed is a strong hint to listen again.

So judge each pair by ear too: play your take next to the speaker and listen for that one sound. To hear a single word on its own, use a dictionary with audio such as Cambridge’s pronunciation dictionary.

Why practise pairs in sentences

Most minimal pair lists stop at single words: ship, sheep, ship, sheep. That is a good start for the ear. But in real speech the word is short, unstressed or linked to the next one, and that is where the sound slips. A line from a real speaker gives you the word at natural speed, with the rhythm around it, and a model to copy straight away.

Work in two directions. To train the ear, type what you hear in Type it mode and check it word by word. To train the mouth, say the line in Repeat or Shadow mode, record it and compare.

The pairs on this page

The pairs, one by one

1. Live and leave

The short I of “live”, “ship” and “sit” is short, relaxed and a little open. The long EE of “leave”, “sheep” and “seat” is longer, with the lips spread as in a smile. Many languages have one sound between the two, so both words come out the same. Say the pair slowly, then hear each one inside a line.

“We live in an incredibly busy world.”

Andy Puddicombe · 0:15 · Practise this line →

“live”: short and relaxed. Say it long, with the lips spread, and the sentence says “leave”. The I of “busy” is the same short sound.

“And I actually didn't leave my house for about three days.”

Brené Brown · 0:26 · Practise this line →

“leave”: the other half of the pair, long, with the lips spread. The short I of “didn’t” comes just before it, so both sounds are in one breath.

2. Sit and seat, hit and heat

The same two vowels in other words. Length is the easiest part to hear, so start there: let EE last, and keep I short. The second line has both sounds back to back, “heat it”, which is the real test.

“I just wanted to sit in the audience and watch to learn more about Cambodia.”

Derek Sivers · 0:13 · Practise this line →

“sit” and “in”: short I. Stretch the vowel of “sit” and a listener hears “seat”.

“but if you put it in lukewarm water, and then slowly heat it up, the frog won't survive.”

Adam Grant · 0:18 · Practise this line →

“heat it”: the long EE, then the short I straight after. Cut “heat” short and it becomes “hit”.

3. Man and men, bad and bed

The A of “man”, “bad” and “cat” is made with the jaw low and the mouth wide. The E of “men” and “bed” is made with the mouth half open. Put a finger on your chin: it drops further for “man” than for “men”. Getting this wrong turns one man into several.

“So a lack of sleep will age a man by a decade in terms of that critical aspect of wellness.”

Matt Walker · 0:33 · Practise this line →

“man”: the jaw drops for this A, as in “lack” and “that”. Close the mouth halfway and it becomes “men”.

“- If you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed.”

William McRaven · 0:00 · Practise this line →

“bed”: the mouth only half open. Open it wide, as for “man”, and it becomes “bad”.

4. Walk and work

The spelling misleads here: “walk” has a silent L and a rounded vowel, as in “law”; “work” has the ER of “her”, with no rounding. In American English the R is heard; in British English “work” has no R but the vowel stays the same.

“because you couldn't go home on the subway by yourself and you couldn't walk home,”

Malcolm Gladwell · 0:29 · Practise this line →

“walk”: the L is silent, and the vowel is open and rounded. Say it with the vowel of “her” and it becomes “work”.

“When the work came back, I calculated grades.”

Angela Lee Duckworth · 0:33 · Practise this line →

“work”: the vowel of “her” and “bird”, the lips relaxed. Round them and it becomes “walk”.

5. Want and won’t

“Want” has one short vowel. “Won’t” has the O of “go”, which glides from “oh” towards “oo”. Mix them up and “I want to go” becomes “I won’t go”. Keep the vowel of “want” still, and let the O of “won’t” move.

“Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it.”

Steve Jobs · 0:47 · Practise this line →

“want”: one short vowel that does not move. A gliding O here would say “won’t”, the opposite.

“The climate getting worse means that many years, their crops won't grow:”

Bill Gates · 0:45 · Practise this line →

“won’t”: the O glides, “oh-oo”, like the “grow” that follows it. The pair is a meaning change, not a detail.

6. Three and tree, think and sink

The voiceless TH of “three” and “think” is made with the tongue tip lightly between the teeth, blowing air. Without it, “three” becomes “tree” or “free”, and “think” becomes “sink” or “tink”. Listeners often understand from context, but not always: “thank” and “tank”, or “thin” and “sin”, can both fit.

“And this entire situation, with the three characters -- this is the procrastinator's system.”

Tim Urban · 9:56 · Practise this line →

“three”, not “tree” or “free”: the tongue tip lightly between the teeth, then the R.

“We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically.”

Sir Ken Robinson · 13:16 · Practise this line →

“think” three times: not “sink”, not “tink”. Keep the tongue between the teeth until the vowel starts.

Which words take which TH, with five more lines: TH sound practice.

7. Very and berry

For V, the top teeth rest on the lower lip and the voice buzzes. For B, both lips close and then open. In some languages, such as Spanish, the two letters are one sound, so “very” and “berry” sound the same.

“minus 40 is where the two scales meet -- it was very cold.”

Daniel Levitin · 0:30 · Practise this line →

“very”: top teeth on the lower lip, and a buzz. Close both lips and it becomes “berry”.

“Believing that the best way to prove yourself is to improve yourself,”

Adam Grant · 14:45 · Practise this line →

B in “believing” and “best”, the lips closed; V in “prove” and “improve”, the teeth on the lip.

More in V and F pronunciation and P and B pronunciation.

8. Light and right

For L, the tongue tip touches the ridge just behind the top teeth. For the English R, the tongue touches nothing: it pulls back a little and the lips round. Japanese and Korean have one sound in this space, which is why the pair is hard for their speakers. Feel the touch: it is there for L and not for R.

“TEDx – oh my God, blinding light!”

Mel Robbins · 0:15 · Practise this line →

“blinding” and “light”: the tongue tip touches the ridge behind the top teeth. Without the touch, “light” drifts towards “right”.

“But before I give it away, I want to ask you to right now do a little audit of your body and what you're doing with your body.”

Amy Cuddy · 0:28 · Practise this line →

“right”: the tongue touches nothing and the lips round a little. Then the L of “little”, with the touch, in the same line.

Hear it first: Type it

Before you say a pair, check that you hear it. Open a line in Type it mode, for example “We live in an incredibly busy world.” as dictation: listen, type what you hear and check it word by word. Typing “leave” for “live” shows that the vowel is not yet clear to your ear.

One limit: Type it forgives one wrong letter in a word of four letters or more as a typing slip, so “right” for “light” or “tree” for “three” passes. Short words must be exact, so “bad” for “bed” or “men” for “man” is marked. More in English dictation practice.

Ten minutes a day with Sada

1. Choose one pair (1 minute). The one your first language merges, or the one people ask you to repeat. Say the two words slowly, ten times each, and feel what changes in your mouth.
2. Type it (2 minutes). Open one of the pair’s lines in Type it mode and check what you heard.
3. Listen and repeat (2 minutes). In Repeat mode, listen twice, reading the caption, then say the line after the speaker. Slow it to 0.75× if it is fast.
4. Shadow, record and compare (4 minutes). In Shadow mode, say the line with the speaker a moment behind, then record a take and open Compare. Play your take next to the original and listen for the pair’s sound only. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
5. Keep a daily line (1 minute). Open the 30-day path: five real lines a day, easy talks first, and a missed day is simply continued.

Stay on one pair for a week. At the end of the week, record the same line again and play the two takes one after the other.

Keep going

For more real sentences from short to long: listen-and-repeat practice. For a wider plan, with word stress, -ed endings and the weak vowel: how to improve your English pronunciation. If your first language is Spanish, the vowels and B and V are set out with more lines in English pronunciation for Spanish speakers.