Letter I the Second Vowel

I is the ninth letter and a vowel! I has two main sounds: short I (like in PIG, SIT, BIG) and long I (like in KITE, BIKE, RIDE). Long I sounds like the letter name: eye. Short I is more like ih, a quick open-mouth sound.

Uppercase I is a tall straight line with small lines on top and bottom. Lowercase i is a short line with a dot on top. The dot is called a tittle! I is a vowel, so every syllable that has I can be a complete sound on its own.

Short I: pig, big, sit, lid, fin, kid, pin. Long I: kite, bike, ride, five, like, time. Silent E at the end of a word often makes the I say its name. Compare SIT (short I) and SITE (long I with silent E).

The dot on lowercase i is called a tittle — a fun little word. Many kids forget to dot their i when they write. Always remember: an undotted i looks like a lowercase L! Dotting your i is important for being readable.

Three letters, I-G-H, work together to make the long I sound in many words: LIGHT, NIGHT, MIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT, HIGH, FIGHT. The G and H are silent — you only hear the long I. Why three letters? This pattern is a leftover from OLD English, hundreds of years ago, when GH used to make a throaty sound (like German ach). People stopped pronouncing the GH over time, but the spelling stayed. Lots of English spellings are like this — ghost words from our language’s past. When you see IGH, always try the long I sound first.