⟨ea⟩

IPA phoneme /eɪ/ Close-mid front unrounded vowel Close front unrounded vowel {{{1}}} Together with the article on decoding difficulties, this page sets out some common (or not...) words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of how they can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "ea", that is /e/, /ɜː/, /iː/, /eə/, /ɪə/, /eɪ/ and /ɑː/.

Depending on their mother tongue (L1), students may have difficulty distinguishing between these two sounds. More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

Don't forget that intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence stress, are also, of course, of vital importance in speaking better English.

/iː/

• as /iː/: beach - bead - beat - bleach - breathe - cheat - clean - cream - creature - deal - dream - each - easy - eat - feature - heal - heat - increase - jeans - lead (verb) - leader - leaf - lean - leave - meal - mean - meat - pea - peach - peak - please - reach - read - repeat - reason - reveal - scream - sea - seal - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - treat - weak

• Homophones: bean - been; feat - feet; heal - heel; jeans - genes; meat - meet; pea - pee - P; peace - piece; sea - see - C; steal - steel; tea - tee - T; team - teem; weak - week;

/e/

• as /e/: ahead - already - bread - breakfast - breast - breath - cleanse - dead - deaf - dealt - death - dread - dreadful - feather - head - header - health - heather - heavy - instead - jealous - lead (metal) - leapt - leather - meadow - meant - measure - pheasant - pleasant - pleasure - read (past tense and past participle) - ready - spread - steady - sweat - thread - threat - threaten - treachery - tread - treadmill - treasure - wealth - weapon - weather

• Homophones: bred - bread; led - lead; lent - leant; red - read; whether - weather
• Minimal pairs (only the last consonant is different): dead - debt; head - hell; sweat - swell; tread - trek;
• These words don't rhyme: /iː/ vs /e/: leader - header; leaf - deaf;

/eɪ/

• as /eɪ/: break - great - steak

Ronald Reagan (American president) - W B Yeats (Irish writer)

• Homophones: brake - break; grate - great; stake - steak

Others

• /iːˈeɪ/: create - creation
• /iːˈæ/: react - reaction
• /ə/: enforceable - knowledgeable - noticeable - ocean
• "eau" as /juː/: beauty - beautiful

"ear"

/ɪə/

• as /ɪə/: appear - beard - clear - dear - ear - earring - fear - gear /gɪər/ - hear - near - rear - tear (teardrop) - year

• Homophones: dear - deer; hear - here

/ɜː/

• as /ɜː/: early - earn - earth - heard - hearse - learn - pearl - rehearsal - rehearse - search;

• Homophones: urn - earn; herd - heard;

/eə/

• as /eə/: bear - pear - swear - tear (verb) - wear

• Homophones: bare - bear; pair - pear; where - wear;

Two syllables

• /iːə/: linear - nuclear
• /iːɪ/: lineage
• "crea" as /kərɪ/: acreage

Spelling anomalies

• as /ɑː/: heart - hearth (the floor at the bottom of a fireplace)

Heteronyms

• lead /liːd/ (v. guide) - /led/ (n. metal)
• read /riːd/ (present) - /red/ (past)
• tear /teər/ (v. damage) /tɪər/ (n. liquid)

Irregular verbs

Some irregular verbs and pronounced /iː/ become /e/ in the past. Many of them are spelt "ea".

• "ea": deal - dealt; dream - dreamt; eat - ate^BrE; lead - led; lean - leant; leap - leapt; mean - meant; read - read;
• "ee": feel - felt; keep - kept; sleep - slept;

See also

• Correcting mistakes