Ee

ɪə

beer /bɪər/

iː

deep /diːp/

The sequence "ee" very reliably represents IPA phoneme /iː/. The sequence "eer" very reliably represents /ɪər/. 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 "ee".

/iː/

• agree - bee - beet - between - cheese - deed - deep - degree - employee - fee - feed - feel - feet - free - freedom - green - indeed - keep - leek - meet - need - peel - proceed - screen - see - seek - seem - sleep - speech - speed - street - sweet - teen - three - tree - week - wheel

• For unstressed /iː/ see Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/#Unstressed syllable.

bungee - coffee - committee - Yankee

• Homophones: beet - beat - meet - meat; peek - peak; see - sea; steel - steal; week - weak;

/ɪə/

• beer - career - deer - engineer - peer - volunteer

• Homophones: deer - dear

Variant pronunciations

• As /iː/ or /ɪ/: been

Two syllables

• /ɪɪ/: reelect or re-elect
• /iːe/: preemptive or pre-emptive

Other

• /eɪ/: fiancee or fiancée

See also

• Decoding the letter E
• Decoding exercises: "ea"