I (letter)

I, i is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the ninth letter of most variants, being placed after H and before J, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈaɪ], just like I, eye and aye (Î, eŷe and aŷe: the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).

I is also the Roman numeral representing the number 1.

Use in English

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

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i represents various vowel sounds.

The short sound: fíll, íf, guíld, buíld, síx, twín, líd, kíd, Índia, tíff, gíft, gíve, líve, wíth, hís, bít, quít, Ítaly, knít, contrítion, nutrítion, optícian, sít, líd, quíp, ríp, quíz (cf. cýst).

íe substituting for final ỳ before the suffixes -ed and -s also has this sound: wòrríes, hóbbíes, flúrríes (all -íz), wòrríed, rállíed, cárríed (all -íd). Some younger BrE speakers are regularising these words to hóbbìês (-êez), wòrrìêd, etc.

The long sound is a diphthong consisting of à and ê: sîde, clîent, plîant, nîght, whîte, sîgn, mîne, trîumph, tîe, sîze, lîfe, nîce, vîe, pî number = pîe eat, hî hello = hîgh up.

Also, unstressed in final position: álibî, nûclêî (cf. spŷ, more commonly y in monosyllables) and before two consonants: pînt, lîthe, blîthe.

The first person singular subject pronoun Î is always capitalised.

Some British speakers emphasise their social superiority by pronouncing the î before r in words like wîre and fîre as if it were an à, so that fîre sounds like fàr: this is not a practice to recommend to foreign learners. Similarly, the pronunciation can be as extreme as a very long *fú in the American South.

îe substitutes for final ŷ before suffixes -ed and -s: crîes, flîes, drîed, prîes, relîed.

î occurs after e (as in German) in seîsmic.

A third sound, long also, pronounced like ê, usually in words from Latin languages: machìne, elìte, Janìne, Christìna, polìce, Argentìna, skì, ballerìna, and unstressed: piâno (where it resembles the consonantal sound of 'y') Nàzì, Chrístìne or Christìne, mézzanìne, qùarantìne, and also Benìn. This ending can also be -îne: fîne, dîne, undermîne, and -íne when unstressed: exámíne, detërmíne, ërmíne.

"i before e except after c" remains a good rule (though Nêil, Shêila and Kêith are exceptions) and "except after w" also applies, with the exception of wìêld). ei after c also has the ì sound: decêit, cêiling, recêive - and similarly after w: wêird, wêir - though not in wèigh, wèight heavy (= wây how, wâit time).

In German words, ie is ìê, as in Rìêsling, in contrast to eî as in Fáhrenheît.

The third sound of ì merges into a preceding s to make the 'zh' sound in -sion: vísion, derísion, lêsion, télevísion, revísion, and into preceding c and t to make the 'sh' sound in -cious and -tion: précious, spêcious, ignítion, nâtion, creâtion, posítion, abstráction, inténtion, méntion, and into x to make a 'ksh' sound in -xious: ánxious, nóxious (*ánkshəss, *nókshəss).

There can be a similar effect before the suffixes -cia, -sia and -tia: Galìcia (-ìssiə), Patrícia (-íshə), Alícia (more often -íssiə than -íshə), Âsia (*Ashə or Âzhə), amnêsia, Maláysia, Indonêsia (all for most speakers -zhə), Croâtia (*Crôwâshə), milítia, inërtia (both -shə) - and in AmE Tunisia (*Toô-nìzhə) but not in BrE (Chû-nízìə).

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).

Irregular i’s

spelling	pronunciation
again	*əgén or *əgâin
against	*əgénst or *əgâinst
croissant	*kwússón (French nasal -on)
impasse	(regular) ímpasse, (irregular) *ámpasse (á or à)
lingerie	BrE *lánzhəry, AmE *lànjə-rây
meringue	*meráng
reveille	*reválly
said	*séd

Final, double, suffixes, etc.

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, Hawàiì (*Ha-wài-ì: three syllables) and cóniìne.

-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: 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, indispénsable, and also, to prevent -ii-, vîable. (ii does, however, occur in two words, skìing and Hawàìi (*Həwàì). See 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

• Apostrophe
• Hyphen
• Spelling pronunciation
• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing