Start with one sound contrast
Open the Minimal-pair finder. Choose ɪ — ship as First sound and i — sheep as Second sound. Leave Contrast position at Anywhere in the word, choose 1 syllable, and enter ship in Include this word. Keep Letter-only spellings checked.
Select Find minimal pairs. The ship / sheep example button applies these settings and runs the same search. On the first search the page downloads this site’s existing dictionary sections, then reports its progress while matching the pronunciations. The work happens in your browser.
Check the changing phoneme
The result is ship /ʃɪp/ and sheep /ʃip/. Both forms have three dictionary phonemes. The highlighted vowel changes while the initial ʃ and final p stay constant. Their English spellings have different lengths, which does not affect the sound comparison.
The finder requires equal phoneme counts and exactly one substitution using your chosen sounds. It ignores stress digits during that comparison. It does not treat a sound insertion, a sound deletion or a change at several positions as the same kind of match.
Use the site’s displayed convention consistently. Its broad US forms use i without a length mark and ɹ for English r. Affricates and diphthongs can use more than one IPA letter while occupying one dictionary phoneme position.
Broaden the search carefully
To explore more ɪ–i pairs, clear Include this word and search again. For another lesson, choose a different pair of sounds and a position: first phoneme, inside the word or last phoneme. A phoneme position is not a letter position or a syllable position.
The dictionary includes names, inflections and uncommon words. Letter-only spellings removes entries with punctuation, but it does not exclude every name or unfamiliar item. Results are alphabetical, not ranked by usefulness or frequency. Choose a small set whose meanings your learners understand.
If a word pair has several matching pronunciation combinations, inspect its selector before choosing one. The selected IPA is what the tool will save. AH groups forms displayed as ʌ or ə, and ER groups ɝ or ɚ; review those actual symbols when your lesson needs a specific vowel quality.
Build the selected set
The first ten pairs are selected initially, or all pairs when there are fewer than ten. Use each checkbox to remove an item or add another. Clear selection starts over; Select this page adds the visible pairs until the fifty-pair selection limit is reached. Selections can span result pages.
The finder retains up to two thousand word pairs for a search and reports the full match count. If that count is larger than the retained list, narrow the filters. The count describes candidates under the matching rules, not a complete analysis of every English variety.
For the worked example, keep just ship–sheep selected. Review the IPA once more before exporting. This is a written comparison and list-making workflow; it does not contain audio or assess listening or pronunciation.
Copy, download or print
Copy selected places a tab-separated list on the clipboard. Download TSV saves i2speak-minimal-pairs.tsv with Word 1, IPA 1, Word 2 and IPA 2 columns. Open it as UTF-8 tab-separated text in a spreadsheet if you want to reorder pairs or add your own notes.
The actual download for this tutorial contains the row shown below. It preserves the selected dictionary forms without adding slash brackets to the IPA cells. Print selected creates a compact handout with the same selected pairs and opens the browser’s print dialog; you can choose a printer or an available save-to-PDF option there.
Filter settings can return within the same tab session when storage is available, but your selected list is temporary. Download a reviewed copy you need to keep, and record the target variety or lesson convention with your teaching material.
Choose the right scope
A specific word or a broader contrast?
Use Include this word to find a partner for an example already in your lesson. Clear it when you want a broader set to curate.
A formal match or a classroom example?
A dictionary pair can meet the sound rule while containing an unfamiliar name. Check vocabulary, meaning and pronunciation choice before teaching it.
A handout or an editable list?
Choose Print selected for a compact paper layout. Choose TSV when you want to reorder, annotate or combine the selected rows in another application.
Explain the contrast before collecting more words
Write the IPA for ship and sheep. Identify the one phoneme that changes, name the sounds that stay the same, and explain why the different spelling lengths do not matter.
Compare with the model answer
The comparison uses equal-length dictionary phoneme sequences. The first and last phonemes match; the vowel is the single substitution.
Common questions
Does this tool include a listening trainer?
No. It compares written dictionary pronunciations and prepares lists. The guide’s exercises check written understanding; the app does not record, play or score speech.
Are stress differences counted as a second change?
No. Matching removes the dictionary’s stress digits first. The chosen IPA forms still retain the site’s stress display convention, so inspect them when stress matters to your lesson.
Why is a pronunciation choice available for some pairs?
More than one combination of stored pronunciations can meet the contrast rule. The selector lets you choose the forms saved for that pair; it does not infer the words’ meanings or the learner’s variety.
Does a download include every search result?
No. Copy selected, Download TSV and Print selected use your selected set of up to fifty pairs, including selections on other pages. The search result can be much larger.
Sources & further reading
- CMUdict: US English pronunciation dictionary
The pronunciation resource already bundled with i2Speak. Review its dictionary alternatives and possible omissions when preparing a teaching list.
Put it into practice
Open Minimal-pair finder to try the example, then continue with the topic’s practice exercises.
Explore the practice guide
