Minimal Pairs /e/ and /eɪ/

wet and wait

Below are lists of words that vary only by one having the vowel sound /e/ and the other the vowel sound /eɪ/. You can use this to practice the sounds or as a list of words to be careful to pronounce properly.

/e/ is a short single sound that is pronounced without your mouth moving, whereas /eɪ/ is a diphthong (a merging of two sounds) and your mouth gets smaller as you are making the sound.

Elementary

• bed bade*
• bread braid*
• etch* H
• fess* face
• get gate*
• kecks* cakes
• L ale*
• M aim*
• pet pate*
• S ace*
• tech* take
• well whale*
• wet wait
• when wane*
• wren* rain

Pre-Intermediate

• best based*
• edge* age
• fell fail
• let late
• men main*
• met mate*
• pen pain
• pent* paint
• pled* played
• rest raced
• sell sale
• set sate*
• sex sakes*
• special spatial*
• test taste
• west waist

Intermediate

• beck* bake
• bell bail*
• bet bait*
• chess chase
• debt date
• fem* fame
• gel jail
• led laid
• lens lanes
• shell shale*
• tell tale
• tent taint*
• trend trained
• wedge* wage
• X aches

Upper-Intermediate

• bled blade
• breast braced
• fed fade
• fez* phase
• fret freight
• hell hail
• less lace*
• mess mace*
• phlegm* flame
• red raid
• sent saint
• shed shade
• sped spade
• tread trade
• wed wade
• wreck rake

Advanced

• betted bated
• dell dale
• den deign
• fen feign
• fend feigned
• fleck flake
• fled flayed
• heck hake
• hex hakes
• ken cane
• lest laced
• pest paste
• rend rained
• stead stayed
• vend veined
• wend waned

* the meaning of the word is not important at this level, but it can still be used to contrast the pronunciation with the other word.