How to tackle questions on WAEC Test of Orals: Vowel / iː /

/ iː /

This vowel sound is pronounced just the same you will pronounce letter e. However because it is a long vowel, indicated by the colon, you have to drag the pronunciation a bit so that it sounds a bit longer. Why not try and pronounce the sound right away. You got it right? Wow, that's good! So pronounce the sound in the words below. 

'ee' deep, feet, sleep, sheep, peel, kee

'ea' beat, reach, peace, least, jealous

'ie' belief, shield, piece, relieve

'ei'  receipt, deceive, conceive, receive

'e'     legal, penal, veto, vehicle

Pronounce / iː / in the following words: police, people, foetus, amoeba. 

Do not forget to pronounce / iː / in the following words: key, quay, legal, penal, veto, vehicle

Module 1: Pronunciation of the words in the special list

people is to be pronounced PEEPLE

amoeba is to be pronounced AMEEBA

foetus is to be pronounced FEETUS

vehicle   is to be pronounced VEEKUL

veto is to be pronounced VEETO

legal is to be pronounced LEEGUL

penal is to be pronounced PEENAL

quay is to be pronounced KEY

machine is to be pronounced MASHEEN

police is to be pronounced POLEASE

How the sound is tested in exams

There are two ways in which sounds are generally tested by public examining bodies. First, candidates are given a word and asked to choose from four options lettered A to D the word that has the sound as the underlined letter in the given word. An example is shown below.

bee
A. sell
B. ready
C. team
D. dead

The correct option is C.

The second way sounds are tested is to be given a phonetic symbol and asked to identify from a list of four options, the word in which the government sound is pronounced. An example is shown below.

/ iː /
A. agree
B. build
C. bread
D. money

The correct option is A.

We also observed that questions on this sound are usually set on the words that second language speakers of English  usually pronounce wrongly. Hence, you should pay attention to the fact that this sound is pronounced, for the purpose of repetition, in the following words: 

i. police

ii. people

iii. foetus

iv. amoeba

v. quay

vi. veto

vii. vehicle

viii. legal

ix. penal

x. machine

From the words lettered A to D, choose the word that has the same vowel sound as the one represented by the letter(s) underlined. 

1. people
A. quay
B. leopard
C. shone
D. pip

2. deep
A. police
B. twice
C. kick
D. spill

3. heat
A. wife
B. beard
C. legal
D. sieve

4. least
A. lice
B. list
C. ameoba
D. best

5. seat
A. marine
B. measure
C. click
D. pleasant


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