Minimal Pairs: Ship vs Sheep

Listen to the pairs

Tap 🔊 to hear each word. Both words of a pair play in the same voice — and after you have heard both, the pair switches to a second American English voice. Tap 🌐 to see the word in your language.

🌐 Translate to:

In each pair: left word = /ɪ/ (short i), right word = /iː/ (long ee).

• 🔊 ship 🌐 vs 🔊 sheep 🌐
• 🔊 bit 🌐 vs 🔊 beat 🌐
• 🔊 chip 🌐 vs 🔊 cheap 🌐
• 🔊 fill 🌐 vs 🔊 feel 🌐
• 🔊 hit 🌐 vs 🔊 heat 🌐
• 🔊 sit 🌐 vs 🔊 seat 🌐
• 🔊 slip 🌐 vs 🔊 sleep 🌐
• 🔊 still 🌐 vs 🔊 steal 🌐
• 🔊 it 🌐 vs 🔊 eat 🌐
• 🔊 rich 🌐 vs 🔊 reach 🌐

Listening quiz

You will hear one word from each pair — choose which one you heard. Missed words come back until you get every one right.