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I checked the /i/ sound in hit/kid and still/live on merriam-webster.com. Although the /i/ sound should be the same everywhere, the one in hit/kid sounds closer to the /e/ as in bed. Is this correct? If so, are there any rules to pronounce the /i/ sound in different words?

BTW: I live in the US and am learning American English.

Thanks

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    One thing I've learned is that you should never trust a native speaker when they talk about vowels. We don't know what we're doing or why we pronounce some vowels one way and some another.
    – Kaia
    Commented Oct 3 at 18:20
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    For the record, if you use slashes for pronnunciation I think most people will assume you're notating IPA, in which the vowel in hit is /ɪ/ (near-close near-front unrounded) and the sound in bed is /ɛ/ open-mid front unrounded. /i/ is the 'long e' sound, as in free, and /e/ is the 'ay' sound in may. (Blame the aeiou 5-vowel system for taking all the normal letters, leaving common english vowels with weird ones)
    – Kaia
    Commented Oct 3 at 18:31
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    Thanks for the comments. I just want to add a little background info: I live in the US and am learning American English
    – Tom
    Commented Oct 3 at 19:28
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    I believe it might be a weak vowel thing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… So e.g. if you stress still and live while hit and kid are more reduced, they'll have a slightly different vowel. This might be a better question for linguistics SE.
    – Kaia
    Commented Oct 3 at 19:42
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    "...the one in hit/kid sounds closer to the /e/ as in bed..." I'm not sure we can have a solid answer unless you edit to explain more about this perception. Because right now my response is "Nuh uh!" (As I live in the southern US, I can also imagine some though not all of these getting the "two vowel" phenomenon that can be common esp in NC Piedmont, e.g. "still" being like "steal.") But for learners I would stick to "default" common pronunciations and let regional dialects be picked up gradually if at all.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Oct 3 at 20:41

2 Answers 2

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The question notes that you are learning American English. Let's focus on that. If anything differs from country to country, pronunciation is at the top of the list.
In America, there are multiple regional accents with the most common being "General American English", which is either identical to "Midwestern American English", or at least close to it.
In that dialect, the near-close near-front unrounded vowel /ɪ/ sound is the same in "kid", "still", "live", and "hit". It sounds the same.
However all bets are off, if you get into the Deep South, or a strong New Jersey accent, etc etc.
The IPA references from multiple dictionaries corroborate this answer, indicating the sound is /ɪ/.

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I believe you're hearing a difference in length. The /ɪ/ in hit and kid is especially short because it's followed by a stop consonant, and the one in still and live lasts a little longer. The quality is the same. The /ɛ/ in bed is short for the same reason, but has a different quality.

This difference is all but undetectable to native speakers. Just learn to recognize both versions as the same sound.

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