Identical/important: How do we pronounce the letter 'i' at the start of some words?

 

The problem here is knowing how to pronounce the first letter – is it /aɪ/ or /ɪ/?

 

Well, the answer is not that clear, but we can go by this rule (there are many exceptions): any words beginning with ‘i’, followed by a consonant (the letters that are NOT a,e,i,o,u) and then followed by a vowel (the letters that ARE a,e,i,o,u) are pronounced /aɪ/, so we get ice, icing, idea, identical, iron, icon.

 

Unfortunately, this rule breaks down when we get island, with two consonants that follow the ‘i’, and then the vowel. Even worse, we don’t even say the ‘s’ so we say /aɪ.lənd/!

 

It seems that in the Middle Ages, the Latin word "insula" (meaning "island") influenced the spelling of the English word, leading to the addition of the silent "s" to "iland," making it "island."

So what about the words that begin with the /ɪ/ sound? If the letter is followed by more than one consonant, then that’s the sound we use:  it, ill, important, improve, increase, information, injure, insect, inside, interest, itch. But yes, there’s always an exception: imagine has a consonant after the ‘i’, then that is followed by a vowel, but is still pronounced /ɪ/!

In conclusion: the English language’s history and the various other languages make it very difficult to develop any solid rules about pronunciation and spelling, but the ones I’ve described earlier work well with the letter ‘i’ with most examples.