← 聽辨 bait 和 bet
Word pair
sale · sell The difference in meaning and sound
What they mean
Sale is the noun: "a sale", "for sale" (available to buy), "on sale" (often: reduced in price). Sell is the verb: "sell a car", with the past tense sold.
sale · sell7/20
你聽到的是哪個單字？
這些都是 App 裡的真實音訊，請開啟聲音。
Hear both words in 10 voices
Each row is one speaker saying both words. Play one, then the other, and switch to slow when the difference hides.
sale
US IPA: /seɪl/
sell
US IPA: /sɛl/
Speed
- American woman, younger
- American woman, older
- American man, younger
- American man, older
- British woman, younger
- British woman, older
- British man, younger
- British man, older
- Australian woman
- Australian man
What's different
Both words end in a dark L, which can sound like a soft "o" or "u" in place of an L. So don't wait for the end: the difference comes before the L, where sale glides up toward "ee" and sell stays flat.
Here length helps more than in most pairs of this collection. The L lets the vowel stretch, and the glide makes sale clearly the longer word, much as katakana セール and セル suggest.
聽辨重點
eɪ（bait）滑向 ee，e（bet）短而不變。
現在就開始，聽出差別。
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