1. /ei/
Spelling
The sound /ei/ is usually written with the letters:
- “A”: baby, face, late, page, place, same, take.
- The final “e” indicates that “a” is pronounced /ei/, without this final “e” the pronunciation would be a vowel. E.g. Sam [sӕm], bath [ba:ɵ]
- “AY”: day, say, stay, today, way.
- “AI”: rain, Spain, train, wait.
- “EA”: great, weight, steak.
- Other spellings: grey, they, break, eight.
2. /əu/, /ou/ or /əʊ/
- This has two sounds /ə/ and /ʊ/.
- The second element of the diphthong is very short and the first one is longer than /e/.
- The lips at the beginning are in a neutral position and then gradually rounded as the tongue rises to make /u/.
Spelling:
- The sound /əu/ is usually written with the letters:
- O: go, hello, no, old
- O…e: home, hole, nose, those.
- Oa: boat, coat, road, joan.
- Ow: know, low, narrow, show, slow throw.
- Ou: though, soul, shoulder.
- Some words: boat [bəʊt], joan [ʤəʊn], jones’s [ˈʤəʊnzɪz], hotel [həʊˈtɛl], hello [hɛˈləʊ].
3. /ai/
- This has two sounds /a:/ and then add /i/, this is a short sound.
- Most students have no difficulties with this sound.
Spelling:
- The sound /ai/ is usually written with the letters “I” or “y”.
- I, y: child, find, five, smile, try, right, sky…
- Igh: high, light, night, right bright.
- Ye: eye, goodbye.
- Other spellings: lie, buy.
- Some words: pie [pai], kite [kait], climbing [klaimiη], riding [raidiη], rice [rais], bright [brait], ice-skating [ais skeitiη], ice-cream [ais kri:im], goodnight [gʊdnait], Friday [fraidi].
4. /au/
- The first sound is, in some way, similar to /ӕ/, then add /u/. This second sound is very short. There is an /au/ diphthong in Spanish but it is pronounced higher and it is much more tense than the English equivalent.
Spelling:
The sound /au/ is written with the letters:
- Ou: about, mouth, count, round, out, round.
- Ow: cow, crowd, flower, down, now, town, brown.
- Some words: flowers [flauəz], mouse [maus], mice [mais], thousand [ɵauznd], cows [kauz], trousers [trauzəz].
5. /oi/
- The two sounds in this diphthong are: /o:/ even propounced longer, then /i/, being even shorter. There are few words for the practice of this sound at beginner’s level.
Spelling:
The sound /oi/ is written with the letters:
- Oi: noise, point, voice.
- Oy: boy, toy, employ
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