How to Pronounce the 5 Diphthongs of American English [Free PDF + Audio Practice Included]

Fine, light, buyer, boy, want, won't, focus.

Hey everyone, it's Hadar.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Today we are going to talk about diphthongs.

This is a pronunciation lesson about vowel sounds in English.

Now, a diphthong is a vowel that changes within the syllable.

A syllable is the smallest unit in the word.

Like 'rea-dy' – two syllables; 'a-bi-li-ty' – four

syllables; kite – one syllable.

And usually a syllable has one vowel in it, but there

are different types of vowels.

There are monophthongs, which is the more conventional vowel: /i/

as in 'see' and /æ/ as in 'cat'.

But there are also diphthongs, or diphthongs, vowels that change from one

sound to another within the same syllable.

There are five key diphthongs in English: /eɪ/ as in 'day', /aɪ/

as in 'my', /oʊ/ as in 'go', /æʊ/ as in 'now', and /ɔɪ/ as in 'toy'.

I'm going to talk about these 5 diphthongs only.

Some people consider the R vowels as diphthongs as well,

like /ɪəɹ/, /ɛəɹ/, and so on.

But I'm not going to talk about them right now.

In fact, just recently I recorded an R Masterclass, and I talked about all

those R vowels, or soft R's, and I highly recommend for you to check it out if

you want to improve your R in English.

But for now, we are going to talk about diphthongs without the R sound.

So here's the one thing you need to remember.

Most of the people who struggle with diphthongs in English focus only on

the first vowel, and they don't bring their tongue to hit the next sound.

And that causes you to either sound less clear, maybe mispronounce a word.

So what you want to think about as we're practicing these five

diphthongs is to get to the next sound within the same syllable.

We're going to start with the /eɪ/ as in 'day'.

Here we start with an /e/ sound, and then the tongue that is right

here, the /e/ is a front vowel, rolls forward for the /ɪ/ as in 'sit'.

Now, in a diphthong, the second vowel is a little higher.

So it's not /ɪ/, so it's closer to an /i/- /eɪ/.

Let's look at the next few words: 'day', it's not /de/ - /deɪ/.

'way', 'say'.

Let's do it again.

Imagine as if there is a 'y' sound at the end, and you want to get

to that 'y' sound: /deɪ/, /weɪ/, especially if you tend to just

stretch the first vowel - /de/, /se/.

day, say.

Now let's practice this diphthong when there is another syllable

in the word: payment, /peɪ.mənt/, not /pe.mənt/ - /peɪ/, /eɪ/.

Now, notice that it's not two separate syllables.

It's not pay-ment.

The word has two syllables - 'pay', 'ment', but there are two

vowel sounds within the first syllable, the first unit - /peɪ/.

So, it's a changing vowel.

You keep moving your tongue as you pronounce this sound.

Unlike other vowel sounds that it's the same position throughout the entire

pronunciation, the entire syllable.

hat, boss, pay.

See how my jaw moves?

/eɪ/, payment.

vacation.

sale.

Not 'sell', that's a different word.

sell - sale.

bet - bait.

men - main.

So, if you can't hear a difference between those words, make sure you

move your tongue to get to the /ɪ/ sound before the last consonant.

men - main.

And by the way, to make it easier on you and to help you implement everything

that we learned here, I created a PDF for you with a few example words for each

diphthong, some minimal pairs, confusing words, and an audio practice, so you can

just hit play and practice along with me.

It's absolutely free.

So I'm going to put the link in the description for you

to practice along with me.

The next one is the /oʊ/ as in 'go'.

This one is one of my favorite vowel sounds to teach, because

it really changes everything when you pronounce it correctly.

It gives you a lot more clarity, it helps you be more specific with your

pronunciation, and it doesn't take much for you to change things up.

So the /oʊ/ as in 'go' starts with a back open /o/ sound, and then you

round your lips for an /ʊ/ sound.

Technically, it's more of a lax /ʊ/, /oʊ/, but if you think of it as a W sound at the

end, it makes things a whole lot easier.

/oʊ/ as in 'go', 'low', 'show'.

This is American English.

In British English, the first sound is actually a schwa- /əʊ/:, go, show, home.

But I will teach you now the /oʊ/ as we pronounce it in American English,

so it's more of an /o/ sound - /hoʊm/.

So the sound is more in the back, the lips are a bit more rounded: lonely, hotel.

So it's not /hatɛl/, not an /a/ sound, not /o/ - /hotɛl/.

/hoʊ/.

/hoʊtɛl/.

'only'.

I know you want to say /anli/ or /onli/, but get to the W sound,

that's the secret of the diphthongs.

/oʊ/, /oʊnli/.

'won't'.

I always talk about this word, because if you don't get to the W sound, if

you don't pronounce the diphthong, it's going to sound like 'want'.

want - won't.

want - won't.

focus: /oʊ/, /foʊkəs/.

portfolio, portfolio, /foʊ/, /foʊlioʊ/.

The next one is the /æʊ/ as in 'now'.

Now, this diphthong is pronounced slightly differently in American

English than in British English.

In British English, it's going to be pronounced more with an open /a/ sound:

/naʊ/, /haʊ/ - /a/, so you start with an /a/ sound and then go to an /ʊ/ sound.

But in American English, and this is really interesting, the starting

vowel sound sounds more like the /æ/ - a sound associated with

the letter A: /æʊ/ as in 'cat'.

Listen: not /naʊ/, but /næ/, /næʊ/.

Nat, Natalie, now.

down: /dæ/, /dæʊn/.

/hæ/, /hæʊ/.

'how now brown cow'.

And notice how we have to transition from the /æ/ to the

/ʊ/, right, get to the /ʊ/ sound.

'how now brown cow'.

loud, thousand, pronounce.

Very good.

The next diphthong is /aɪ/ as in 'my'.

Here you drop your jaw for an /a/ sound, that's a front vowel.

And then your tongue rolls up and moves forward for the /ɪ/.

high, why.

Make sure your jaw is really relaxed here.

fine, light, hide, bite.

If you don't get to the /ɪ/ sound, it might sound like 'but'.

but - bite.

hut - height.

height, light, buyer, hiding, slightly.

Good.

The last diphthong for today is the /ɔɪ/ as in 'toy'.

Here we start with an /ɔ/ sound, the lips are a bit rounded.

Generally, you won't hear in American English this sound pronounced in

isolation, usually it's a bit more open.

You don't hear /ɔ/, but you do hear it within the /ɔɪ/ diphthong.

Let's practice it together.

Here we're shifting from the /ɔ/ to the /ɪ/.

toy, coin, boy, poison.

So, drop your jaw here, round your lips, and make sure your tongue constantly

moves until you get to the /ɪ/ sound, that's the end of the syllable.

All right.

To practice more, I highly recommend that you download the PDF that I've created for

you with all five diphthongs, words, and a few phrases, and also an audio recording

that you can practice along with.

You can just hit play and repeat after me.

When you learn a new sound, it's not enough to understand it, it's not enough

to be able to pronounce it correctly – you have to repeat it again and again

and again until you make it your own, until you build a new speaking habit.

Otherwise, you are always going to go back to your old pronunciation,

the way you're used to pronouncing it from when you started learning

English or the way you usually pronounce it in your first language.

There are a lot of old habits that we bring into English,

and that's perfectly normal.

But if we want to create a new habit, meaning to acquire and start using a new

sound, we have to repeat it intentionally.

And this is why I created this practice for you for free.

Now, after you do that, you can practice speaking freely to yourself

while thinking about these sounds and while trying to use them intentionally.

And once you do, let me know in the comments how it is going for you.

All right.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much for being here and for practicing with me.

I hope this was helpful and helped you understand better

the diphthongs in English.

For more resources and free lessons, go to hadarshemesh.com because everything I

create there is designed to help you feel confident, clear, and free in English.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.

And I will see you next week in the next video.

Bye.