Pronunciation Practice 👄 Difficult Vowel Sounds [DIPHTHONGS]

Well hey there this is Emma from mmmEnglish,

coming at you with another natural

English pronunciation lesson.

Now for English learners who want to sound natural,

vowels cause headaches.

With just five vowel letters in the English alphabet,

there are twenty different vowel sounds

used in spoken English.

So today I want to focus on three of the most common

diphthong vowel sounds.

as in 'say'

as in 'boy' and

as in 'bike'.

And if you're wondering what the heck a diphthong is,

don't go anywhere, I'll explain it all for you in just a sec.

Before we get started today, a quick reminder

to turn on the subtitles just down there if you need to

and if you feel like being an absolute champion today,

help me to translate this video into your native language

so that other people in your country

can learn and watch it too.

That would be truly spectacular and not to mention,

really great English practice for you.

So what the heck is a diphthong?

It's a complicated word that you will probably

never really need to use yourself

but a diphthong is a type of vowel sound

and there are two types of vowels, monophthong,

that's like

They're short and singular sounds.

But diphthongs are a little different because they are a

single vowel sound that actually combines

two vowel sounds together in the same syllable.

In diphthongs, the first sound is stronger

than the second one

but it's important that both sounds are made together

in the same syllable.

Now the reason why this is important for you is because

many of you are Italian,

Greek, Thai, Spanish, Vietnamese

and you don't actually have this type of vowel sound

in your native language so it's a completely new sound

that you need to learn.

And for that reason, it's really common

for many of you to mispronounce diphthongs

and only use the first sound.

So if you're only using one sound, then the vowel sound

that you're making is wrong but that's exactly

what you're doing here, right?

We're going to practise diphthong sounds together

and we'll focus on three of the most common ones.

Now there's actually eight diphthongs

in British and Australian English,

there's only five in American English,

but we're going to practise them

together in this lesson today.

Let's start with

like in 'say'.

Now this sound is made with the

and the

vowel sound pushed together so it's

as in 'egg' and the

as in 'sheep' vowel sounds.

Now check it out, notice how my mouth moves

between those two sounds.

So when you're making a diphthong sound,

your mouth needs to move while you are making

this sound. For this one, it's

Right?

Are you ready to practise together?

Day.

Play.

Came.

Take.

Straight.

Complain.

Translation.

Imagination.

Ready for this?

It's a shame I'm not able to name everyone

on the plane.

It's a shame I'm not able to name everyone

on the plane.

It's a shame I'm not able to name everyone

on the plane.

Let's try

as in 'boy'. Now this sound is made from the

and

vowel sounds

like in 'bought, and

like in 'sheep'.

like in 'boy'.

Again, notice how quickly my mouth moves

between these sounds.

to make one sound.

The diphthong sound.

Practise with me.

Toy.

Employ.

Noise.

Join.

Avoid.

Annoy.

Oil.

Alright, let's try this one together.

Avoid those annoying boys and their noisy toys.

Avoid those annoying boys and their noisy toys.

Avoid those annoying boys and their noisy toys.

Okay number three.

like in 'bike'

Now this sound is the

and the

vowel sounds together.

like 'cat'.

Ready?

So again, notice how quickly your mouth

moves to make that sound squish together

into one sound.

Two sounds into one sound.

Practise with me.

Hike.

Eye.

Child.

Style.

Spy.

Cycle.

Inspire.

Require.

Admire.

Delight.

So all together now, let's go.

The child admired the cyclist in delight.

The child admired the cyclist in delight.

The child admired the cyclist in delight.

Great stuff!

So now that your mouth is

warmed up and ready to practise, we're going to

step things up a bit, okay?

The next sentences that you see are going to be

combinations of those sounds

so I want you to watch and listen and then repeat.

Don't leave me hanging, all right? This is

practice for you, not for me.

First one.

As a child, I used to ride my bike and play outside all day

As a child, I used to ride my bike and play outside all day

They say her style is inspired by her wild imagination.

They say her style is inspired by her wild imagination.

We couldn't avoid the crazy weather, so we

stayed inside and admired the rain.

We couldn't avoid the crazy weather, so we

stayed inside and admired the rain.

What a workout! Nice work to you!

Your tongue and your mouth must be feeling

a little exhausted after all of that so if you feel like

you need to take a little break, fine,

but make sure you come back to this lesson tomorrow

and the next day and practise again and again.

It's just like doing sit-ups or push-ups at the gym.

Each time you do it, it will get a little easier

and then you'll start making these sounds

more naturally yourself as you speak.

So I hope that you enjoyed this lesson. If you did,

please give it a like and write me a comment below.

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I'll see you in there!