Hey, hey, hey! The diphthong /eɪ/ in English

Welcome to season 5 of English Sound Building! Today, we’re practising the diphthong /eɪ/.

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Transcript

Today we’re picking back up on our work on diphthongs from last season (episode 42, “Beer or bear”). This time, we’re looking at just one /ɪ/ diphthongs, /eɪ/ so, this one ends in the /ɪ/ sound which we’ve spoken about in episodes 25 (“Cheap as chips” and 41 “The left lift”), and begins with the short /e/ sounds that we’ve looked at episode 3 “Man or men”, and again 41 “The left lift”, as well as in this series in episode 48 “Very varied”.

A reminder that a diphthong can be considered a blend of two short vowel sounds, so unlike others, it is a sound in which your mouth moves from one position to another as you make it. With /eɪ/ - we’re starting with /e/ and moving to /ɪ/: both front vowels, but you’ll close your jaw to move from /e/ to /ɪ/, and you may notice some difference in your tongue position or the tension in it too. Let’s make the sounds separately, and then blend them into the diphthong.

Ok, time for some common words with /eɪ/.  This time I’ve split them a little differently, so we’re starting with /eɪ/ in stressed syllables.

1.   afraid

2.   amazing

3.   change

4.   date

5.   display

6.   eight

7.   explain

8.   explanation

9.   game

10.great

11.information

12.make

13.neighbour

14.place

15.say

16.situation

And for some sentences with some of those words.

• Did my amazing neighbour explain the situation?
• I’m afraid to say we may change the game date and place.

I didn’t include any words with /eɪ/ followed by ‘l’ in that list, because these tend to be a bit trickier to pronounce. For example, with ‘pale’ or ‘sale’ or ‘fail’, I’m more likely to say ‘pale’ than ‘peil’ – you might hear an intrusive /j/ and a schwa sound step in there to make the transition. That’s ok! I’ll put a longer list of these in the transcript.

And next some words with /eɪ/ in unstressed syllables.

1.   aeroplane

2.   always

3.   appreciate

4.   birthday

5.   café

6.   communicate

7.   concentrate

8.   decade

9.   dominate

10.eighteen

11.estimate

12.holiday

13.investigate

14.simulate

15.teenager

…And some sentences with those words:

• They investigate and simulate how aeroplanes communicate.
• The teenagers always appreciated their holiday.

Bonus:

• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Or, if you know the “Happy Days” song, that one would be great here!

Finally, we’re going to look at /eɪ/ in contrast with the short vowel /e/. We haven’t spoken about /e/ itself today, because it’s right there in episode 48 if you need to go back to it. We have a lot of minimal pairs to get through, though, and I’ll put an even longer list in the script.

1.   best   based/ baste

2.   bread braid

3.   debt   date

4.   edge  age

5.   get     gate

6.   lens   lanes

7.   let      late

8.   men   main

9.   met    mate

10.pen    pain

11.rest    raced

12.shed  shade

13.special         spatial

14.west   waist

15.wren  rain

 …And some sentences with those minimal pairs:

·       She let them braid the bread, but they were late.

·       There’s a wren in the rain in the shade by the shed.

Longer list of words ending /l/.

1.   ail/ ale

2.   bail

3.   detail

4.   fail

5.   jail

6.   pail/ pale

7.   sail/ sale

8.   snail

9.   tail/ tale

10.trail

11.whale

More minimal pairs:

5.   best   based/ baste

6.   bread braid

7.   breast braced

8.   debt   date

9.   edge  age

10.fell     fail

11.fleck   flake

12.get     gate

13.lens   lanes

14.let      late

15.men   main

16.mess  mace

17.met    mate

18.pen    pain

19.pest   pace

20.red     raid

21.rest    raced

22.shed  shade

23.special         spatial

24.tell     tale

25.tread  trade

26.west   waist

27.wreck rake

28.wren  rain