Diphthongs

• In phonetics, a diphthong is a sound that is

made up of two separate vowel sounds within
the same syllable.
 Definition

• A diphthong is a glide from one vowel sound

to another without any jerk or break. The
process of moving from one vowel sound to
another is called gliding, which is why another
name for a diphthong is a gliding vowel
• Diphthongs are single phonemes and in length
they are like long single vowels. There are
eight diphthongs in English language.
• /eɪ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “aim”
and is most often used with letter combinations that
include
• a: make, cake, bake, sake, gate, date, bass
• ai: aim, rain, paid, wait, claim
• ay: day, stay, play, tray, say, lay
• ey: they, grey, prey
• ea: great, break
• ei: eight, weight, veil
• au: gauge
• /aɪ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to "eye" and
most often occurs with letter combinations that include
• i: ice, time, fine, like, shine
• y: my, shy, dry, fry, rhyme
• ye: dye, bye
• ie: die, lie, tie
• ei: height, either
• ig: sign, design, resign
• ui: guide
• igh: sigh, high
• uy: buy, guy
• eye: eye
• /ɔɪ/ This creates sounds similar to “oil” and
most often occurs with letter combinations
that include
• oy: boy, toy, joy, enjoy, annoy, destroy, oyster
• oi: oil, toil, voice, point, soil, foil, coil, coin, boil
• uoy: buoy
• /əʊ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “old”
and most often occurs with letter combinations that
include
• o: no, go, comb, bone, stone, home
• oa: oak, road, load, boat, goat
• oe: toe, foe
• ou: soul, mould
• ol: folk
• ow: know, show, glow, flow, bowl
• ew: sew
• au: mauve
• oo: brooch
• /aʊ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to
“owl” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include
• ow: owl, cow, now, crown, town, gown,
brown, how
• ou: house, loud, couch, pouch, sound, hound,
mouth, doubt
• /ɪə/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “ear”
and most often occurs with letter combinations that
include
• ear: ear, hear, year, fear, clear, gear, beard
• eer: career, peer, deer, beer, cheer, sheer
• er: hero, zero
• ere: here, mere
• ier: fierce, tier, bier
• ior: superior, inferior
• ea: idea, theatre, area
• eu: museum
• eir: weird
• eo: theory, theorem
• /eə/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to
“air” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include
• ear: bear, wear
• are: care, share, scare, stare, bare, fare
• eir: their, heir
• air: air, hair, fair, pair, stair, chair, airport
• ere: there, compere
• ae: aerobics, aeroplane
• a: area, vary
• /ʊə/This diphthong creates sounds similar to
“poor” and most occurs with letter
combinations that include
• oor: poor, moor
• ure: sure, pure, lure, mature
• our: tour
• u: curious, furious, jury
• ua: dual