Hello! and welcome back to Easy English with James! Today we're going to look at
diphthongs. Diphthongs. What are they? How do they work? and why are they so
important if you want to sound more natural when you speak English? If you want to know the answer
watch the rest of this lesson okay let's go okay a diphthong what is it
in english vowel sounds can be divided into monophthongs that's single vowel sounds like a
If you want to learn them check out my video here that i made previously to help you master those
sounds okay monothongs single sounds diphthongs they are double sounds double vowels okay imagine
taking two vowels like a and uh and combining them together what do you get you get a diphthong
okay where one sound moves into the other sound okay what this means is that
when you're saying a word with a diphthong you're actually only pronouncing one syllable for example
in the word ear ear that is a one syllable a monosyllabic word okay but it contains a diphthong
where there are an e uh okay it's not two separate vowels it's one vowel sound it's not
it's and the mouth moves from the first vowel position e to the second vowel position
uh naturally like so
okay diphthong comes from the greek word diphthong which literally means
two sounds two sounds combined together to make one english vowel sound okay in the word boy we
have two different vowel letters o and i but we combine it into one sound one diphthong
okay same with toy and many others okay so our first diphthong sound is the sound
okay you'll find this in words like beer beer or near near or even here here perhaps fear
fear listen closely fear fear hear pier near okay it glides from one vowel into the other
ear
if you want to master this vowel sound this diphthong try this! "I fear the beer hall is not
near here". "I fear the beer hall is not near here" Lots of that sound in this sentence, "I
fear the beer hall is not near here". Now, listen at full speed, "I fear the beer
hall is not near here". How natural does that sound! "I fear the beer hall is not near here".
okay, practice practice practice! "fear" "here" "near" Our next sound is uh uh this
is not very common okay it's quite rare it's only really heard in very posh
rp accents like the one the queen has when she speaks okay you'll find this uh in words like
okay, again, i think that most english speakers don't use this very often and in fact normally
they "substitute", that means they change this sound to a simple or a long vowel sound tour
and poor okay but people who speak RP (received pronunciation) often use this
so if you want to sound really "posh" try that too for an example sentence of this one try this
i didn't do the tour because i was too poor i i didn't do the tour because i was too poor
okay just remember that when you use that you do sound a little bit posh okay well done
the next one is a really common sound air air air now already you probably guessed this is found in
words like air that thing that's all around us air but you'll also see this in words like pear
fair hair there over there or over there okay air it starts off with an air and it goes into an air
air okay air fair hair you'll also hear this in where where okay where where and there where there
try again air air notice that the mouth starts quite open air and closes air air
for an example sentence with this one try this the bear was in his lair and the girl's hair
was very fair fair means light like blonde hair okay the bear was in his lair larry is
like a place where they live a monster lives is a lair the bear was in his lair and the girl's hair
was very fair fair again means light so you can say someone has fair skin she has fair skin okay
fair lair the bear was in his lair and the girl's hair was very fair okay practice that one over and
over again because it's really common the next one is the a a this one is probably the most common
diphthong in the english language it's found all over the places in lots of different words a a a
okay you'll know this from the letter okay when you're reading the alphabet a b c the letter
actually has this diphthong as its sound a a okay you'll find this in words like day say pay lay
stay okay lots and lots of different words okay any time you hear the sound a
even when somebody says hey hey that's how common this sound is a watch closely though a
a a it's not a like that it goes a a a it's a rounded sound kind of goes a okay stay
pay lay bay okay all of these sounds include that difficult diphthong a
for an example sentence with this one try this that day i didn't pay to stay in the bay
that day i didn't pay to stay in the bay that day i didn't pay to stay in the bay
a-a-a-a-a-a-a okay a a the next sound is the oi
this one has a lot of movement there's a lot of movement in the jaw and the mouth
you'll find this in words like boy or toy or koi or soy or even the common oy
okay when you're shouting at someone oi that's the sound you're making
that's the diphthong boy toy oy soy koi watch closely
and try to copy my mouth movement exactly as you practice
for an example sentence with this one try this oy boy pass me the toy don't be so coy
oy boy pass me the toy don't be so coy oy boy pass me the toy don't be so coy oy boy pass me the toy
don't be so coy the next one is also quite common it is i i you'll notice that in a lot
of these diphthong sounds the mouth closes at the end it starts open and then begins to close in oi
this one i you'll find in words like sky or the question word why why sky hi
my okay you'll find this in lots and lots of different words in english i watch closely
i again starts open i i for an example senses of this try this the sky blue tie was hard to buy
the sky blue tie was hard to buy the sky blue tie was hard to buy now you'll also hear this
a lot when someone's really angry maybe in a movie or when somebody's playing an online game
and they want to kill the enemy because they'll say die die die die die die die is that sound
i die okay die die die so if you want to practice this one don't go around shouting at everybody
saying die die die die die okay but it's a good way to practice i i okay the next sound is the o o
o o just like a this one is represented by its letter in the alphabet when you say the letter
or you're reading the alphabet a b c d e and you get to this letter you say o o the diphthong is
the sound that represents this letter o o o no o no oh no snow oh no it's snowing oh no
it's snowing watch closely because this one's a bit tricky you have to really position your jaw
oh kind of feels like you're going like this oh oh oh no there's some snow you'll find this
really often in english in words like boat or coat or of course no show even in words that
are really common like go i go oh so this one is super important to master oh no snow i go
boat and coat try this example sentence the boat was a no show so we couldn't go unless
we had to row the boat was a no-show so we couldn't go unless we had to row row the boat okay
the popular nursery rhyme also row row row the boat gently down the stream has this sound row go
boat coat okay practice that one a lot the final sound for today is my favorite it is
you'll know this from when someone hurts you and you go ow okay
you'll find this in words like mouth or
now or even when an animal makes a sound we say growl foul foul now how okay ow
watch closely
the time is now okay the time is now for you to learn excellent english pronunciation
so make sure if you're enjoying this video to hit that like and subscribe button so you can
see all of my future videos okay let's try an example sentence with this one the owl
flew south so my mouth let out a growl the owl flew south so my mouth let out a growl
the owl flew south so my mouth let out a growl how growl foul mouth okay ow ow
well done that's all the diphthong sounds now what we're going to do is have a little
test okay what is the diphthong sound in this word loud loud which diphthong is that loud
loud you'd be correct if you said the owl sound well done what diphthong sound is in the word pain
pain you might hear a really common expression in english no pain no gain which means without
difficulty you can't get anything good no pain no gain what diphthong sound is in that sentence
ain't pain gain you will be correct if you say a a that one that looks like the letter a
pay pain pain okay what is the diphthong sound in the word light light
light okay you will be correct again if you say the i lie light light light
what is the diphthong sound in the word fear fear fear you will be correct if you say
the ear sound what is the diphthong sound in the word
where where or fair what sound can you hear you would be correct if you said the air air
okay now let's try something much harder okay in the next sentence you're going to hear
a couple of words and within them words there are five diphthongs five diphthongs
can you guess which diphthongs are in that word okay pause the video
and practice and then see if you can guess the right diphthongs okay listen closely
no highway cowboy no highway cowboy no highway cowboy okay think about that no
hi way cowboy no highway cowboy what are the five diphthong sounds in that sentence
Ok, you would be correct if you said, these ones! You've got the 'o' in 'no'
you've got the 'i' in 'high' you've got the 'a' in 'way'. "no highway" and then you've got two more,
'cow' the 'ow' sound and 'boy'. Remember this, the mouth moves a lot to make diphthong sounds so when
you see me say, "no highway cowboy" you can see the mouth is kind of crazy okay they're not common
sentences but no highway cowboy no highway cowboy okay it's a really good sentence for practicing
five of those diphthong sounds so practice that one as much as you can no highway cowboy no
highway cowboy okay thank you very very much for joining me today in this lesson if you watch it
again and again i promise you your pronunciation will become more natural and improve so much okay
remember if you like this video to hit that like button and subscribe so you
can see all of my future videos good luck and i'll see you again for the next video bye you