DIPHTHONGS

1. ɪə

Beer, near, hear, fear, pier

I fear the beer hall is not near here.


2. ʊə

Tour, poor

I didn’t do the tour because I was too poor.


3. eə

Air, pear, fair, hair, there, where

Over there.

The bear was in his lair and the girl’s hair was very fair.


4. eɪ

A/a, day, say, pay, stay, lay, bay, hey

That day, I didn’t pay to stay in the bay.

No pain, no gain.


5. ɔɪ

Boy, toy, coy, soy, oi!

Oi boy, pass me the toy. Don’t be so coy!


6. aɪ

Sky, why, my, high, die, light

The sky blue tie was hard to buy.


7. əʊ

O/o, snow, boat, go, row, coat

Oh no! It’s snowing!

The boat was a no show, so we couldn’t go unless we had to row.

Row, row, row the boat, gently down the stream.


8. aʊ

Ow!, mouth, now, growl, foul, now, how, cow

The time is now!

The owl flew south, so my mouth let out a growl.


Practice 5 diphthong sounds here:

No highway cowboy.