Improve your British English Pronunciation: The Vowel in Eye / aɪ /

The Vowel in Eye / aɪ /
Pronunciation Activation Pack - 18
Eye / aɪ /
In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the sixth of the gliding vowels / aɪ /.
We will look at the letter combinations that give the / aɪ / sound.
We will look at lots of words which have the / aɪ / sound in them.
Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / aɪ / sound correctly.
Letter Combinations for / aɪ /
This gliding vowel sound has these letter combinations:
I, IE, Y, YE, IGH,
and rarely
EYE, EIGH, EI, AI, UY, and AE.
Practice
I never cry when high and mighty tyrants die.
/ ˈaɪ ˈne.və kraɪ wen haɪ ənd ˈmaɪ.ti ˈtaɪə.rənts daɪ /
Practice
My Iberian isle tries to recycle iron it buys from Thailand.
/ maɪ aɪ.ˈbɪə.riən aɪl ˈtraɪz tə ˌriː.ˈsaɪk.l̩ ˈaɪən ɪt baɪz frəm ˈtaɪ.lænd /
Practice
My psychiatrist assigned the maestro to the asylum at the height of his Alzheimer’s.
/ maɪ sɪˈk.aɪə.trɪst ə.ˈsaɪnd ðə ˈmaɪ.strəʊ tə ði ə.ˈsaɪ.ləm ət ðə haɪt əv ɪz ˈælts.haɪ.məz /
Practice
The vilest vampire is inclined to either hide or die by sunrise.
/ ðə ˈvaɪ.lɪst ˈvæm.paɪə z ɪn.ˈklaɪnd tu ˈaɪ.ðə haɪd ɔː daɪ baɪ ˈsʌn.raɪz /
Note that either can be pronounced as either either / ˈaɪ.ðə / or either / ˈiː.ðə /.
Problems for Students
There are no other vowel sounds that have the potential to cause confusion with the / aɪ / sound.
However, because the / aɪ / sound has a large number of letter combinations, in this Pronunciation Activation Pack I’ll look at the spelling of words with the / aɪ / sound in them.
Pronunciation Activator
As I said, there are no vowel sounds in English which cause confusion with the / aɪ / sound.
Nevertheless, I have created some interesting exercises in the Pronunciation Activator to help you better hear and produce the different vowel sounds.
Each time you do the Pronunciation Activator you will be given some random exercises from a large database of exercises.
The exercises will fully activate your use of the / aɪ / sound for both speaking and listening.
Dictionary
There is a good chance that some of the words used in this Pronunciation Activation Pack will be new to you.
To help you out, I have compiled an extensive dictionary of vocabulary used.
The dictionary gives you the meanings of all the words used in this Pronunciation Activation Pack.
You can download the dictionary as a PDF document from the resources link at the top left of the Pronunciation Activation Pack.
Vocabulary Activator
In addition to the Pronunciation Activator, I have included a Vocabulary Activator which will test your knowledge of all the words in the dictionary.
You will be given random definitions of words each time you do the Vocabulary Activator.
This will also give you the opportunity to hear how each word is correctly pronounced in British English.
Add these words to your active vocabulary and make them your own.
Phonetic Transcription
I have also compiled a phonetic transcript of all the words I included in the Pronunciation Activator.
You can read each word in Latin script alongside the British English IPA transcription.
With your growing understanding of the British English IPA chart, this will help you to see how different letter combinations can produce the same sound.
You can download the phonetic transcriptions as a PDF document from the resources link at the top left of the Pronunciation Activation Pack.
Use it in combination with the dictionary if you are uncertain of the meaning of any of the words included in the list.