360. Effectively practice the 5 Diphthongs of American English

Hey everyone, it's Adar and this is the Influency Podcast episode number 360 and today we are going to talk about the pronunciation of diphthongs in English. Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning in for another pronunciation episode here on the Influency Podcast. I'm so happy that you're here with me and today we have another pronunciation lesson and we are going to talk about something super important and I actually don't get to talk about it enough and that is diphthongs as you already know by the name of this episode. Diphthongs or diphthongs are changing vowels are two different vowels within the same syllable so basically you're transitioning from one vowel to another and I really like talking about it because some of the diphthongs are super easy for most people to pronounce and others are super difficult and being able to pronounce them correctly doesn't take a lot of effort but it makes a huge difference and this is why I love talking about it because it's the 20% right putting a little bit of effort and getting a lot of ROI return on investment so you do hear a significant change when you pronounce diphthongs correctly. This is why I wanted to make this episode extra special and I also created for you a PDF with words phrases and sentences of each diphthong there are five each diphthongs so you can actually practice it and make a difference simply by listening to the audio there is also an audio and repeating after me so once you listen to this episode make sure to download the freebie and practice with a practice sheet practice it a few times and you will feel the difference so I'm very very happy about what's to come for you. All right let's go ahead and listen to today's episode fine light fire boy want won't focus oh oh oh hey everyone it's at our thank you so much for joining me today we are going to talk about diphthongs this is a pronunciation lesson about vowel sounds in English now a diphthong is a vowel that changes within the syllable a syllable is the smallest unit in the word like ready to syllables ability for syllables kite one syllable and usually a syllable has one vowel in it but there are different types of vowels there are monofongs which is the more conventional vowel e as in c and a as in cat but they're also diphthongs or diphthongs vowels that change from one sound to another within the same syllable there are five key diphthongs in English a as in day i as in my oh as in go ow as in now and oi as in toy I'm going to talk about these five diphthongs only some people consider the our vowels as diphthongs as well like ear air and so on but I'm not going to talk about them right now in fact just recently I recorded in our master class and I talked about all those our vowels or soft ours and I highly recommend for you to check it out if you want to improve your our in English but for now we are going to talk about diphthongs without the r sound so here's the one thing you need to remember most of the people who struggle with diphthongs in English focus only on the first vowel and they don't bring their tongue to hit the next sound and that causes you to either sound less clear maybe mispronounce a word so what you want to think about as we're practicing these five diphthongs is to get to the next sound within the same syllable we're going to start with the a as in day here we start with an a sound and then the tongue that is right here the as a front vowel rolls forward for the a as in sit now in a diphthong the second vowel is a little higher so it's not a so it's closer to an e a a let's look at the next few words day it's not day day day way say let's do it again imagine as if there is a ya sound at the end and you want to get to that ya sound day way especially if you tend to just stretch the first vowel day say day say now let's practice this diphthong when there is another syllable in the word payment payment not payment payment pay a a now notice that it's not too separate syllables it's not payment the word has two syllables payment but there are two vowel sounds within the first syllable the first unit pay pay so it's a changing vowel you keep moving your tongue as you pronounce this sound unlike other vowel sounds that it's the same position throughout the entire pronunciation the entire syllable hat boss pay see how my jaw moves a payment vacation sale not sell that's a different word sell sale bet bait men main so if you can't hear a difference between those words make sure you move your tongue to get to the e sound before the last consonant men main and by the way to make it easier on you and to help you implement everything that we learned here I created a PDF for you with a few example words for each diphthong some minimal pairs confusing words and an audio practice we can just hit play and practice along with me it's absolutely free so I'm going to put the link in the description for you to practice along with me the next one is the O as in go this one is one of my favorite vowel sounds to teach because it really changes everything when you pronounce it correctly it gives you a lot more clarity it helps you be more specific with your pronunciation and it doesn't take much for you to change things up so the O as in go starts with the back open a sound and then you round your lips for an oo sound technically it's more of a lax O O but if you think of it as a W sound at the end it makes things a whole lot easier O as in go low show this is American English in British English the first sound is actually a schwa O go show home but I will teach you now the O as we pronounce it in American English so it's more of an O sound home so the sound is more in the back the lips are a bit more rounded lonely hotel so it's not hotel not an A sound not O hotel ho ho ho hotel only I know you want to say only or only but get to the W sound that's the secret of the diphthongs O O O only whoa I always talk about this word because if you don't get to the W sound if you don't pronounce the diphthong it's going to sound like want want won't want won't focus O O O focus port folio port folio fol fol folio the next one is the O as in now now this diphthong is pronounced slightly differently in American English than in British English in British English it's going to be pronounced more with an open A sound now how A-A-A so you start with an A sound then go to an O sound but in American English and this is really interesting the starting vowel sound sounds more like the A sound associated with the letter A as in cat listen not now but nah nah now not Natalie now down da da down ha ha how how now brown cow you notice how we have to transition from the out to the O right get to the O sound how now brown cow loud and pronounced very good the next diphthong is I as in my here you drop your jaw for an A sound that's a front vowel and then your tongue rolls up and moves forward for the E high why make sure your jaw is really relaxed here fine light hide bite if you don't get to the E sound it might sound like bat but bite height height light by your hiding slightly good the last diphthong for today is the O as in toy here we start with an all sound the lips are a bit rounded generally you won't hear in American English this sound pronounced in isolation usually it's a bit more open you don't hear all but you do hear it within the Oye diphthong let's practice it together here we're shifting from the O to the E toy coin boy poison so drop your jaw here round your lips and make sure your tongue constantly moves until you get to the E sound that's the end of the syllable all right to practice more I highly recommend that you download the PDF that I've created for you with all five diphthongs words and a few phrases and also an audio recording that you can practice along with you can just hit play and repeat after me when you learn a new sound it's not enough to understand it it's not enough to be able to pronounce it correctly you have to repeat it again and again and again until you make it your own until you build a new speaking habit otherwise you're always going to go back to your old pronunciation the way you're used to pronouncing it from when you started learning English or the way you usually pronounce it in your first language there are a lot of old habits that we bring into English and that's perfectly normal but if we want to create a new habit meaning to acquire and start using a new sound we have to repeat it intentionally and this is why I created this practice for you for free now after you do that you can practice speaking freely to yourself while thinking about these sounds and while trying to use them intentionally and once you do let me know in the comments how it is going for you all right I hope you enjoyed it thank you so much for being here and for practicing with me I hope this was helpful and helped you understand better the diphthongs in English for more resources and free lessons go to Hadar Shemesh.com because everything I create there is designed to help you feel confident clear and free in English have a beautiful beautiful rest of the day and I will see you next week in the next video bye