The /aɪ/ sound in English
/aɪ/ is the long I (PRICE) — a diphthong (a vowel that glides) of English. Here is how to make it with your mouth, what usually goes wrong, which words carry it, and the sounds it gets confused with.
How to make the /aɪ/ sound
Start with the mouth open at an /a/-like position and glide up toward /ɪ/, closing the jaw as you go.
Practise it on its own before you put it in a word: hold the position, make the sound, then release. Once it is stable in isolation, drop it into the example words below and keep the same mouth shape — most of the difficulty of an English sound disappears the moment your tongue and lips are physically in the right place.
The mistake learners make with /aɪ/
Cutting the glide short so it sounds like /ɑː/ or /æ/ — "time" must not become "tahm".
If that description sounds like you, work through the contrast pairs further down: hearing the difference reliably always comes before producing it reliably.
Words with the /aɪ/ sound
Start with the classic three — time, my, height — then work through real words that contain /aɪ/. Every word below has a full pronunciation page with audio and a sound-by-sound breakdown.
/aɪ/ versus the sounds it gets confused with
These are the sounds nearest /aɪ/ in the mouth, and the ones that swallow it when a learner is not careful. Learn each pair as a pair:
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eɪStart at the /e/ position and glide upward and forward toward /ɪ/ — the jaw closes as you say it. Say “time” (/aɪ/) and “day” (/eɪ/) back to back until the two stop blurring together.
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ɔɪBegin with rounded lips at /ɔː/ and glide forward and upward to /ɪ/, unrounding the lips as you move. Say “time” (/aɪ/) and “boy” (/ɔɪ/) back to back until the two stop blurring together.
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aʊStart with the mouth wide open at /a/ and glide back and up toward /ʊ/, rounding the lips as the jaw closes. Say “time” (/aɪ/) and “now” (/aʊ/) back to back until the two stop blurring together.
Questions about /aɪ/
- How do you pronounce the /aɪ/ sound?
- Start with the mouth open at an /a/-like position and glide up toward /ɪ/, closing the jaw as you go.
- What words have the /aɪ/ sound?
- time, my, height, time, site, like, price, buy, copyright — all contain /aɪ/.
- What is /aɪ/ called?
- /aɪ/ is the long I (PRICE). It is a diphthong in the English sound system.
Stop looking words up one at a time
One sound at a time is slow. PHONO puts the IPA above every word of whatever you are reading — in your browser, in a PDF, in any app — the moment you select it. An offline pronunciation dictionary, US and UK audio, one hotkey.