Producing /aɪ/

How to produce /aɪ/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/aɪ/
PRICE diphthong
Lips: neutral
Tongue: low-central
Voicing: voiced
💡 Start with mouth open at /a/, glide up to /ɪ/.

Key production cues:

Start low-central, glide up to /ɪ/.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

1. Say /aɪ/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
2. Say /aɪ/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /aɪ-aɪ-aɪ-aɪ-aɪ/.
3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /aɪ/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: eye, ice, my
• Middle: try, nine, time
• End / in clusters: ride, light, right

/aɪ/PRICE diphthongArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗