American English sound
/aɪ/: how to pronounce the long “i” in my, time and buy
/aɪ/ is the vowel in my, time and buy, and the word I. It's a diphthong: it starts with an open “ah” and glides up to “ih” in one syllable.
The glide is wide and clear in General American. Flattening it into one long “ah”, as in some Southern accents, makes time sound like “tahm”.
/aɪ/
the long “i”
How to make the sound
- 1Start with your jaw open and your tongue low, as for “father”.
- 2Glide your tongue up and forward toward the position of “sit”.
- 3Let your jaw close and your lips spread slightly as you glide.
- 4Make the whole movement in one syllable: my, not “ma-ee”.
- Tongue
- low-central
- Lips
- neutral
- Voice
- voiced
Hear it in words
Tap a word to hear it.
At the start
In the middle
At the end
How it's spelled
- i + consonant + e: time, nice, five
- y: my, fly, why
- igh: light, night, high
- ie / ye: pie, tie, bye
- uy / eye: buy, guy, eye
- i (some words): find, kind, idea
Common mistakes
No glide: “tahm” for time
Without the glide, /aɪ/ becomes a long “ah”. Finish the movement up toward “ih”.
Starting too high
If the start is too closed, like becomes lake. Open the jaw at the beginning.
Mixing it up with /ɔɪ/
A rounded start turns buy into boy and tie into toy. Keep the lips unrounded at the start.
Minimal pairs
Each pair differs by one sound. If both words sound the same when you say them, practice this pair.
Try it
“I like to ride my bike at night.”
Record a sentence and get a score for every sound, /aɪ/ included. Free, no account.
Questions
Why is the letter i pronounced /aɪ/ in “time” but /ɪ/ in “tim”?
The silent e makes the vowel “long”: time, bite, ride. Without it, the vowel is short: Tim, bit, rid. The same pattern works for a (made/mad) and o (note/not).
Do Southern Americans say /aɪ/ differently?
Often, yes: in much of the South, /aɪ/ loses its glide before many consonants, so time sounds like “tahm”. It's a regional accent, not General American.