American English sound
/ɔɪ/: how to pronounce “oy” in boy, voice and enjoy
/ɔɪ/ is the sound in boy, voice and enjoy. It's a diphthong: it starts with rounded lips, as in “law”, and glides forward to the “ih” of sit.
It's the rarest of the American diphthongs, and its spelling is reliable: oi in the middle of a word, oy at the end.
/ɔɪ/
the “oy” sound
How to make the sound
- 1Start with rounded lips and your tongue low and back, as for “law”.
- 2Glide your tongue up and forward toward the position of “sit”.
- 3Unround your lips as you glide.
- 4Make it one syllable: boy, not “bo-ee”.
- Tongue
- mid-back
- Lips
- rounded
- 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
- oi: voice, coin, point, noise
- oy: boy, toy, enjoy, annoy
Common mistakes
Unrounded start, like “buy”
Starting with open, unrounded lips turns boy into buy and toy into tie. Round the lips at the start.
No glide
Without the glide toward “ih”, boy becomes “baw”. Finish the movement.
Two syllables
“Bo-ee” splits one sound in two. Glide smoothly inside one syllable.
Minimal pairs
Each pair differs by one sound. If both words sound the same when you say them, practice this pair.
Try it
“The boy enjoyed the noise of the coins in his toy.”
Record a sentence and get a score for every sound, /ɔɪ/ included. Free, no account.
Questions
Is “oi” always /ɔɪ/?
Almost always in English words: coin, voice, point, avoid. A few loanwords differ, like the French-style “reservoir” (-wɑr).
How is /ɔɪ/ different from /aɪ/?
Both end in “ih”; the start differs. /ɔɪ/ starts rounded and back (boy), /aɪ/ starts open and unrounded (buy).