Vowels: diphthongs (learn English with pie)

There are 8 diphthongs in the English language. This video is from www.podcastsinenglish.com, the efl/esl site for learners and teachers of English.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• pronunciation
• vowels
• diphthongs
• podcastsinenglish.com
• learn english

[podcastsinenglish]

British

[OZKatun]

How about "ew" as in "new"? That's a diphthong not mentioned in the video, right?

[podcastsinenglish]

Actually 'new' doesn't have a diphthong. It's /nju:/ which is a long monothing like 'you' /ju:/

Having said that the /j/ and /w/ sounds are often referred to a semi-vowels so you're almost right!

[podcastsinenglish]

We mean a long monothong not monothing!!

[OZKatun]

Actually I wasn't talking about the /j/ sound. I meant to say that 'ou' in 'you', or 'ew' in 'flew', or 'oo' in 'goo' is a diphthong. It's /ʊɯ/ or /ʊu/, rather than /u:/. /u:/ would be like Finnish 'uu'.

[podcastsinenglish]

The 'ou' in 'you' is a long monothong. It's the same sound as in shoe / goose (see our monothongs vid) blue / too etc. RP English doesn't say the /w/ sound at the end of 'you'

:)

[puntoclave7]

british?

american?

[OZKatun]

Even if it were a monophthong, it's not /u:/. Could you compare RP English pronunciation of 'oo' in 'goose' in your monophthongs video to 'uu' in 'kuus' in the video called "Learn Estonian Numbers Free with Byki" (0:55)? Tell me if you hear a difference, cause I do. Both sounds are written as /u:/ in IPA, though. I think the Estonian variant is the true /u:/, because it's pronounced more to the back of the mouth.

[podcastsinenglish]

You're welcome! We have quite a few other videos made on pronunciation on our site - have a look!

[BLACKXBUTTERFLY97]

thanx for the video!