Lessons Unit 1, lesson 12
aɪ as in my
One long vowel, on its own page. The ː mark means hold it — hear it alone, then in the words, then say them yourself.
What do the marks mean?
Want the full walkthrough? Read the map explains every mark, with practice.
aɪthe i in my
Open wide on ah and glide up to ee: my, time. Your jaw closes as the sound rises.
Now say it yourself
Read each word from its sheet, out loud, three times. Where there's a play button, listen first and copy what you hear. Slow is fine — speaking clearly matters more than speaking fast. Tap a word's microphone to record yourself and see which sounds landed.
Check your pronunciation, on this device. The first use downloads a small AI listener (about 40 MB, one time, then it's cached). Your voice is analyzed here in your browser — it never leaves your device.
One glide, many spellings
This sound moves from a wide-open ah to a high ee, and your jaw should visibly close as you say it. Learners who keep their jaw still end up with a flat, foreign-sounding vowel; time should feel like two connected positions, not one static one.
Quick check
Say tie slowly and watch your jaw in a mirror — it should rise and nearly close by the end. Try nine and write the same way, and notice both start wide and finish narrow.
Spellings to watch
Common spellings include i_e (time, write, nine), ie (tie, pie), igh (knight), and plain i before certain consonant clusters (climb, island, where the b and s are silent). The letter y also spells it in words like my. None of these spellings look alike, so lean on the sound rather than the letters when you're unsure.