Lessons Unit 1, lesson 13
ɔɪ as in boy
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.
ɔɪthe oy in boy
Start rounded on aw and glide to ee: boy, toy. Lips go from round to smiling.
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.
A rare but distinct glide
This is one of the least common vowel sounds in English, so learners sometimes flatten it into a plain ɔː, the vowel in law, dropping the glide entirely. Keep both parts: start with rounded lips on aw, then move to a smiling ee. Boy should end noticeably higher and brighter than it starts.
Spellings
Almost every example uses one of two spellings: oy at the end of a word or syllable (boy, toy, joy), and oi in the middle of a word (oil, coin, soil, boil, join, noise, voice). That split is reliable enough that you can usually guess the spelling just from where the sound falls in the word.
Hear the difference
Compare boy with bore — boy should end with your lips relaxing up into a smile, while bore stays low and rounded throughout. If voice and a plain rounded vowel sound alike to you, slow down and exaggerate the upward glide until the two parts feel clearly separate.