双元音与r化元音

eɪ is one sound with a moving mouth: it starts at ɛ and slides up toward ɪ inside a single beat. A Japanese エイ or Korean 에이 is two beats — say it as one glide and it becomes English.

oʊ slides from o toward ʊ, the lips rounding as it goes. Not the flat オー of Japanese — the mouth has to move.

aɪ opens wide at a and glides up to ɪ. The widest, most obvious of the glides — let the jaw drop first, then close.

aʊ starts like aɪ but glides the other way — toward ʊ, the lips rounding shut instead of spreading.

ɔɪ glides from a rounded ɔ to ɪ — the lips start round and spread as the tongue comes forward.

The trap: eɪ (late) glides, ɛ (let) does not. Hold late still and it becomes let. The difference is the movement, not the length.

so glides (oʊ); saw is a single rounded ɔ that never moves. If so sounds like saw, the glide is missing.

ɝ is a vowel and its r at once — the tongue is already curled or bunched before the sound starts. Do not say a vowel and then add an r; they are one.

The mouth opens wide for ɑ, and the r pulls the tail of it back. American English says the r; a British car drops it.

A rounded ɔ with the r folded in. Keep the lips rounded through the r rather than releasing into a separate sound.

ɛ with an r-glide off the end. The vowel is the open ɛ of let, not the ache of eɪ — start low, then curl.

ɪ with the r pulling straight after it. Close to ee but slacker — say the vowel of sit, then let the r follow without a pause.