PHONETICS: /ei/

In British English, the phonetics symbol /ei/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "cake" and "play". It is a diphthong.

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ei/ include the following:

• with "a": ache - age - blame - brake - cake - date - escape - game - gate - lake - late - male - name - pale - paper - plate - sale - same - sane - snake - stale - state - whale;
• with "ai": aid - aim - brain - chain - fail - gain - hail - paid - rain - snail - stain - straight - train - trait;
• with "ay": day - pay - play - May - say - stay - tray;
• with "ei": eight - weigh - weighed - weight;
• others: ballet - break - café - grey - steak;
• Homophones: brake/break - grate/great - male/mail - place/plaice - plane/plain - rain/reign - sail/sale - steak/stake - tale/tail -waste/waist - Wales/whales - weigh/way - weight/wait - weighed/wade.
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While /ei/ is virtually the same as the Spanish diphthong "ei", many Spanish speakers have difficulty remembering that many other words with different spellings may also have that same pronunciation in English.

Written by Victoria Overton

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.