Phonetics: ɪə

In British English, the phonetics /ɪə/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "ear" and "deer".

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

• with "ear" clear - ear - fear - gear - near - tears - year;
• with "ee": beer - cheers!;
• others: here - mere - we're - weird;
• homophones: dear/deer - hear/here - peer/pier.

When using words containing this vowel sound, Spanish speakers tend to use /eə/, i.e. without practice, they tend not to distinguish between "beer" and "bear".

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Phonetics: /əʊ/

In British English, the phonetic symbol /əʊ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "note", "boat" and "stone". 

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

• with "o": don't - ghost - go - home - lone - so - stone - phone - smoke - won't;
• with "oa": boat - coat - goal - road - roast - throat - toast;
• with "ol": fold - gold - hold - hole - old - pole/poll - told - toll - sold - stole - roll;
• with "ow": bowl - blow - flow - grow - low - row - slow - snow - throw;
• homophones: groan/grown - hole/whole - know/no - loan/lone - pole/poll - role/roll - so/sew/sow - sole/soul.

When using words containing this vowel sound, Spanish speakers tend to use /ɒ/, which is very similar to the Spanish letter "o", i.e. without practice, they tend not to distinguish between "not" and "note" or, even between "want" and "won't".

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PHONETICS: /ɔɪ/

In British English, the phonetic symbol /ɔɪ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "toy" and "coin". It is called a Diphthong. 

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

• with "oi": boil - choice - coin - foil - soil - spoil;
• with "oy": boy - employ - enjoy;

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PHONETICS: /ai/

In British English the phonetic symbol /ai/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "fly" and "time". It is called a Diphthong. 

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

• with "i": bike - die - file - I - ice - lie - like - line - mine - nice - pie - pine - pint - price - quite - size - smile - tie - time - white - wine - write;
• with "ig": align - assign - sign;
• with "igh": bright - fight - fright - height - high - light - night - right - sigh - sight - slight - thigh - tight;
• with "y": cry - dry - dye - eye - fly - fry - my - rye - shy - sky - sty - try - type - why;
• others: buy;
• homophones: cite/site/sight - die/dye - high/hi - I/eye - knight/night - right/write - sighs/size - time/thyme - whine/wine - why/Y.

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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.

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