In this post I want to help you with the “ei” spelling. I’m going to give you a list of words with ei spelling grouped together into different sound groups.

At the bottom of the post you’ll find a link to a video quiz to test how many of these words with “ei” you can confidently pronounce.

• With the FACE vowel /eɪ/ (like make, day, wait)

Weight, weigh, eight, veil, vein, rein, beige, feint, abseil, reign, neighbour, spontaneity 

• With the PRICE vowel /aɪ/ (like my, why, island)

Height, feisty, neither/either, heist, kaleidoscope, eider

• With the FLEECE vowel /iː/ (like sheep, me, people)

Ceiling, seize, caffeine, neither/either, protein, conceive, receive, 

• With the KIT vowel / ɪ/ (like sing, bit, England)

Forfeit, counterfeit, surfeit, sovereign, sovereignty, 

• With the DRESS vowel /e/ (like egg, help, head) 

Leisure, Leicester, heifer, 

• With the NEAR vowel /ɪə/ (like hear, appear, beer)

Weird, weir, 

• With the SQUARE vowel /e:/ (like care, wear, area)

Their, heir, 

• Unstressed

Foreign

Now watch this video to test how much you know about how to pronounce “ei” in British English:

The pronunciations are in the video and the transcriptions are here too:

weight – /weɪt/
seize – /siːz/
forfeit – /ˈfɔː.fɪt/
leisure – /ˈleʒ.ər/
weird – /wɪəd
their – /ðe:/

How many did you get right? Let me know!

In modern British English there are five – yes FIVE – ways we pronounce “OO”. There’s no logic behind why some words have one pronunciation while others have a different one. As a learner of English pronunciation you will need to learn these different pronunciations by heart.

I live in Yorkshire and in my accent (and many other northern British English accents) there are only (only!) four ways to pronounce “OO”. This is because the vowel in “flood” and “blood” does not exist in most northern accents. Instead, we pronounce these words with the same vowel as “good” and “look”.

There are two main ways to pronounce “OO” though – these are with the long GOOSE vowel /uː/ or the short FOOT vowel /ʊ/.

Words with the long GOOSE vowel and “OO” spelling include:

/uː/ : food, moon, soon, spook, smooth, loose, choose etc

Words with the short FOOT vowel include:

/ʊ/ : good, wool, stood, wood, cook, look, etc

I frequently hear students who are learning English pronounce some of these words with the FOOT vowel /ʊ/ with the long vowel of GOOSE. If you are learning a Standard British Accent you will need to be careful here. For example, I often hear students use the same vowel in “good food” but the correct pronunciation in Standard British English is /ɡʊd fuːd/.

There are also three other, less common, ways to pronounce “OO”,

Some words use the long vowel found in THOUGHT, NORTH or FORCE /ɔː/ for example
floor, poor, moor, door, etc

There are a pair of words with the short STRUT vowel /ʌ/, these are  
flood, blood

And finally there is one word that uses the GOAT vowel /əʊ/:

Brooch

In this video I will show you how to pronounce the sounds and I will also test how well you know which words use which vowel.

This sentence will help you remember the main four ways to pronounce “OO”:

The poor cook flooded the floor.

I hope that was helpful. Let me know what other spellings you find difficult to confidently pronounce.

Galentine’s Day is February 13^th – the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s a day where women celebrate their friendship with other women. It’s a day to feel good about platonic relationships, regardless of whether or you are married or in another romantic relationship.

The first part of the word “gal” is an informal way to “girl” and it rhymes with the first part of Valentine – “Val”. In British English “gal” is less common than it is in American English, in fact it’s still quite rare here.

I have created a video for you here explaining the word and its pronunciation:

How to pronounce Galentine’s Day

Some ways that you could use “Galentine’s Day” include:

“Hey, happy Galentine’s!”

“The girls are coming over later for Galentine’s.”

“I’ve arranged a pamper party tonight for Galentine’s Day. Are you coming?”

As you can see, you can say either “Galentine’s Day” or just “Galentine’s” on its own. The meaning is totally clear whichever you use.

So my dears, Happy Galentine’s!

HOLY /ˈhəʊ.li/:

The vowel is the first syllable is a diphthong. This means there is movement in the vowel. Linguists and English teachers call this vowel the GOAT vowel and it is also found in words like:

• SOAP, HOPE, OPEN, OWN, TOE, ALTHOUGH

To make the GOAT vowel sound you start with a SCHWA /ə/. This is the unstressed vowel. You create this by relaxing the mouth fully and breathing out. Air passes your vocal folds (your voice box) and vibrates them so the sound, like all vowels, is voiced.

The second part of the vowel is called the FOOT vowel. This is also found in words like:

• PUT, LOOK, WOMAN, SHOULD

Like all vowels, the sound is voiced so your vocal folds vibrate.

You need to make sure that both parts of the vowel are clear if you want to pronounce this word in a standard British English accent.

HOLLY /ˈhɒl.i/:

Now on to the second word in the pair. 

The vowel in the first syllable here is the LOT/CLOTH vowel. The way this vowel is pronounced in a British English accent is quite different from the same vowel in an American accent. The most noticeable difference between this vowel is that in a standard British English accent, the vowel in the words LOT and CLOTH is exactly the same. In General American, the two words contain two different vowels.

In British English, LOT/CLOTH is a rounded low back vowel.

This means the lips are in a rounded shape. It’s low in the mouth which means the mouth needs to be wide open. It’s physically challenging to both open the mouth wide and round the lips at the same time so don’t expect that the rounding of the lips will be that obvious. It’s also a back vowel. If you say the word APPLE then say the word LOT, you should feel the tongue pulling backwards and the sound moving back in the mouth.

Other words that contain the LOT/CLOTH vowel are:

 -OFFER, GOT, SOCK, QUALITY, WATCH.

To help you with these differences in pronunciation, I have created a video for you and you can watch it here.

How to pronounce HOLY and HOLLY in a British English accent.

You can also try these sentences:

1. Let’s decorate this holy place with holly.

2. Holly had grown by the holy site.

And if you’re looking for more… try these sentences with the GOAT and LOT/CLOTH vowels in different words. I have highlighted the GOAT vowels in a bold font and have underlined the LOT/CLOTH vowels (and don’t forget – LOT and CLOTH vowels are pronounced exactly the same in British English!):

1. The goat spoke a lot.

2. The sausage is too hot and I don’t want it.

3. I know Tom got the old box.