IPA phoneme \eɪ\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the **IPA phonetic symbol /eɪ/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "face", "cake" and "play". This diphthong is informally called **“long a”** or **the long sound of the letter a**. A better pronounceable name is **the vowel of FACE.**

In strict IPA diphthongs need an inverted breve under their less prominent vowel: /eɪ̯/. However in English no vowel can follow /e/, and therefore the inverted breve can be omitted.

In Australian English this phoneme sounds [æɪ̯], which may be confused with /aɪ/. However /aɪ/ in Australian English sounds [ɑe̯]. In Estuary English there is a similar phenomenon: /eɪ/ sounds [ʌɪ̯] and /aɪ/ sounds [ɑɪ̯].

## Common words

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

* with "**a**"

* with magic e: ache - age - base - blame - brake - case - create - date - escape - face - game - hate - lake - late - male - make - name - place - plate - rate - sale - same - sane - snake - space - stage - stale - state - take - trade - wave - whale
* Followed by one consonant: agency - baby - basic - basis - behavior*AmE* - behaviour*BrE* - education - famous - favor*AmE* - favour*BrE* - information - lady - major - nature - orgatiz**a**tion - paper - patient - radio - safety - situation - station
* Followed by two consonants: able - ancient - arrange - change - danger - enable - exchange - Rachel - range - strange - table - taste - waste

* with "**ai**": aid - aim - brain - chain - claim - detail - explain - fail - gain - hail - jail - main - paid - rain - raise - remain - snail - stain - straight - train - trait - wait
* with "**ay**": always, away, day, delay, essay, display, gray*AmE*, lay, may, maybe, okay, pay, pray, play, say, stay, today, tray, way

* with "**ei**": eight - neighbor*AmE* - neighbour*BrE* - weigh - weighed - weight
* with "**ey**": grey*BrE* - hey - survey - they
* with "**ea**": break - great - steak

## Less common words

* with "**a**"

Followed by one consonant: cooperation, creative, major, Pennsylvania, Wales
Followed by several consonants: angel, Cambridge, chamber
With magic e: bathe, cake, chase, fade, gate, gaze, indicate, mate, pace, pale, sake, shade, slave, spade, stake, tale, trace
* with "**ai**": constraint, entertainment, grain, jail, maintenance, plain, portrait, praise, rail, retail, sail, Spain, strain, sustain, tail, trail, Ukraine
* with "**ae**": Mae, reggae
* with "**ay**": essay, hay, Malaysia, Norway, pray, Raymond
* with "**ey**": obey
* with "**ee**": Beethoven /ˈbeɪˌtəʊvən/
* others: ballet, café, eh *(interjection)*

## Homophones

brake - break; grate - great; male - mail; place - plaice *(fish)*; plane - plain; rain - reign; sail - sale; steak - stake; tale - tail; wave - waive; waste - waist; Wales - whales; weigh - way; weight - wait; weighed - wade.

## Unstressed /eɪ/, /iː/ or /ɪ/

Many words ending in *day* can be pronounced with three pronunciations:

* Monday /ˈmʌndeɪ, ˈmʌndiː, ˈmʌndɪ/ - Tuesday /ˈt(j)uːzdeɪ, ˈt(j)uːzdiː, ˈt(j)uːzdɪ/ - Wednesday /ˈwenzdeɪ, ˈwenzdiː, ˈwenzdɪ/ - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday
* yesterday /ˈyestərˌdeɪ, ˈyestərdiː, ˈyestərdɪ/
* holiday /ˈhɒlədeɪ,*BrE* *AmE* ˈhɒlədiː,*BrE* ˈhɒlədɪ*BrE*/

Words with only one pronunciation, ending in /deɪ/

* birthday - doomsday - everyday - holiday*AmE* - payday - today - weekday

## Spelling

Very often /eɪ/ is spelled "a". Almost never "a" as /eɪ/ is followed by a double consonant. A consonant is never doubled in derived words: rate - rated; make - maker. A double consonant indicates that the "a" is pronounced /æ/ or, less often, /ɑː/.

### Uncommon spellings

* gauge /ɡeɪdʒ/
* gaol*BrE* *now replaced by* jail
* San Jose (California) /ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ/

Several words derived from French have "é", "ê" or "et" pronounced /eɪ/.

* ballet, beret, buffet, café, cliché, crème brûlée, crêpe/crepe, décor/decor, déjà vu, entrée, fiancé, fiancée, flambé, gourmet, protégé, protégée, sauté, touché
* elite, élite: /eɪˈliːt, ɪˈliːt/
* resumé, résumé, resume: /ˈrezjʊmeɪ, ˈrezʊmeɪ, ˈrezəmeɪ, ˌrezʊˈmeɪ/
* other: lingerie /ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ,*AmE* ˈlænʒəriː*BrE*/

## /e/ and /eɪ/

*See main article* IPA phonetic symbol [ɛ]

Phoneme /e/ (as in *dress)* in many dialects is very different from the the beginning of /eɪ/. In IPA narrow notation [e] represents a sound that does not exist isolated in English, the "é" sound in French, as in *beauté* (beauty). In broad notation it doesn't matter if, for simplicity, we use /e/ for a different sound (namely [ɛ]) as in English *dress* or "ê" in French, as in *bête* (animal).

## Variant pronunciations

/eɪ/ vs. /ə/

* administrative /ədˈmɪnɪˌstreɪtɪv,*AmE* ədˈmɪnɪstrətɪv*BrE*/
* authoritative /ɔːˈθɒrəˌteɪtɪv*AmE*, ɔːˈθɒrətətɪv*BrE*/
* imitative /ˈɪmɪˌteɪtɪv,*AmE* ˈɪmɪtətɪv*BrE*/

Other
* apricot /ˈeɪprɪkɒt,*BrE* ˈæprɪkɒt*AmE*/
* basil /ˈbeɪzəl,*AmE* ˈbæzəl/
* expatriate /ˌeksˈpeɪtriət,*AmE* ˌeksˈpætriət*BrE*/

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

While **/eɪ/** is virtually the same as the Spanish diphthong "**ei**", many Spanish speakers have difficulty remembering that the most common spelling for this sound is "a". For example, the movie *The Matrix* /ˈmeɪtrɪks/ was released as *Matrix* in most of the world, and the pronunciation used when speaking Spanish is [ˈmatrɪks]. Similarly "catering" /ˈkeɪtərɪŋ/ is [ˈkaterin] in Spanish, and sometimes it is even spelled "cáterin".

## References

1. ↑ *Diccionario panhispánico de dudas*, cáterin.

## See also

* Decoding the letter A
* Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/
* Decoding exercises: "ai"
* Decoding exercises: "ay"
* Decoding exercises: "ei"
* Pronunciation exercises: /eɪ/ vs /aɪ/
* Silent e

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation