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Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone.
Welcome to The Ultimate Hebrew Pronunciation Guide.
In this lesson, you'll learn about Hebrew diphthongs.
WHAT ARE DIPHTHONGS?
But what exactly *are* diphthongs?
Diphthong' means *two* *sounds*. It's the term used to describe two vowel sounds that are pronounced close together in the same syllable.
"Take the English word 'pain' for example.
It's not pronounced 'pa-in', but 'pain'.
Or the word 'foul'. It's not 'fo-ul', but 'foul'."
Notice the difference? You can think of it like gliding from one vowel to the next very quickly. So diphthongs, begin one way and end in another.
Hebrew DIPHTHONGS
Hebrew diphthongs are quite similar to the ones in English, so if you know English, then most of them will already be familiar to you.
Let's take a look at a few common diphthongs in Hebrew.
"ַי
מים ""water""
ָי
עיניים ""eyes"""
These diphthongs create the same sound as the English 'eye', or the diphthong in the word 'why'. Try it!
Next is...
"ֶי
ֶי
שילך ""that will go""
מיוחד ""special"""
It's similar to the diphthong in the word 'hey'. Now *you* try!
Next is...
"וֹי
וֹי
גוי ""Gentile""
נוי ""beauty"""
It's the same as the diphthong in the word 'boy'. Try it!
Here's the final one.
"וּי
וּי
פנוי ""available""
נשוי ""married"""
It's the same as the diphthong in the word 'inuit'. Try it yourself!
Well done! In this lesson, you learned about Hebrew diphthongs.
In the next lesson, you'll learn about stress in Hebrew.
Do you have any tricks to help you pronounce diphthongs? Share them in the comments.
See you in the next Ultimate Hebrew Pronunciation Guide lesson!

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