9 1 Playing with Paint The diphthong syllable

9. 1 Playing with Paint The diphthong syllable, ai and ay

What is a diphthong? (besides a funny word) • You learned that 2 letters that make one sound are called a digraph. • When the 2 letters are both vowels, and they make one sound, that is called a diphthong. ay ai • play • bait

What is a diphthong? (besides a funny word) • A syllable with a double vowel is called a diphthong syllable, or a d syllable. ā p ay l d • Sometimes it is called a vowel digraph syllable, but diphthong means the same thing, and it is still marked with a d. • You can also think of them as double vowels.

How many sounds do you hear? p ai n t

4 sounds. The ai makes one sound. p ai n t

What says /ā/? a a ai ay e • These are all spelling options for the sound /ā/.

Which of these ends an open syllable? a a ai ay e

The a by itself ends an open syllable. a • This is the most common spelling of /ā/ when /ā/ ends a syllable. • (va ca tion, ta ble)

Ay at the end of a word ay • ay is most common at the end of words. • (play, stay)

These two sound the same, but have different meanings. p l ai n A plain t-shirt, a cow on the plain, the plane in the sky, the plane in my toolbox. p l a n e

How to mark these words: ā Bait d Underline the syllable, circle the diphthong, ad write a d underneath. Then write the sound the diphthong makes above the diphthong.

Read these and mark the diphthongs. • relay • clay • way • drain • mermaid • pain • sprain • say • haystack • braid • complain • bridesmaid