IPA phoneme /aɪ/

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /aɪ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "price", "fly" and "time". This diphthong is informally called “long I” and a bit more formally "the long sound of the letter I".

In strict IPA diphthongs need an inverted breve under their less prominent vowel: /aɪ&#815;/. However the notation we are using does not have the symbol /a/ by itself, and therefore we know that a vowel after /a/ has an implied inverted breve.

This vowel can be pronounced as [aɪ&#815;], [ʌɪ&#815;] or (in Australian English) [ɑe&#815;]. In Southern American English this phoneme can be the monophthong [aː].

At the advice of Clive Upton the Concise Oxford Dictionary altered the British tradition and now uses /ʌɪ/ instead of /aɪ/; later Oxford Dictionaries Online followed the same convention. The phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis says "the verdict on /ʌɪ/ alongside /aʊ/ must be that it is a very regrettable departure from EPD14b [Daniel Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary] that would be better abandoned in future."

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

One syllable

 * with "ie": die - lie - pie - tie
 * with "i": bind - blind - child - climb - find - hi - I - kind - mild - mind - pint - wild - wind (verb) - whilst
 * with "i" and magic e: bike - drive - file - fine - ice - life - like - line - live (adj.) - mile - mine - nice - pine - price - quite - rise - side - site - size - smile - strike - time - while - white - wide - wife - wine - write
 * with "ig": sign
 * with "igh": bright - fight - flight - fright - height - high - light - might - night - right - sigh - sight - slight - thigh - tight
 * with the Y|letter "y": by - cry - dry - dye - fly - fry - my - rye - shy - sky - style - try - type - why
 * others: buy - guy; eye

Several syllables

 * with "i"
 * followed by one consonant: finally - identity - item - primary - private
 * followed by two or more consonants: behind - library - title
 * followed by a vowel: idea - science - society - variety - trial


 * with "i" and magic e: arrive - decide - define - describe - exercise - inside - outside - provide - realise/realize - surprise
 * with "ig": align - assign - design - resign
 * with "y" and magic e: analyse/analyze
 * with "y"
 * ending in stressed /aɪ/: apply - deny - July - nearby - rely - reply - supply
 * ending in /aɪ/ with secondary stress: identify - occupy - qualify - satisfy - specify
 * other: cycle - hypothesis - psychology

Less common words

 * with "i":
 * with magic e: bite, knife, precise, pride, rice, slice, wipe, wise
 * followed by one consonant: binary, ivory, Niger, Nigeria, North Carolina, South Carolina, tiger
 * followed by two or more consonants: bible, grind
 * followed by a vowel: biography, Brian, diagnose, Diana, Diane, Iowa, lion, Ohio


 * with "igh": Brighton
 * with "y": byte, dynamic, hyaena, hyena, hygiene, python, rhyme, Ryan, spy, sty, tycoon, Wyoming
 * with "ei": apartheid, gesundheit, kaleidoscope, leitmotif, poltergeist, Rottweiler
 * with "ey": Cheyenne /ʃaɪˈæn, ʃaɪˈn/, geyser
 * with "ae": maestro, tae kwon do
 * with "ai": aikido, bonsai, daiquiri, haiku, Hawaii /həˈwaɪiː/, kaiser, samurai, Taiwan, Thailand
 * with "ay": papaya, Paraguay, Uruguay
 * coyote: /kaɪˈəʊ.tiː, ˈkaɪ.oʊt, kɔɪˈəʊ.tiː/

/aɪ/ in combination with /r/
In some words "ir" and "yr" are pronounced /aɪər/, and in others they are pronounced /aɪr/.
 * /aɪə/: acquire - choir - desire - entire - fire - hire - inspire - Ireland - iron /aɪərn/ - require - retire - -  - umpire - wire
 * /aɪ/: gyrate - irate - pirate - polystyrene - pyromaniac - spiral - virus
 * /aɪ/ or /aɪə/: environment

Homophones

 * aisle - I'll - isle; bite - byte; buy - by; cite - site - sight; die - dye; fined - find; high - hi; I - eye; knight - night; mined - mind; right - rite - write; sighed - side; sighs - size; sight - site; time - thyme; whine - wine; why - Y.

Heteronyms

 * live /lɪv/ (verb), /laɪv/ (adjective)
 * multiply /ˈmʌltɪplaɪ/ (verb), /ˈmʌltəpliː/ (adverb)
 * wind /wɪnd/ (air movement), /waɪnd/ (to tighten a spring)

Variant pronunciations

 * /ə, ɪ, aɪ/: direct, director, directory
 * either /ˈaɪðər, ˈiːðər/, neither /ˈnaɪðər, ˈniːðər/
 * fragile /ˈfrædʒaɪl, ˈfrædʒəl/
 * geyser /ˈɡaɪzər, ˈɡiːzər/

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.