Lessons › Lesson 8
Lesson 8 · Vowel glides, part 1
A main vowel plus a quick glide off to i or u. If you can say “my” and “cow”, your mouth already knows the move — the real work is KEEPING the first vowel’s quality and length while you glide.
Accent:
➡️ Gliding off to i
⬅️ Gliding off to u/o
⏱ The length trap: ai/ay and ao/au
A spelling secret: in “ay” and “au” the letter a is actually SHORT Ă (Lesson 4) written without its breve. So ai vs ay and ao vs au differ in the LENGTH of the a — not in the glide.
mai vs may
mai = long a + i. may = short ă + i, the whole rime tighter. Alternate them: same route, different length.
sao vs sau
sao = long a + u. sau = short ă + u. The pair flips the meaning entirely (star / after).
🧭 Why no “êi” or “ôu”?
Front vowels (i, ê, e) never take the -i glide, and rounded back vowels (u, ô, o) never take the -u glide — you cannot glide to where you already are. That is why the chart above is the COMPLETE list.
🎯 How to drill
Say them slow: the first vowel owns 80% of the time, the glide is just the tail. Beginners split it 50/50 — that is exactly what sounds foreign.