pronouncekit

FINAL

ai: falling diphthong

Practice ai from an open a to a high front glide, in mǎi and lái, and keep it apart from a and ei.

ai
Broad IPA
[ai̯]

Mouth & tongue

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Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Sound to demonstrate
Tone

High and level, around 55 on the five-level pitch scale.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy. A simplified teaching model, not a measured or anatomically validated simulation. It shows the soft palate lowering for nasal sounds, but not airflow. Single syllables use eSpeak NG, a synthetic voice on your device. Its pitch range is narrower than natural speech, so use the tone diagrams and word buttons as well. Words and sentences use a voice from your browser or device when one is available. No native recordings are bundled.

Words to practice

Sentence to practice

Listen and compare

Open jaw at the start of the first word; mid jaw on the second.

Pinyin here shows dictionary tones. Spoken tones change in some contexts, such as nǐ hǎo; see the lessons on tone changes.

What you are learning

Pinyin ai starts wide open and rises quickly toward i, all in one syllable.

What your mouth is doing

The jaw opens for a, then rises as the front of the tongue glides upward. The lips are neutral to slightly spread.

Compared with English

English eye and my are close. Mandarin often ends the glide slightly less high than a careful English eye, and the whole syllable carries one tone.

Build the sound, step by step

  1. Start with a clear a.
  2. Glide up without a break.
  3. Say mǎi and mài, keeping the tone contour across the whole glide.

What to watch for

  • Stopping at a turns mǎi (buy) toward mǎ (horse).
  • Starting too high makes ei instead of ai.

Related lessons

Keep practicing

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance for English speakers, based on the references below. The comparisons are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common Mainland Standard Mandarin patterns, not every accent or regional variety, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist or Mandarin teacher.

Published 5 November 2026