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Question

Difficulty: HardDiphthongs

Match each target word in the left column with the word in the right column that contains the exact same diphthong vowel sound.

  • droughtbrowse
  • paradigmguile
  • feintstray
  • croakfoam

Answer

The correct matches are: 'drought' pairs with 'browse' (/aʊ/), 'paradigm' pairs with 'guile' (/aɪ/), 'feint' pairs with 'stray' (/eɪ/), and 'croak' pairs with 'foam' (/əʊ/).
Each left-column word is correctly matched to its right-column partner sharing the identical diphthong sound despite deceptive spelling: 'drought' and 'browse' both produce /aʊ/, 'paradigm' and 'guile' both produce /aɪ/, 'feint' and 'stray' both produce /eɪ/, and 'croak' and 'foam' both produce /əʊ/.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary diphthong sound in each target word on the left.
'drought' contains /aʊ/, 'paradigm' contains /aɪ/ in its final syllable, 'feint' contains /eɪ/, and 'croak' contains /əʊ/.
Phonetic identification requires looking past non-standard orthography such as the silent 'g' in 'paradigm' or the multi-letter 'ough' spelling in 'drought'.
2
Analyze the vowel sounds in the right column words.
'browse' contains /aʊ/, 'guile' contains /aɪ/, 'stray' contains /eɪ/, and 'foam' contains /əʊ/.
Matching requires isolating the gliding vowel quality regardless of spelling differences.
3
Form the corresponding pairs based on identical diphthong glides.
'drought' -> 'browse' (/aʊ/); 'paradigm' -> 'guile' (/aɪ/); 'feint' -> 'stray' (/eɪ/); 'croak' -> 'foam' (/əʊ/).
Each pair shares the precise target diphthong sound.

Key Concept

Diphthong Sound Identification and Orthographic Variation
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Topics

Diphthongs

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