# How many syllables are there in your pronunciation of the word "oil"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777 "2021-05-24T07:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/21 "2021-05-25T13:36:56Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > The vowel sound in “oil” is a diphthong. That is, there’s actually two vowel sounds in there. I am not sure that is precisely accurate. The “i” in “oil” is functioning as an approximant rather than a vowel. Like the “y” in “boy”. The thing is, the letter “l” also functions as an approximant, which creates an awkward situation because approximants appear adjacent to vowels, so when they are paired, a shadow vowel tends to appear between them, which is almost always a “ə”. One does not hear the word as “oy-ill” it is typically “oy-uhl”, just like “pile” and “girl” have shadow vowels between their approximants and “vowel” often sounds like less than a two-syllable word because the “e” is just an explicit shadow vowel. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/22 "2021-05-25T14:22:46Z")
Definitely two syllables for me - oiy-uhl. Once when I lived in North Carolina, I was talking about my car with a local man and he asked me about changing the “oll” I honestly did not understand what he was saying and had to ask him to repeat himself several times before I realized that he was saying “oil”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/23 "2021-05-25T17:07:05Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I am not sure that is precisely accurate. The “i” in “oil” is functioning as an approximant rather than a vowel. While I’ve heard some people use the approximate in the word oil, making it sound like “Oi-yuhll,” I don’t know of anyone who says boy with a hard y sound at the end. I’ve only ever heard the diphthong. There’s a way to check: say the word boy really slowly, and elongate the last sound. Is it more close than the normal “ee” sound? It isn’t for me–in fact, it’s the exact same vowel as when I say the word “me.” ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/24 "2021-05-26T20:26:07Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > There’s a way to check: say the word boy really slowly, and elongate the last sound. Is it more close than the normal “ee” sound? It isn’t for me–in fact, it’s the exact same vowel as when I say the word “me.” I’m lost. They is no “ee” in boy for me. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/25 "2021-05-26T22:12:29Z")
It’s not necessarily an “ee” sound in all accents. But most accents have an offglide at the end of boy, where your jaw closes up more and your tongue raises after the “o” sound in order to make the “oi” sound. My instructions are an attempt to get someone to hold out that sound, to see what it sounds like. It may sound like the ee in meet, It may sound like the i in mitt. It may be in between. Heck, in some southern accents, it starts to sound closer the the u in mutt. The one thing I don’t think I’ve ever heard is for it sound like the y in yes. That sounds begins even more narrow (jaw closer, tongue higher) than the “ee” sound. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/26 "2021-05-26T22:53:54Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > One syllable, and the ‘L’ is clearly voiced. Same for me. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/27 "2021-05-26T23:17:20Z")
For me it is 2 syllables but my grandmother had the classic old NYC pronunciation of Erl. Drop Rs when they exist and add them where they don’t was pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/28 "2021-05-27T10:24:24Z")
A related tangent: Four. Pronounced “fore” or “foe-wer”? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/29 "2021-05-30T21:40:01Z")
One. British RP. Oil has a dipthong: dipthongs are one syllable. I think some people are not quite understanding what “syllables” means. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/30 "2021-05-30T21:58:33Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > They is no “ee” in boy for me. Of course there is, _bo_-_yee_! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/31 "2021-05-30T22:43:11Z")
> [@EnolaStraight](#): > > A related tangent: Four. > Pronounced “fore” or “foe-wer”? The “r” is an approximant, which in this case affects the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. When “o” falls at the end of a word, English speakers tend to close it off with a “-w” type sound, but when it is followed by a consonant or approximant, (other than w) it tends to lose that closure (compare a language like Italian, when -o and -i endings tend to be pure, lacking the respective -w and -y closures common in – at least American – English). ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/32 "2021-05-31T02:02:33Z")
For me, in normal conversation, one syllable, and the two syllable variant sounds weird. When I use(d) NATO pronunciation, it’s definitely two syllables. Zee-ro Wun Too Tree Foe-wer Fife Six Sev-en Ate Niner ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/33 "2021-05-31T02:09:39Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > One. British RP. Oil has a dipthong: dipthongs are one syllable. > > I think some people are not quite understanding what “syllables” means. I think you may not be quite understanding the variety of English dialects. As noted upthread, it’s sort of 1-1/2 syllables for me. It’s pretty close to two distinct vowel sounds, oy-uhl or oy-ill. For my dialect, I think the pronunciation is closer to a two syllable word where I’m partially eliding the vowels than a dipthong that I’m stretching. “Boil” is the same, but “coin”, for example, for me is clearly a one syllable word with a dipthong. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/34 "2021-05-31T02:53:44Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Does anyone here remember the Little Iodine comic by Jimmy Hatlo? One of the characters routinely expressed annoyance at others by exclaiming “Berl him in erl!” I had to get someone to translate that for me. It means “Boil him in oil!”. I think that was supposed to be a New York accent. That is a New York accent. Or at least it was. I think it’s mostly dying off. That’s exactly how my grandmother would say it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/35 "2021-05-31T04:15:55Z")
I remember about '77, when Jimmy Carter became president, a book about how to speak southern ended up in my hands. As I recall, oil was pronounced like a pointy tool for putting holes in things (“awl”) whereas “earl” was a thing you put on the roof to get better TV reception. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/36 "2021-05-31T17:53:49Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > think you may not be quite understanding the variety of English dialects. As noted upthread, it’s sort of 1-1/2 syllables for me. It’s pretty close to two distinct vowel sounds, oy-uhl or oy-ill. For my dialect, I think the pronunciation is closer to a two syllable word where I’m partially eliding the vowels than a dipthong that I’m stretching. “Boil” is the same, but “coin”, for example, for me is clearly a one syllable word with a dipthong. I never mentioned anything about the variety of accents, though what you’re describing is still a dipthong. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/37 "2021-05-31T19:01:05Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I never mentioned anything about the variety of accents, Well, yeah, that was my point. You stated that you thought “some people are not quite understanding what “syllables” mean.” I think most participants in this thread understand what “syllables” means, but in some dialects of English, the word “oil” is pronounced closer to a word with two distinct vowel sounds (“syllables”) than it is to a word with a single syllable that combines two vowel sounds (“diphthong”). > [@SciFiSam](#): > > though what you’re describing is still a dipthong. Then I’m not describing it well. For me, “coin” is clearly a one syllable word which contains a diphthong. My pronunciation of the vowelling in “oil”, on the other hand, is different, and is almost but not _quite_ two distinct syllables. I personally have a much easier time parsing the word when it is pronounced as two distinct syllables “oi-yill”, than when it is pronounced as a single syllable where the diphthong all but disappears, the Soputhern U.S. “oll” referenced upthread. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/38 "2021-05-31T19:24:09Z")
You’re assuming that I meant people with different accents to mine? Why? Unless you really want to be offended, that’s an overreach. My accent says oil the exact same way yours does, at least based on your description. I suppose you could really fully be using two syllables. I mean, it doesn’t sound like it, it sounds like a textbook definition of a dipthong, but I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a productive discussion. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/39 "2021-05-31T19:52:56Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > You’re assuming that I meant people with different accents to mine? Why? Because you stated: > [@SciFiSam](#): > > One. British RP. Oil has a dipthong: dipthongs are one syllable. > > I think some people are not quite understanding what “syllables” means. In British RP (your “accent”), “oil” is pronounced with a one-syllable diphthong. In _my_ accent, “oil” is pronounced with a vowelling that’s something in between a one-syllable diphthong and two distinct syllables. Our accents apparently pronounce the word differently. I’m not saying that because I don’t understand what “syllables” and “diphthongs” are, I’m saying that because in my accent, “oil” is somewhere in between. Let’s try this. For you, is “coin” a one syllable diphthong? Is it the same diphthong as “oil”? For me, those two words have slightly different vowellings. For me, in “coin”, the vowelling is a diphthong, and “coin” is a one-syllable word. Which is different than how I pronounce “oil”. How about “goyim”? (I know, that’s Hebrew/Yiddish, not English, but I couldn’t think of an English word that illustrates the point as well). That’s clearly a two syllable word, right? I don’t pronounce “oil” with the same vowelling as “goyim”, but it’s not far off. For me, the vowelling in “oil” is somewhere in between “coin” and “goyim”. I suspect if you recorded my casual speech, I’d occasionally drift towards the “coin” vowelling and occasionally towards the “goyim” vowelling, depending on the context. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777/40 "2021-05-31T22:17:49Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I suppose you could really fully be using two syllables. I mean, it doesn’t sound like it, it sounds like a textbook definition of a dipthong I doubt that. A diphthong (at least in English) is normally perceived by the speaker as a single vowel sound and a single syllable. If someone says they have an extra syllable after the diphthong, I tend to believe them. It seems much more common for people to err in the other direction by denying that they have a diphthong in a given context (where they almost certainly do, but on a text-based medium such as a message board it’s impossible to be sure). Speakers don’t generally notice that some English vowel sounds are diphthongs until it’s brought to their attention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-syllables-are-there-in-your-pronunciation-of-the-word-oil/942777.md?page=3)