OY

The end-of-word partner to oi. Boy, toy, joy, enjoy — one sound, essentially no exceptions.

Diphthongs

oy TEAM_OY_01

Strong rule · High reliability · Common · Intermediate · Reading and spelling

• /ɔɪ/ oy: boy, toy, joy

Where Wiggler teaches it: Skill 10: Diphthongs & Variant Vowels

Child explanation

O and y together say /ɔɪ/ at the end of a word — boy, toy, joy.

The rule

Oy represents /ɔɪ/ at the end of a word or syllable.

What is really going on

Near-exceptionless, and complementary in distribution with oi. It also appears syllable-finally inside longer words: royal, loyal, voyage.

Position in the word

• End of a word — The normal position. For example: boy, toy, joy, enjoy.
• Middle of a word — At a syllable end. For example: royal, loyal, voyage, oyster.

Examples

Easy examples

boy, toy, joy, enjoy, annoy

More examples

employ, destroy, royal, loyal, voyage, oyster, cowboy, soybean

Pseudo-words

Made-up words that follow the rule. A child who reads these has the pattern rather than the vocabulary.

floy, shoy, proy

Contrast pairs

• boy versus boil — End-of-word oy versus middle-of-word oi.
• toy versus toil

Teacher note

Teach with oi. Children enjoy this pair because it is one of very few places in English where the rule has no exceptions at all, and it is worth saying so out loud.

Related rules

• OI — oi — One sound, one position. Oi appears inside a word and oy at the end, and between them they cover nearly every /ɔɪ/ in English.
• AY — ay — Long a at the end of a word or syllable. Among the most reliable vowel teams in English — there is essentially nothing else it says.
• The letter Y — y — The clearest case in English of position deciding sound. Y is a consonant at the start of a word and a vowel everywhere else — and which vowel depends on how many syllables the word has.

• Previous in Diphthongs: OI — oi — One sound, one position. Oi appears inside a word and oy at the end, and between them they cover nearly every /ɔɪ/ in English.
• All reading rules

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