Almost all AI paired words (and AY words) are pronounced with a long A (ay). But those with an R after the AI are classified as R-shaped vowel sounds: a caret A or "air."
There are a few exceptions, such as aisle (long I), said (short E) and plaid (short A).
A few long A words spelled with AI are:
aid, laid, maid, paid, raid
waif
bail, fail, and other -ail words
aim, maim
attain, gain, main, pain, rain
malaise, raise
gait, wait
waive
There are only a few: aisle, aisles in English, and words originally in other languages such as banzai, bonsai, samurai (Japanese), assegai (Portuguese, from Arabic-African).
Some words with a long "a" sound spelled with "ia" include: Liars Dial Liar Crier
Some examples of words with a short "a" sound spelled with "ai" are "lain," "paid," "said," and "wail."
The common words are said, again, and against.
The word said is always a short E sound. In some pronunciations, certain and captain do, but they can also have a short I sound for the AI. Other AI words with the short E sound are again and against.
The long "a" sound can be spelled in several ways: "a-e" as in "cake," "ea" as in "great," "ai" as in "train," and "ei" as in "reindeer."
The words include some that start with A: able, ace, age, ale, anal, ape, apex, ate, and aviation and words such as cable and table, pace and race, bale and pale, late and latex, that include those words. Other long A words are spelled with AI or AY.
The AI words include again and against. Some other words may be pronounced as short E in some dialects: certain curtain mountain fountain chaplain bargain These word endings that are spelled with ai-n sound more like short i as in "in". And that is only because of the "schwa."
Most AI words sound like long A as in AY - maid, waif, maim, nail, main, fair, baitOnly some sound like E or I : said, aisle
Most AI words sound like long A as in AY - maid, waif, maim, nail, main, fair, baitOnly some sound like E or I : said, aisle
Yes. Most of the time, the AI pair does have the "ay" sound of the long A. Exceptions are the words with AI followed by an R, where it has a different sound called a caret A (air, fair, pair). Other special cases: said (sed) plaid (pladd) aisle (I'll)
Almost all of the words that end in AY with an "ay" sound (bay, day, hay, say) are at the end of a syllable. It is the AI words that often do not (gain, sail, maim). Other words that have a long A sound are spelled with EY, including obey, prey, and grey. Also words from French that end in E, EE, or ET have a long A sound, such as cafe, soiree, gourmet, buffet.