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The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet | Antimoon

The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet

Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com This chart contains all the sounds (phonemes) used in the English language. For each sound, it gives: The symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as used in phonetic transcriptions in modern dictionaries for English learners that is, in A. C. Gimsons phonemic system with a few additional symbols. The chart represents British and American phonemes with one symbol. One symbol can mean two different phonemes in American and British English. See the footnotes for British-only and American-only symbols. Two English words which use the sound. The underline shows where the sound is heard. The links labeled Amer and Brit play sound recordings (Flash is required) where the words are pronounced in American and British English. The British version is given only where it is very different from the American version. To print the chart, use the printable PDF version.

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The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet | Antimoon

vowels IPA examples listen

Amer Amer / Brit Amer Amer Amer / Brit Amer Amer Amer / Brit 3 Amer / Brit Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer / Brit Amer / Brit
17 6 45 1 2 2

consonants IPA examples listen

Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer Amer
9 8

: e : i: : u: a a e o e

cup, luck arm, father cat, black met, bed turn, learn hit, sitting see, heat hot, rock call, four put, could blue, food five, eye now, out say, eight go, home boy, join where, air near, here pure, tourist

away, cinema Amer

b d f g h j k l m n p r s t t v w z d

bad, lab did, lady find, if give, flag how, hello yes, yellow cat, back leg, little man, lemon no, ten sing, finger pet, map red, try sun, miss she, crash tea, getting check, church think, both this, mother voice, five wet, window zoo, lazy just, large

Amer / Brit 7
7

pleasure, vision Amer

1. Almost all dic tionaries use the e symbol for the vowel in bed. The problem with this c onvention is that e in the IPA does not stand for the vowel in bed; it stands for a different vowel that is heard, for example, in the German word Seele, or at the beginning of the e sound in English. The proper symbol for the bed vowel is (do not c onfuse with :). The same goes for e vs. . 2. In and :, the is not pronounc ed in BrE, unless the sound c omes before a vowel (as in a nswering, a nswer it). In AmE, the is always pronounc ed, and the sounds are sometimes written as and . 3. In AmE, : and are one vowel, so ca lm and cot have the same vowel. In Americ an transc riptions, hot is written as h:t. 4. About 40% of Americ ans pronounc e : the same way as :, so that ca ught and cot have the same vowel. S ee cot-ca ught merger. 5. In Americ an transc riptions, : is often written as : (e.g. la w = l:), unless it is followed by r, in whic h c ase it remains an :. 6. In British transc riptions, o is usually represented as . For some BrE speakers, o is more appropriate (they use a rounded vowel) for others, the proper symbol is . For Americ an speakers, o is usually more ac c urate. 7. In e , the r is not pronounc ed in BrE, unless the sound c omes before a vowel (as in dea rest,
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The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet | Antimoon

dea r Ann). In AmE, the r is always pronounc ed, and the sounds are often written as er r r. 8. All dic tionaries use the r symbol for the first sound in red. The problem with this c onvention is that r in the IPA does not stand for the British or Americ an r; it stands for the hard r that is heard, for example, in the S panish word rey or Italian vero. The proper symbol for the red c onsonant is . 9. In Americ an English, t is often pronounc ed as a fla p t, whic h sounds like d or (more ac c urately) like the quic k, hard r heard e.g. in the S panish word pero. For example: letter. S ome dic tionaries use the t symbol for the fla p t.

special symbols IPA what it means The vertical line () is used to show word stress. It is placed before the stressed syllable in a word. For example, /kntrkt/ is pronounced like this, and /kntrkt/ like that. Word stress is explained in our article about phonetic transcription. is not a sound it is a short way of saying that an r is pronounced only in American English. For example, if you write that the pronunciation of bar is /b:/, you mean that it is /b:r/ in American English, and /b:/ in British English. However, in BrE, r will be heard if is followed by a vowel. For example, far gone is pronounced /f: gn/ in BrE, but far out is pronounced /f: rat/.

i is usually pronounced like a shorter version of i:, but sometimes (especially in an old-fashioned British accent) it can sound like . Examples: very /veri/, create /kriet/, previous /pri:vis/, ability /blti/.
l means that the consonant l is pronounced as a separate syllable (the

syllabic l, which sounds like a vowel), or that there is a short sound before it. Examples: little /ltl/, uncle /kl/. Instead of the l symbol, some dictionaries use an l with a small vertical line underneath, or simply l, as in /ltl/.
n means that the consonant n is pronounced as a separate syllable (the

syllabic n, which sounds like a vowel), or that there is a short sound before it. Examples: written /rtn/, listen /ls n/. Instead of the n symbol, some dictionaries use an n with a small vertical line underneath, or simply n, as in /rtn/.

Does this chart list all the sounds that you can hear in British and American English?
No. This page contains symbols used in phonetic transcriptions in modern dictionaries for English learners. It does not list all the possible sounds in American or British English. For example, this page does not list the regular t (heard in this pronunciation of letter) and the flap t (heard in this one) with separate symbols. It groups them under a single symbol: t. (In other words, it groups a number of similar sounds under a single phoneme, for simplicity. To understand how sounds are grouped into phonemes, read the article on phonemic transcription.) So this page actually lists phonemes (groups of sounds), not individual sounds. Each
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symbol in the chart can correspond to many different (but similar) sounds, depending on the word and the speakers accent. Take the phoneme p in the above chart. It occurs in the phonemic transcriptions of pin /pn/ and spin /spn/. In pin, this phoneme is pronounced with aspiration (breathing). This aspirated p sound has its own special symbol in the IPA: p. In spin, the phoneme is pronounced normally; this normal p sound is represented by p in the IPA. So the p phoneme represents two sounds: p and p. (This can be confusing, because p can mean both the p phoneme and the p sound.)

Typing the phonetic symbols

You wont find phonetic symbols on your computers keyboard. How do you type them in a Word document, e-mail message, or SRS collection? There are two solutions: You can go to the IPA phonetic keyboard at ipa.typeit.org, type your transcriptions, and copy & paste them to your document. You can use the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet, which replaces IPA symbols with characters that you can type on your keyboard.

Learning to pronounce the sounds

We offer English pronunciation software called PerfectPronunciation which teaches learners to pronounce the most frequently used English words. It lets you listen to examples of English sounds, practice your pronunciation, and review your knowledge. PerfectPronunciation uses the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet.

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