Pronunciation of English Words


Confused about English pronunciation? Discover the different English phonemes and their groups. Hear the examples, feel free to repeat them, and, of course, enjoy the spellings! Image: Ultra_Nancy, Pixabay.

Vowels


Short Vowels
Long Vowels
Wise Vowels
Fairy Vowels 
 /a/      /eɪ/     /ɑː/     /ɑː/    
/ɛ/     /iː/     /aʊ/     /ɛə/    
/ɪ/     /ɑɪ/     /ɔɪ/     /ɪə/    
/ɔ/     /əʊ/     /ɔː/     /ɔː/    
/ɐ/     /jʉː/     /ʉː/     /ʊə/    
/ʊ/     /ɜː/    
/ə/    


Vowels may be monophthongs, e.g. /a/, or diphthongs, e.g. /eɪ/. They may be lax vowels, e.g. /ɛ/, or tense vowels, e.g. /iː/. Vowels may be supported by a semivowel, e.g. /jʉː/.

English vowels can be divided into four didactic groups:

  • Short vowels are the lax monophthongs, including the schwa.
  • Long vowels are tense monophthongs and diphthongs culturally perceived as “long” vowels. They are the alphabet names of the vowels.
  • Wise vowels are the other tense monophthongs and diphthongs.
  • Fairy vowels are the R-controlled tense monophthongs and diphthongs in non-rhotic accents. Some vowels are both wise and fairy.

Short Vowels

/a/Pat short aapple, that, man, thank, have, carrot
/ɛ/Tess short eegg, lemon, fresh, get, bread, lettuce, well
/ɪ/Nick short idrink, milk, is, in, this, busy, orange, lettuce
/ɔ/Bob short opop, rock, cod, orange, what, want, sausage
/ɐ/Doug short umuch, up, other, come, love, honey, country
/ʊ/Brooke old uput, push, woman, good, book, should, would
/ə/Jacob schwaabout, pepper, banana, lemon, sugar, pyjamas
/i/Amy new ivery, many, eerie, studies, unity, eulogy

Long Vowels

/eɪ/Jane long aname, cake, great, day, wait, eight
/iː/Pete long emeet, meat, people, priest, sardine, compete
/ɑɪ/Mike long ilime, rice, wine, pilot, buy, try, high, height
/əʊ/Rose long onose, coat, know, cold, toe, soul, don’t
/jʉː/Hugh long uuse, pupil, music, new, few, beauty, you

Wise Vowels

/ɑː/Ma wise alast, after, half, father, plant, aunt, can’t
/aʊ/Tau wise owhow, now, town, brown, mouth, loud, out
/ɔɪ/Joy wise oyoil, boy, join, employ, lawyer, enjoy, soya
/ɔː/Maud true otall, salt, water, broad, sauce, daughter, saw
/ʉː/Luke true urule, blue, moon, food, fruit, shoe, to, do

Fairy Vowels

/ɑː/Mark wise acar, park, farm, heart, clerk, large
/ɛə/Claire eerie eair, hair, care, heir, wear, where, prayer
/ɪə/Keir eerie iear, hear, here, beer, tier, dear, engineer
/ɔː/George true ofork, pork, corn, gorse, coarse, course, port
/ʊə/Noor eerie upoor, tour, sure, moor, rural, tourist, pure
/ɜː/Bert wise enerve, learn, girl, work, turn, word, journey


The four groups feature the following special vowels:

  • The schwa is the unstressed indeterminate central vowel.
  • The true [long] o is the tense version of the BOB-vowel.
  • The true [long] u is the HUGH-vowel without semivowel support.
  • The old [short] u is the old version of the short u.
  • The new [short] i is a new suffixal version of the short i.



Consonants


Strong
Weak
Wise
 /p/      /b/     /m/    
/t/     /d/     /n/    
/k/     /g/     /ŋ/    
/tʃ/     /dʒ/     /j/    
/f/     /v/     /w/    
/θ/     /ð/     /ɹ/    
/s/     /z/     /l/    
/ʃ/     /ʒ/     /ɫ/    
/h/    


English consonants can be divided into three didactic groups:

  • Strong consonants (fortes) are voiceless and often aspirated, both plosive and fricative.
  • Weak consonants (lenes) are voiced and unaspirated, both plosive and fricative.
  • Wise consonants are the nasals and approximants. /j/ and /w/ are semivowels.

Strong Consonants

/p/Pam peepie, up, pilot, apple, grape, ship, police
/t/Tom teetea, tomato, carrot, teacher, artist, butter
/k/Kate keekale, cook, soccer, doctor, mechanic, rock
/tʃ/Chuck cheecheap, teacher, church, match, cheese, attach
/f/Finn feefire, photo, life, flower, farmer, fiffteen
/θ/Beth thinthank, thing, author, Athens, bath, breath
/s/Sam esssun, sing, science, cent, passenger, this, house
/ʃ/Shawn sheeship, bishop, fish, mission, nation, action, pacient
/h/Hugh heehat, hot, hut, hate, heat, height, hoot, heart, hurt

Weak Consonants

/b/Bess beebake, bread, about, cabbage, grab, rub
/d/Don deedid, doctor, drug, radish, sudden, said
/g/Guy gueegoes, grape, again, beggar, drug, egg
/dʒ/Jean jessjam, judge, large, genious, angina, legion
/v/Val veevet, vast, avoid, convey, have, love, clove
/ð/they theethis, then, rather, whether, with, blithe, paths
/z/Zack zeezoo, jazz, possess, cousin, rose, loves, toys
/ʒ/beige genregendarme, aubergine, genre, vision, pleasure

Wise Consonants

/m/Matt meemilk, music, summer, cucumber, lamb, jam
/n/Nat neenice, honey, can, corn, can’t, runner, tender
/ŋ/Bing wingsinger, English, thinker, link, wrong, song
/j/York yesyacht, year, yeast, yesterday, young, youth
/w/Wes weewater, was, west, woman, weight, wheat, why
/ɹ/Ruth reered, bread, carrot, orange, berry, porridge
/ɹ/Bear arecar, hair, beer, fork, moor, work, pepper
/l/Lou leelemon, black, palace, salad, fallen, play
/ɫ/Jill ellball, shall, feel, felt, kale, male, soil, soul


The three groups feature the following special cases:

  • In the wise group, the are is the pronounced final ree in rhotic accents. Rhotic accents do not have fairy vowels. Instead, are is added to short vowels, which may be lengthened.
  • In the wise group, the ell is the velarised final lee, called dark L in constrast to lee as the light L.
  • In the strong group, the consonant loch as the velar /x/ is of limited occurrence.


Silent Letters

silent emake, those, petite, come, every, tense, active
muffled schwadifferent, monastery, nation, vision, question
no consonantlamb, sign, hour, high, know, half, psycho, sword





Phonetic Literacy


Graphic Alphabet Phonetic Alphabet
b     bee /b/bee
ccee/tʃ/chee
ddee/d/dee
feff/f/fee
ggee/g/guee
heitch/ʒ/genre
jjay/h/hee
kkay/dʒ/jess
lell/k/kee
mem/l/lee
nen/ɫ/ell
ppee/m/mee
qcue/n/nee
rare/ŋ/wing
sess/p/pee
ttee/ɹ/ree / are
vvee/θ/thin
wdouble-u/s/ess
xeks/ʃ/shee
ywhy/t/tee
zzed/ð/thee
/v/vee
/w/wee
/j/yes
/z/zee


The graphic alphabet contains the names of the written letters. The phonetic alphabet contains the didactic names of phonemes as the “spoken letters.”

Not every written letter has a specific spoken counterpart, and vice-versa. For example, the written cee can represent the spoken kee and *ess, among others. The spoken shee can be rendered with numerous written letters.

When written and spoken letters have the same name, an asterisc may be used before the latter: ess refers to written s, while *ess refers to spoken /s/.


The English Phonetic Alphabet


Vowels Consonants
/a/   short a | pat /b/ bee
/eɪ/ long a | jane /tʃ/ chee
/ɑː/ wise a | ma /d/ dee
/ɛ/ short e | tess /f/ fee
/iː/ long e | pete /g/ guee
/ɜː/ wise e | bert /ʒ/ genre
/ɛə/ fairy e | claire /h/ hee
/ə/ schwa | an /dʒ/ jess
/ɪ/ short i | nick /k/ kee
/i/ new i | amy /l/ lee
/ɑɪ/ long i | mike /ɫ/ ell
/ɪə/ fairy i | keir /m/ mee
/ɔ/ short o | bob /n/ nee
/əʊ/ long o | rose /ŋ/ wing
/ɔː/ true o | maud /p/ pee
/ɐ/ short u | doug /ɹ/ ree
/ʊ/ old u | brooke /θ/ thin
/jʉː/ long u | hugh /s/ ess
/ʉː/ true u | luke /ʃ/ shee
/ʊə/ fairy u | noor /t/ tee
/aʊ/ wise ow | tau /ð/ thee
/ɔɪ/ wise oy | joy /v/ vee
/ɑː/ wise a | mark /w/ wee
/ɔː/ true o | george /j/ yes
/z/ zee
/ɹ/ are


English pronunciation is not uniform. This alphabet represents a subjective perception of British received pronunciation without allophones (with few exceptions).

This alphabet may be used as a didactic starting point for phonetic literacy. It does not lay any normative claim on English pronunciation.


Spelling Words

ship ess eitch i pee
/ʃɪp/shee nick pee
chicken cee eitch i cee kay e en
/tʃɪkɪn/chee nick kee nick nee
wrong double-u are o en gee
/rɔŋ/ree bob wing
heart eitch e a are tee
/hɑːt/hee mark tee
measure em e a ess u are e
/mɛʒə/mee tess genre an
action a cee tee i o en
/akʃən/pat kee shee an nee
nation en a tee i o en
/neɪʃən/nee jane shee an nee
judge jay u dee gee e
/dʒɐdʒ/jess doug jess
their tee eitch e i are
/ðɛə/thee claire
thrall tee eitch are a double-l
/θɹɔːɫ/thin ree maud ell
prayer pee are a why e are
/pɹɛə/pee ree claire
prayer pee are a why e are
/pɹɛɹ/pee ree tess are [rhotic]


The examples are spelt graphically and phonetically. Being able to spell words phonetically will improve your phonetic understanding (native speakers) and pronunciation skills (non-native speakers). It is an important tool for teachers.

The letter names in the English phonetic alphabet serve a didactic purpose. They do not provide a scientific description of phonemes. The vowels are called after given names. The schwa is called after the unstressed article an.



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