ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM VOWEL SOUNDS AND PHONETIC SYMBOLS 1) Vowels and vowel combinations The vowels A, E, I, O, U, Y alone,

in combination with one another or with R, W represent different vowel sounds. The chart below lists the vowel sounds according to the American variant of pronunciation. Sounds [i:] Letters e, ee ea ie, ei Examples be, eve, see, meet, sleep, meal, read, leave, sea, team, field, believe, receive Notes been [i]; bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e] [i] i y [e] e ea [ei] a ai, ay ei, ey ea [] a it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, system, busy, pity, sunny let, tell, press, send, end, bread, dead, weather, leather late, make, race, able, stable, aim, wait, play, say, day, eight, weight, they, hey, break, great, steak cat, apple, land, travel, mad; AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half [a:] ar a army, car, party, garden, park, father, calm, palm, drama; BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half [ai] i, ie y, uy [au] ou ow ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die, my, style, apply, buy, guy out, about, house, mouse, now, brown, cow, owl, powder group, soup [u:] know, own [ou] war, warm [o:] said, says [e]; height, eye [ai] machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:] meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]

[o] [o:]

o or o aw, au ought al, wa-

not, rock, model, bottle, copy more, order, cord, port, long, gone, cost, coffee, law, saw, pause, because, bought, thought, caught, hall, always, water, war, want oil, voice, noise, boy, toy go, note, open, old, most, road, boat, low, own, bowl use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune, few, dew, mew, new, euphemism, feud, neutral, hue, cue, due, sue, suit do, move [u:] how, owl [au] work, word [r]

[oi] [ou]

oi, oy o oa, ow

[yu:]

u ew eu ue, ui

[u:]

u o, oo ew ue, ui ou

rude, Lucy, June, do, move, room, tool, crew, chew, flew, jewel, blue, true, fruit, juice, group, through, route; AmE: duty, new, sue, student guide, quite [ai]; build [i]

[u]

oo u ou

look, book, foot, good, put, push, pull, full, sugar, would, could, should gun, cut, son, money, love, tough, enough, rough, about, brutal, taken, violent, memory, reason, family Also: stressed, []; unstressed, [].

neutral sound u, o [] ou a, e o, i

[r]

er, ur, ir or, ar ear

serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir, work, word, doctor, dollar, heard, earn, earnest, earth heart, hearth [a:]

2) DIPHTONGS They are a combination of two vowel sounds that, when spoken, blur into each other forming a single syllable is about the best definition there is. The different vowel combinations create a slurring of the two vowels. When u combines with another vowel, a w sound is produced (cuerpo). The "i followed by another vowel, produces a consonant y sound as in year (hielo, site). The ai or ay combination is pronounced like the word eye (hay).

DIPHTONG

Closing diphthong
e e a:

Centering diphthong :

beard, weird, fierce, ear, beer, tear aired, cairn, scarce, bear, hair moored, tour, lure, sure, pure paid, pain, face, shade, age, wait, taste, paper tide, time, nice, buy, bike, pie, eye, kite, fine

 a:

void, loin, voice, oil, boil, coin, toy, Roy load, home, most, bone, phone, boat, bowl a: loud, gown, house, cow, bow, brow, grouse

3) TRIPHTHONG A combination of three vowel sounds in a single syllable, forming a simple or compound sound; also, a union of three vowel characters, representing together a single sound; a trigraph; as, eye, -ieu in adieu, -eau in beau, are examples of triphthongs. The word "triphthong" uses 10 letters: G H H I N O P R T T. Words formed by adding one letter before or after triphthong (in bold), or to ghhinoprtt in any order: triphthongs Words within triphthong not shown as it has more than seven letters. List all words starting with triphthong, words containing triphthong or words ending with triphthongAll words formed from triphthong by changing one letter Other words with the same letter pairs: tr ri ip ph ht th ho on ng

4) CONSONANTS CONSONANTS SOUNDS AND PHONETIC SYMBOLS There is less variation in consonants between speakers of different dialects than between vowels. British and American consonants are the same. Most of the consonant symbols are similar to the normal alphabet of written English. Just a few have to be learned. Here are the 24 consonants of English:

English Consonant Sounds IPA p INITIAL please (pliz) INTERNAL purple (p p l) apple ( p l) FINAL help (h lp) grape (greIp)

book (b k)

noble (n b l) cabbage (k bI g) fifty (fIfti) raffle (r f l) hyphen (haIf n) roughly (r fli) seven (s v n) nothing (n I) father (f ) autumn ( t m) attain ( teIn) eighty (eIti)

web (w b)

five (faIv)

gulf (g lf) off( f) nymph (nImf) tough (t f) five (faIv) path (p ) breathe (bri ) hit (hIt) mitt (mIt) freight (freIt) baked* (beIkt) white (weIt)

phone (f n)

vanilla (v nIl ) thirty ( ti) they ( eI)

ten (t n)

*Pronunciation of simple past -ed ending d dish (dI ) widow (wId ) adding ( dI s sir (s ) scissors (sIz z) center (s nt ) psychology (saIk l gi) thesis ( is s) massage (m s ) December (dIs mb ) red (r d) guide (g d) books (b ks) miss (mIs) ice (is) six (sIks)

house (h s) z zero (z freezing (frizI) fuzzy (f zi) miser (maIz xenophobe (z n f b) exit ( gzIt) scissors (sIz z) she ( i) sure ( schist ( Ist) mushroom (m rum) ) pressure (pr fascist (f Ist) cache n) (k ) radish (r dI ) ) ooze (uz) jazz ( z)

dishes (dI z) please (pliz)

tuition (tuI

genre ( nr )

seizure (si fissure (fI ) vision (vI n) leisure (li )

garage (g r )

cheers ( s)

artichoke ( tI picture (pIk ) k

March (m ) watch (w )

jump ( mp) gentle ( nt l)

major (meI rigid (rI Id) badger (b

) cage (keI ) ) bridge (brI )

king (kI)

baker (beIk

pink (pIk) black (bl k) attic ( tIk)

cold (k ld) queen (kwin)

rocke (r k t October ( kt b equal (ikw l) orchid ( kId) fix (fIks) broccoli (br k li)

cake (keIk)

good (g d)

August ( g st) foggy (f gi) exotic ( gz tIk)

drag (dr g)

May (meI)

humid (hjum d) summer (s m )

maam (m m) autumn ( t m) lamb (l m)

no (n

raining (raInI)

green (grin)

pneumonia (n m nj ) knife (naIf)

sunny (s ni) unknown ( n n)

sign (s n) fine (faIn)

singer (sI ) pink (pIk)

spring (sprI)

winter (wInt ) what (w t) one (w n)

snowing (sn wI) nowhere (n w )

yellow (j l ) unite (junIt)

mayor (meI ) beautiful (bjutIf l)

hot (h t)

mishap (mIsh p)

look (l k) llama (l m )

eleven ( l v n) hello (h l )

cool (k l) fall (f l)

red (r d)

orange ( n merry (m i)

or ( ) purr (p )