CENTRO EDUCATIVO

ALPHA LEARNING CARACAS, S.C.

PHONETICS WORKSHOP

CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION: THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH 2

THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH 2

I. VOWEL SOUNDS 2
Length of Sounds 2
DIPHTHONGS 3
SEMI-VOWELS. Spelling and Silent / w / 3
THE SOUNDS / ɪ / AND / i: / 4
THE SOUNDS / ʊ / AND / u: / 4
THE SOUNDS / ə / AND / ɜ: / 5
THE SOUNDS / æ / AND / ʌ /. THE SOUND / aʊ / 6
THE SOUNDS / ɒ /, / ɔ: / AND / oʊ /. THE SOUNDS / e / AND / eɪ / 7
II. CONSONANT SOUNDS 8
Pronunciation of –ed Past Tenses 9
THE SOUNDS / θ / AND / ð / 10
THE SOUNDS / k / AND / p / .THE SOUNDS / s / AND / ʃ / 11
THE SOUNDS / b / AND / v / 11
THE SOUNDS / ʃ / AND / tʃ / 12
Words ending in –ture. Words ending in –sion and –tion 13
THE SOUNDS / j / AND / ʤ / 13
THE SOUND / l /. THE SOUND / r / 14
THE SOUND / ŋ /. THE SOUND / h /. The silent ‘h’ 15
 INTRODUCTION: THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH
There are innumerable different ways of pronouncing English. The United States, Canada, Australia,
etc., all have their characteristic pronunciation of English and sometimes several varieties. In addition to
this, the relationship between spelling and pronunciation in this language is so irregular that the
distribution of sounds is not shown consistently by the spelling. For these reasons in writing about
pronunciation it is necessary to use the Phonemic Alphabet because in a phonetic transcription, the same
symbol always represents the same sound, or, more exactly the same phoneme.

However, in a book it is not possible to describe sounds adequately – particularly the vowel sounds, the
student should listen, if possible, native English speakers.

The type of pronunciation and the phonemic symbols used in this Workshop are the same as those used
in all Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford University Press). More or less the same symbols are used in most
other modern dictionaries and are understood throughout the English-speaking world.

THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

I. VOWEL SOUNDS
The English alphabet has five vowels but we distinguish twelve pure vowel sounds:

Phonemic Symbol Examples:

(1) / i: / sea, sheep, eat, seat, leave.
(2) /ɪ/ sit, live, city, sing, ink.
(3) /e/ set, bed, ten, egg, head.
(4) /æ/ bad, sat, apple, man, cat.
(5) / a: / bath, cart, heart, father, far.
(6) /ɒ/ hot, often, dog, long, not.
(7) / ɔ: / saw, sort, law, four, nor.
(8) /ʊ/ good, put, book, full, wood.
(9) / u: / blue, soup, root, fool, boot.
(10) /ʌ/ cut, young, mother, gun, up.
(11) / ɜ: / bird, word, earth, fur, hurt.
(12)* /ə/ mother, father, sugar, Saturday.
*This sound occurs only in unstressed syllables.

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 Length of Sounds
Short Vowels: Long Vowels:
Symbol Example Symbol Example
/ɪ/ hit / i: / sheep
/e/ bed / a: / father
/æ/ cat / ɔ: / wall
/ɒ/ hot / u: / boot
/ʌ/ cut / ɜ: / bird
/ʊ/ put
/ə/ about

Some vowels contain the ‘length mark’ / : / in their phonemic symbols: / i: /, / a: /, / ɔ: /,

/ u: / and / ɜ: /.
Thus the vowel in: Seat / si:t / is longer than in sit / sɪt /
Pool / pu:l / is longer than in pull / pʊl /
Naught / nɔ:t / is longer than in not / nɒt /

DIPTHTHONGS
A diphthong is the combination of two vowel sounds, the first sound is longer than the second
sound and it can form only one syllable or part of a syllable.
Phonemic Symbol Examples
(1) / eɪ / pay, cake, face, able, game.
(2) / aɪ / lie, by, kind, five, ice.
(3) / aʊ / out, round, mouth, mouse.
(4) / ɔɪ / boy, toy, noise, oil, coin.
(5) / ɔʊ / (US) / ɔə / (UK) low, no, both, soap, own.
(6) / iə / beer, near, beard, here, ear.
(7) / eə / there, pear, chair, air, care.
(8) / uə / tour, moor, sure.
(9)* / ɔə / door, tore, roar, shore.

*British English speakers do not use this diphthong. They use instead only vowel sound N°7: / ɔ: /.

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SEMI-VOWELS / w / AND / j /
1. To make the sound / w / your teeth don’t touch your lips. Your lips should be hard and round. If you
have problems with the sound / w / you can try starting with / u: / like this:
uuu: where
uu: where
u: where

Spelling and silent / w /

Wr is always pronounced / r /: write, wrist, wrong.
Wh + o is pronounced / h /: who, whose, whom.
Wh + a, e, i is pronounced / w /: what, when, which.

2. To make the sound / j / your tongue doesn’t touch the roof of your mouth. If you have problems with
the sound / j / you can try starting with / i: / like this:
iii: yes
ii: yes
i: yes

THE SOUNDS / ɪ / AND / i: /

1. To make the sound / i: / you should smile, and your mouth should be slightly open. Your tongue
should be forward and up in your mouth too. / i: / is a long sound.

2. To make the sound / ɪ / you should open your mouth a little more, and move your tongue down a bit. /
ɪ / is a short sound.

*Practice making the sounds. All of these words contain either the sound / ɪ / or the sound / i: /. Put them
into the right column.
seat mill wheel pitch bit sleep sit beat
hills meal feel peach slip will heels fill
/ i: / /ɪ/

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 THE SOUNDS / ʊ / AND / u: /
1. To make the sound / u: / your tongue should go up at the back of your mouth and your lips
should be round. / u: / is a long sound.

2. To make the sound / ʊ / your tongue should be lower in your mouth and your lips should be
round. / ʊ / is a short sound.

*Read the following phrases and say whether the words contain the sound / ʊ / or / u: / or both.
Repeat the words a few times to make sure that you can hear the difference between the two sounds.
Example: / ʊ / / u: /
Good food
/ / / / / / / / / / / /
1. The School Rules 2. Cookery Book 3. Football Pools

/ / / / / / / / / / / /
4. A book of Cartoons 5. News Bulletin 6. A New Look

/ / / / / / / / / /
7. Good Afternoon 8. A New room with a view

Notice that some words beginning with the letter u begin with the sound / ju: /: / j / + / u: /
Examples: University, usually, unicorn, uniform. This happens sometimes even if there’s a
consonant sound before the / u: / sound: future, news, Tuesday.

*Look at the / u: / sounds underlined in the words below and say which ones have an extra / j /
sound in front of them.

beauty few do Duke

excuse boots flew stupid
tool fuel cool produce
useful cute united tune

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*Below are some common English saying and proverbs. The meaning of some is quite clear, but can
you work out what the others mean?
a. No news is good news. b. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
c. I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes. d. It’s too good to be true.
e. He’s getting too big for his boots. f. He’s got a screw loose.

*Look at the sayings again and try to decide where the / u: / and the / ʊ / sounds are.

THE SOUNDS / ə / AND / ɜ: /

1. The sound / ə / or schwa (as in the definite article the) is the most common vowel sound in English.
Syllables with the vowel / ə / are never stressed.
To make the sound / ə /, try relaxing your mouth. The sound is made in the middle of the mouth.
Examples: /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/
company mother information engineer vegetarian

2. To make the sound / ɜ: / your lips and tongue should be in the same position as to make the sound /
ə /, but / ɜ: / is longer.
Vowels spelt with ir, or, er, ur, or ear are often pronounced / i: /:
/ ɜ: / / ɜ: / / ɜ: / / ɜ: / / ɜ: /
shirt word person purse pearl

*In these groups of words circle the one that is not pronounced / ɜ: /
a. girl tired bird first
b. learn earn wear earl
c. nurse bury suburb disturb
d. poor hurt purse fur
e. word work world war

*Read the following dialogue and underline all the syllables which you think are pronounced with an / ɜ:
/ sound.
A. Are all your friends from university working now?
B. Nearly. Kirsty’s doing research work at Birmingham University and Shirly’s gone
to work as a nurse in the Third World, Burma or somewhere.
A. Really? That’s adventurous. What about Pearl?
B. Oh, Pearl’s turned really conservative. She’s a civil servant now. She and Kirk live
in some suburb somewhere.
A. And how about Dirk?

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 B. Oh, haven’t you heard about Dirk? He’s working in Turkey as a windsurf
instructor! He’s learnt Turkish and he’s earning a fortune… or so I’ve heard.

THE SOUNDS / æ / AND / ʌ /

Write in the Past Simple and Past Participle of the verbs below.
a. run ____________________ ____________________
b. sing ____________________ ____________________
c. ring ____________________ ____________________
d. swim ____________________ ____________________
e. begin ____________________ ____________________
f. drink ____________________ ____________________
Can you hear the difference between the Past Simple (spelt with a) and the Past Participle (spelt with u)?
/æ/ /ʌ/
ran run
1. To make the sound / æ / your mouth should be open and your tongue should be down at the front of
your mouth.
2. To make the sound / ʌ / your mouth should be less open and your tongue should be a little higher in
your mouth.

*Words that begin with ‘a’

Here are some words beginning with a. Check the pronunciation and put them into the correct column.
America Africa amusing agree accent attractive Asia
able around about ago alone
Atlantic arrive

/ə/ /æ/ / eɪ /

THE SOUND / aʊ /
In English many words spelt with ou or ow are pronounced / aʊ /. To practise making the sound / aʊ /
you should first practise the sound / æ /. Your mouth should be open and you should make the sound at
the front of your mouth with your tongue down. To make / aʊ / add a short / ʊ / after the long / æ /
sound.

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*Look at these groups of words and circle the one which is not pronounced / aʊ /.
a. hour sour four flour
b. tower power shower lower
c. show now cow how
d. shout about route sprout
e. town grown brown down

THE SOUNDS / ɒ /, / ɔ: / AND / oʊ /

1. The sound / ɒ / is a short sound. It is made at the back of the mouth. When you make the sound your
lips should be rounded.
2. To make the sound / ɔ: /, your lips should be rounded and your tongue should be raised a little at the
back of your mouth. / ɔ: / is a long sound.
3. / oʊ / is a diphthong – a long sound made from putting two vowel sounds together, / o / + / ʊ /. It
starts in the middle of your mouth and moves back and up a little. The second sound is very short.

*Say the following words and make sure that you can hear the difference between the vowel sounds.
a. hot / / cork / / show / /
b. shore / / not / / notes / /
c. coke / / saw / / shocked / /
d. bowl / / got / / ball / /
e. modern / / sew / / bought / /
f. go / / four / / coffee / /
g. don’t / / snow / / roll / /
h. low / / fall / / yoghurt / /
i. John / / over / / score / /
j. home / / though / / call / /
k. Laura / / hope / / God / /

THE SOUNDS / e / AND / eɪ /

1. To make the sound / e / your tongue should be raised at the front of your mouth and your lips should
be open.
2. To make the sound / eɪ / first make a long / e / sound and then raise your tongue slightly and close
your lips to make a very short / ɪ / sound.
*Put the verbs in the past tense below into the correct column, according to their vowel sound. One of
them might go in either column, which one?

dreamt felt read waited lay laid said paid failed met lent
stayed hated slept left ate made meant played

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 /e/ / eɪ /

II. CONSONANT SOUNDS

Many of the symbols for consonants are easy to recognize. This is how they sound in English:
/ p / pen / b / big
/t/ two / d / door
/ k / cup / g / good
/f/ fat / v / view
/s/ sit / z / zoo
/ m / man / n / no
/l/ live /r/ red
/ h / hot / w / wet
In the phonemic alphabet there are these additional symbols:
/ θ / thin / ð / this
/ʃ/ she / ʒ / television
/ tʃ / chair / ʤ / job
/ ŋ / sing /j/ yes

Consonants may be classified according to the way they are formed in the mouth. There are two types of
English consonant sounds:
Voiced: with vibration of the vocal chords and
Voiceless sounds: without vibration of the vocal chords.

As a result there are some pairs of consonants which have the same formation in the mouth but are
distinguished by being voiced in one case, and voiceless in the other.
Voiceless Voiced
/p/ Lower lip against upper lip. /b/
/t/ Tongue against teeth-ridge. /d/
/k/ Back of tongue against roof of mouth. /g/
/f/ Lower lip and upper teeth. /v/
/s/ Tip of tongue and teeth ridge. /z/

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 /θ/ Tip of tongue and upper teeth. /ð/
/ʃ/ Front of tongue and back of teeth-ridge. /ʒ/
/ tʃ / Tip of tongue touching teeth-ridge to make /ʤ/
a complete stop.
Nasal Consonants
Nasal passage open and mouth stopped as for / p /, / b / /m/
mouth stopped as for / t /, / d / /n/
mouth stopped as for / k /, / g / /ŋ/

Semi-Vowels
Like a long / u: /. Lips rounded /w/
Like a long / i: / /j/

Other Consonants: Voiced

Tongue tip curled upward but not touching /r/
the roof of the mouth. Body of tongue
lowered.

Tongue tip touching teeth or teeth-ridge, /l/

sides of tongue lowered.

Voiceless
/h/ Breath only, the mouth in position to articulate
the following vowel.

PRONUNCIATION OF –ed PAST TENSES

There are three different pronunciation of –ed in regular past tense verbs:
/d/ /t/ / Id /
phoned cooked landed

a) If a verb itself ends in t or d the final –ed is pronounced –ed.

b) If a verb ends in a voiceless consonant ( / p /, / s /, / k /, / f /, / ʃ /, / tʃ / or / θ / ) the final –ed is

pronounced t.

c) If a verb ends in a vowel sound or in a voiced consonant ( / b /, / g /, / l /, / z /, / v /, / ʤ /, / ð /, / m /, /

n /, or / ŋ / ), the final –ed is pronounced d.

*Listen to these past tense verbs and put them in the right column, according to the pronunciation of –
ed.
helped offered reached saved
discovered called tried invited
missed started needed lived
asked jumped waited watched

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 / ɪd / /t/ /d/

THE SOUNDS / θ / AND / ð /

To make the sound / θ / and / ð / your tongue should touch the back of your teeth. For the sound / ð / you
should use your voice – for the sound / θ / you should not.
Examples: /θ/ /ð/
thin this
If you find this difficult try putting your finger in front of your mouth and touching it with your tongue.

*Put the following words in the correct column.

thick this thin those thirty
these thinks there three then
theatre with both mother path
father teeth together healthy although
thing that though the booth

/θ/ /ð/

THE SOUNDS / k /, /g/, /p/ AND / b /

1. To make the sounds / k / and / g /, the back of your tongue should touch the top of your mouth at the
back. / k / is voiceless and / g / is voiced.

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2. To make the sounds / p / and / b /, you should press your lower lip against your upper lip, the breath
is stopped completely in the mouth and then released suddenly with an explosive sound. / p / is voiceless
and / b / is voiced.

*At the beginning of words, / k / and / p / have a lot of aspiration in English. You can practise this by
holding a piece of paper in front of your mouth when you make these sounds. The air that comes out of
your mouth should make the piece of paper move.

*Practise saying the sounds:

car pen cotton person
pet cool people cream
come Paris cook pay
THE SOUNDS / s / AND / ʃ /
1. To make the / s / sound your tongue should be forward in your mouth.

2. To make the sound / ʃ / you should move your tongue back and up a little in your mouth. Both / s /
and / ʃ / are voiceless.

*Practise the sounds. Listen to these words and repeat them.

/s/ /ʃ/ /s/ /ʃ/
sore sure sea she
sip ship sell shell
seat sheet save shave
suit shoot sin shin

*Learn this rhyme by heart. Practise saying it as fast as you can.

She sells sea shells on the seashore.
And the shells that she sells
Are sea shells, I’m sure.

THE SOUNDS / b / AND / v /

1. To make the sound / b /, you should press your lips tightly together and push the air in your mouth
forward. You should open your lips and use your voice to make this sound.

2. To begin the sound / v /, you should bite your lower lip with your top teeth. You should push out air
between your lip and your teeth and use your voice to make the sound.

Listen and repeat the following words:

/b/ /v/ /b/ /v/

bet vet bats vats
best vest ban van
boat vote berry very
bowels vowels bale veil

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*Practise saying the following sentences, first very slowly, then try saying them very fast.
a. Vincent brought Brenda a marvellous souvenir vase he’d bought in Venice.

b. Bob Viney, the village baker’s boy, loves Betty Vole, the barmaid at ‘The
Bull’.

c. Vera Bathory, the Viennese vampire, bathes every evening in buckets of

blood.

d. A visiting burglar broke Victor Barton’s marble bust of Voltaire into various
bits.

e. Valentine Barlow, the TV ventriloquist, lives in ‘Belleview’ – a vast

brick villa built in 1812.

THE SOUNDS / ʃ / AND / tʃ /

1. To make the sound / ʃ / the tongue should be raised in the middle of the mouth. It is the sound that we
make when we want someone to be quiet.

2. / tʃ / is a combination of / t / and / ʃ /. Try saying the two sounds separately, / t / then / ʃ /. Keep
repeating them more quickly each time until you say them together. You do not use your voice to make
the sounds / ʃ / or / tʃ /.

*Listen to the following pairs of words and make sure that you can hear the difference between the
sounds / ʃ / and / tʃ /:
/ʃ/ / tʃ / /ʃ/ / tʃ /
sherry cherry shops chops
shin chin dish ditch
ships chips wash watch

*Now practise these tongue-twisters and underline all the / ʃ / and the / tʃ / sounds that you hear.
a. Which of Shirley Hatchard’s children stole a portion of cherry cheesecake
from the kitchen shelf?

b. Sheila Charlton’s Czech washing machine chewed up Richard Sheridan’s

checked short.

c. The rich Turkish sugar merchant purchased a shining Porsche for his
Chinese chauffeur to polish.

d. Sasha, the Russian chess champion, chased Sharon, the Scottish

chambermaid, round the kitchen floor, so Sharon showed Sasha the door.

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*Words ending in –ture
The ending –ture is pronounced / tʃə /. Practise saying the sound:
adventure agriculture literature architecture
departure feature lecture mixture nature
picture structure temperature culture furniture
future signature

*Words ending in –sion and -tion

The ending –tion is pronounced / ʃən /. The ending –sion is pronounced / ʒən /. The stress is always on
the second to last syllable in words with these two endings. Practise saying the endings:
/ ʃən / / ʒən / / ʃən / / ʒən /
ambition vision combination fusion
competition television nation revision
reception decision description erosion
description erosion

THE SOUNDS / j / AND / dʒ /

Listen to these pairs of words:
/j/ / dʒ /
Yale jail
yet jet
use juice
yolk joke
The first group is pronounced with / j /, the second group is pronounced with / dʒ /.

1. To make the sound / j / your tongue doesn’t touch the roof of your mouth. If you have problems with
this sound you can try starting with a / i: / like this: iii: → yes
ii: → yes
i: → yes
2. / dʒ / is a combination of / d / and / ʒ /. To start this sound the front of your tongue should touch the
roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. From this position you should move your tongue down a little
and use your voice to make the sound / ʒ /.

Listen to the pairs of words again. Can you hear the difference between the sounds / j / and / dʒ /? If not,
listen them again and repeat them paying attention to the pronunciation of the two sounds.

*Practise saying these tongue-twisters, first slowly and then gradually faster and faster. Underline all the
/ j / and / dʒ / sounds.

a. In his youth, Jerry Joseph, the New York millionaire, used to play on a huge
German tuba.

b. Julian Jones is jealous of Eunice’s Jaguar, but Eunice Jones is jealous of Jason’s
Jacuzzi, and Jason Jones is jealous of Julian’s yacht.

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c. That fabulous jade unicorn is the most beautiful Japanese statue in any
European museum.

d. Journalist Jane Young stupidly damaged George Joyce’s new yellow jeep on the
edge of the bridge.

THE SOUND / l /
In English we may distinguish two varieties of the / l / sound. The first one occurs at the beginning of a
word and is called clear / l /. The second one comes at the end of the word. This sound has a special
quality and is called dark / l /.
1. To make an ordinary clear / l /, your tongue goes up at the front of the mouth and the tip of your
tongue should touch the teeth-ridge, the sides of the tongue should be lowered
2. To make the dark / l / the tongue also goes up but at the back of the mouth.

*Practise the sound of the dark / l / saying the sentences correctly.

a. I’ll go to the baker’s and buy a loaf.
b. I’ll go the post office.
c. I’ll buy him a book.
d. I’ll buy her a doll.
e. He’ll be forty-five next week.
f. I’ll have a steak, please.
g. We’ll go and visit him.
h. I’ll give you my number.

If you have problems with the dark / l / sound, try putting a short / ʊ / sound between I and ‘ll: I
‘ll
/ʊ/

THE SOUND / r /
To make the sound / r / turn up the tip of your tongue. The tip of your tongue should not touch the roof
of your mouth and your tongue should not ‘vibrate’ - / r / in English is a very gentle sound.

*Read the following paragraph paying attention to the pronunciation of /r/:

Child prodigy Ruth Lawrence made history yesterday when she got a clear first place out of the 530
candidates who took entrance to the entrance exam for St. Hugh´s College, Oxford.The all-women´s
college is likely to offer a scholarship. Ruth took three three-hour papers, Algebra and Geometry;
Calculus, Probability and Statistics; and Math, pure and applied. “I was happy with the first two”, she
said yesterday, “but I wasn´t sure about the third.”

THE SOUND / ŋ /
In English, the sound / ŋ / always comes in the middle or at the end of s syllable, never at the beginning:
/ sɪŋ / / θɪŋk /
sing think

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To make the sound / ŋ / the air should come out through your nose as in the sound / n /, but your tongue
should touch the back of your mouth, not the front.
*Listen and repeat these pairs of words, making sure that the difference between the sounds / ŋ / and / n /
is clear.
a. thin thing
b. fang fan
c. wing win
d. rang ran
e. sung sun
f. ban bang

THE SOUND / h /
To make the sound / h / you should push a lot of air out of your mouth without moving your tongue. The
sound is similar to the noise you make if you are out of breath.

1. / h / At the beginning of words:

The silent ’h’

Words like the auxiliaries has and have, the possessive adjectives his and her, and the personal pronoun
he have two different pronunciations: a Weak Form and a Strong Form.

1. In the Strong Form the h and the vowel are fully pronounced.

2. In the Weak Form the h is silent. This happens when the word is in the middle of a sentence.
Without the / h / sound the words can be said more quickly.

*Read the sentences below and underline the / h / sound that you find.
a. Helen has cut her own hair again – it’s absolutely horrible!
b. Have you heard about Hanna’s horrific adventure in Hamburg?
c. Henry’s Uncle Herbert has had another heart attack in hospital.
d. Old Hugh hasn’t eaten his ham and eggs already, has he?
e. Hazel and Alan have had another unhappy holiday hitch-hiking in Austria and
Hungary.

*Read the sentences again. There are six words with a weak form (the letter h is not pronounced). Cross
out these words.

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*Look at the words below. Seven of them are ‘exceptions’. They are not weak forms but the h at the
beginning of the syllable is not pronounced.

hole whole ghost

behind vehicle exhibition
hour who how
rehearse childhood honest
heir inherit dishonest

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