THE 44 SOUNDS OF
BRITISH ENGLISH:
Your guide to the
International Phonetic Alphabet
ʃ k
s
θ tʃ ɡ
t z ʒ
f dʒ
p ð h
d j
v l w
b r
n ŋ
m ʊ uː
iː ɪ ɪə əʊ
ɜː ɔː eɪ aʊ ʊə
e ə
ɒ ɑː eə aɪ ɔɪ
æ ʌ
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The Sounds of British English.
In British English there are 44 separate sounds - but only 26 letters in the
alphabet.
This creates a big problem when we’re learning how to pronounce English
because some sounds don’t have their own letter. To make things worse,
some letters can be pronounced in two or more different ways.
Let’s think about vowel sounds for example. We have five vowel lettters
- a, e, i, o, u - but 24 different vowel sounds. There is no way we can show
these different sounds through letters alone.
This is where the International Phonetic Alphabet will help you.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
The International
Phonetic Alphabet (the
I.P.A.) is used by
teachers, students and
by linguists all over the
world to show HOW to
pronounce words.
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Over the next few pages you will
find all the symbols used in the
I.P.A to show the sounds of
English. For each sound I have
given you some examples of
words.
Notice how some sounds have
more than one way to spell them
- this is especially true of vowel
sounds where there are lots of
possible spellings.
This is where knowing the I.P.A
becomes your superpower - you
no longer need to read the letters
when you understand the sound
symbols.
There is also a video that shows
you how to pronounce all 44
sounds of English. You can watch
this here.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
By spending some time
understanding the different
sounds of English, you will be
able to understand how words
are pronounced - taking the
guesswork out of pronunciation.
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Vowels
Vowels fall into two main types: monophthongs and diphthongs.
They’re long names but their meaning is simple enough.
Monophthongs are vowels with no movement in them. They’re single
sounds. Monophthongs can be short or long (and length is a very
important difference between vowels) but they start and end in the same
part of the mouth. Words with monophthongs include “sing” and “leave”.
Diphthongs are vowels that have more than one sound. The vowel starts in
one place and moves towards another. Both parts are important and it’s
important that your listener can hear the two parts clearly. Words with
diphthongs include “face” and “house”.
There are 24 vowel
sounds in English - but
only 5 letters to write
them with. The I.P.A.
will make them clear
for you.
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Monophthong Vowels:
iː Fleece, leave, seem, green, reason
ɪ Kit, sit, bin, lick, live
ʊ Foot, should, woman, push, full
uː Goose, soon, food, two, who
e Dress, end, head, said, bent
About, above, university, natural,
ə
balloon
ɜː Nurse, heard, bird, work, word
ɔː Thought, water, saw, more, call
æ Trap, apple, back, hand, man
ʌ Strut, much, love, young, run
ɒ Lot, stop, profit, odd, possible
ɑː Palm, calm, father, almond, drama
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Diphthong Vowels:
ɪə Near, here, fierce, weird, beer
əʊ Goat, go, don’t, won’t, though
eɪ Face, cake, wait, age, waste
aʊ Mouth, how, brown, noun, house
ʊə Cure, pure, mature, insure, furious
In modern British English, this vowel is often pronounced like /ɔː/
eə Square, fair, bear, where, their
In modern British English, this vowel is often pronounced like /eː/
aɪ Price, high, nice, sight, why
ɔɪ Choice, boy, voice, employ, joy
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Consonants
Consonants fall into two main types: voiced and voiceless.
This difference means whether or not the vocal chords are vibrating when
you make the sound. With voiceless sounds there is no movement in the
throat - the vocal chords are not vibrating. With voiced sounds the vocal
chords do vibrate and you’ll be able to feel this if you hold your hands over
your throat.
Try this pair of sounds to feel the difference: /s/ and /z/ and the pair of
words “sit” and “zit”.
Remember to watch the
video that accompanies
this guide - it’s here:
WATCH THE
VIDEO HERE.
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Voiceless Consonants:
p Peace, pit, apple, leap, spill
f Feel, phone, flap, wafer, cliff
t Town, top, bottle, hot, kicked
θ Thin, thick, thumb, author, bath
tʃ Chair, chips, nature, match, which
s Sing, swim, city, kiss, exercise
ʃ Shine, shy, push, pressure, official
k Kite, cat, click, back, chemistry
h Happy, horse, hot, whole, who
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Voiced Consonants:
b Bite, bus, bottle, abbey, club
v Very, van, wave, have, vivid
d Down, done, land, leader, wanted
ð This, those, mother, although, soothe
dʒ Juice, jam, jealous, subject, project
z Zoo, zero, music, always, prize
ʒ Genre, treasure, measure, beige, vision
ɡ Gate, get, green, bigger, bag
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Voiced Consonants:
m Money, Monday, emotion, room, comb
n Nice, not, any, ran, event
ŋ Sing, ring, rang, finger, linger
r Red, rest, brand, very, arrive
l Link, letter, clip, collar, ball
w Wet, way, white, aware, follower
j Yet, yellow, use, royal, Europe
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The 44 sounds of British English:
Consonants:
p f t θ tʃ s ʃ k
b v d ð dʒ z ʒ ɡ
m n ŋ r l w j h
Vowels:
Monophthongs: Diphthongs:
iː ɪ ʊ uː ɪə əʊ
e ə ɜː ɔː eɪ aʊ ʊə
æ ʌ ɒ ɑː eə aɪ ɔɪ
www.EllieEnglish.uk
Hello!
It’s lovely to meet you!
My name is Ellie and I am a British
English pronunciation teacher.
I work with international learners of
English who know that clear,
confident pronunciation is the key
to their success.
If you’re ready to finally feel
confident speaking your English
voice, join me here in my
pronunciation course:
www.EllieEnglish.uk/pronunciation
Let’s keep in touch:
www.ellieenglish.uk
[email protected]
@ellieenglishteacher
@EllieEnglish
www.EllieEnglish.uk
