Today we’ll be talking about the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA for short. This article is a summary of my article from issue 1 (1/2022) of Your American English Magazine that you can purchase here.
So, what is IPA? Well, it’s a system of symbols that represent all of the sounds made in speech. It contains all sounds from all languages, not just English. This is why there are lots of symbols so that you can represent them all. For example, in a French or German dictionary you will find symbols that are not present in English. This is because these languages use sounds that are not used in English. And the other way around. A Spanish or Greek dictionary will lack some of the symbols that are used in English because not all English sounds are used in those languages. Here’s an example from the Collins French Dictionary:
Here we can see symbols that are not used in English, like for example the ɔ̃ symbol which represents a nasal vowel.
Anyway, in this article we’ll focus on the symbols used in English. So, what symbols do we use in English and what sounds do they correspond to? Let’s have a look at some of them.
Before we start, though, you must be aware that some dictionaries use slightly different symbols for some sounds. In this article I’m going to present the symbols used in the Brittanica Dictionary of American English because probably this is the dictionary many of you use. So, let’s get started. First the consonants, then the vowels and diphthongs.
English Consonants
Here are the consonant symbols that are used in American English. I omitted those which look like the letters they represent, like for example the symbol b that represents the letter B:
| /b/ | bike | /ˈbaɪk/ |
Other symbols that look exactly the same as the letters and so are not included here are: d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z. And here are the symbols that are different and you should pay special attention to them. In the first column you can see the symbol, in the second column you have a word that contains the sound represented by the symbol and in the third column you have the pronunciation of that word using IPA symbols.
| Phoneme | Example | Pronunciation |
| /dʒ/ | junk | /ˈʤʌŋk/ |
| /j/ | user | /ˈjuːzɚ/ |
| /l̟/ | ladle | /ˈleɪdl̟/ |
| /n̩/ | button | /ˈbʌtn̩/ |
| /ŋ/ | donkey | /ˈdɑːŋki/ |
| /ʃ/ | wash | /ˈwɑːʃ/ |
| /tʃ/ | birch | /ˈbɚtʃ/ |
| /θ/ | path | /ˈpæθ/ |
| /ð/ | mother | /ˈmʌðɚ/ |
| /ʒ/ | leisure | /ˈliːʒɚ/ |
English Vowels
And now it’s time for the vowels. Here are the vowels that are used in American English:
| Phoneme | Example | Pronunciation |
| /æ/ | attic | /ˈætɪk/ |
| / ɑ:/ | wall | /ˈwɑːl/ |
| /ɛ/ | umbrella | /ˌʌmˈbrɛlə/ |
| /ə/ | garage | /gəˈrɑːʒ/ |
| /i/ | donkey | /ˈdɑːŋki/ |
| / i:/ | key | /ˈkiː/ |
| /ɪ/ | window | /ˈwɪndoʊ/ |
| /ʊ/ | book | /ˈbʊk/ |
| / u:/ | boot | /ˈbuːt/ |
| /ʌ/ | nut | /ˈnʌt/ |
English Diphthongs
And finally, the diphthongs that are used in American English:
| Phoneme | Example | Pronunciation |
| /aɪ/ | night | /ˈnaɪt/ |
| /aʊ/ | clown | /ˈklaʊn/ |
| /eɪ/ | table | /ˈteɪbəl/ |
| /oɪ/ | joy | /ˈʤoɪ/ |
| /oʊ/ | nose | /ˈnoʊz/ |
So, I hope now it will be much easier for you to tell how to pronounce new words that you come across.