How to Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Below are 28 very common English words.

You almost certainly know how to pronounce these words but if you are unsure of any of them, you can listen to recordings in the CD-Rom which accompanies the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary. To learn the IPA we suggest that: 1 You copy these 28 words in a vertical list. Then look the words up in the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary. In that dictionary it is very easy to find the IPA symbols showing how to pronounce the words; they come immediately after the word that is going to be defined. So for example if you look up yet, at the beginning of the dictionary entry for that word you will find: yet /jet/ Here /jet/ uses the IPA to show how we pronounce the word yet. 2 Copy the IPA symbols in a parallel list to the right of the words like this: Word yet IPA transcription /jet/ etc.

3 In order to know how to pronounce these IPA symbols, listen to the pronunciation of the words in your list in the CD that comes with the Cambridge Advanced Leaners Dictionary. This way you will be able to relate the IPA symbol (for example /j/) to the actual sound. 4 Cover the words and look only at the IPA symbols. Can you say which words the symbols represent? 5 Cover the IPA symbols and look only at the words. Can you write the symbols showing how to pronounce each word? 6 Listen to the words in the list on your CD (without looking at the symbols) and provide the transcription. Practise until you can write the symbols correctly. 7 Study the 28 words until you can write the symbols correctly when looking only at the words. When you can do this you not only know how to pronounce the words, you also know how to use the IPA to show that you know. Since the words use almost all the symbols, by that stage you will be able to use the IPA to show how to pronounce almost any English word provided of course that you know how to pronounce it. The 28 words two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven, twelve, sun, put, man, yet, hot, go, boy, how, near, sure, shower, general, that, checking, measure, thirty, arm, influence For a complete list of equivalence between Spanish and English sounds, check: http://www.wordreference.com/es/pronunciacion-inglesa.aspx