Phonetic symbol vowel /ɔ:/ The shape of the symbol is the shape of the mouth

Sonido que tiende a parecerse a una “A española posterior” que se produce en donde termina el paladar y comienza la garganta, es como poner una herradura o el
símbolo ɔ: físicamente al fondo de la boca.

▪ with "aw": dawn - flaw - hawk - jaw - law - lawn - raw - saw - shawl - thaw – yawn – fawn – awful – paw
▪ with "ough": bought - brought - fought - ought - thought; cough - wrought
▪ with "o": office – off – dog – boss - lost - Boston
▪ with "augh": caught – daughter – taught - naughty
▪ with "oa": broad – abroad
▪ with "au": august - author - autumn - clause -fault - launch - sauce - Paul
▪ with "al": almost - already - alter - always - false - salt - chalk - talk - walk (in chalk, talk and walk the “L” is mute, so chalk = chak, talk = tak, walk = wak)
▪ with "all": ball - call - fall - hall - mall - small - wall
▪ with "a": grandma
▪ with "wa": water - water (pronunciation: w = u / wa = uɔ: )

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cualquier “r” después de una vocal modifica el sonido de la vocal, a esto se le llama: r-controlled vowel, (así que en este caso ɔ: tiende a parecerse
más a una “o española posterior” que a una “A española posterior” )

▪ with "or": afford - lord - floor- door- fork - pork - cork - bored - born - horse - more - nor - or – score - short - north – store – storm - sword - worm - Florida
▪ with "ar": quarter - war - warm - warn;
▪ with "our": court - four - pour - tour;
▪ with "oa": - boar - board - oar - roar - soar

homophones: bored/board - or/oar/ore

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ʊ/

 with "o": woman - wolf

 with "oo": book - cook - hook - look - shook - took - wool - foot - whoops - good – understood
 with "ou": could - would - should;
 with "u": bull - bullet - cushion - pull – bush - push - put;
 homophones: wood/would.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /u:/

 with "ew": blew - brew - chew - crew - drew - screw - threw;
 with "o": do - lose - shoe - two - who - whose;
 with "oo": boot - choose - cool - fool - loose - moon - pool - root - school - soon - stool - tool;
 with "ou": soup - through - you;
 with "u": blue - flu - June - rule - sue - true;
  with "ui": bruise - cruise - fruit - juice - lawsuit - suit - suitable - suitcase;
 homophones: blew/blue - chews/choose - flew/flu - threw/through - too/two

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ai/

 with "i": bike - die - file - I - ice - lie - like - line - mine - nice - pie - pine - pint - quite - price - size - smile - tie - time - wine - white - write;
 with "ig": align - assign - sign;
 with "igh": bright - fight - fright - height - high - light - night - right - sigh - sight - slight - thigh - tight;
 with “ei”: einstein - frankenstein
 with the letter "y": cry - dry - dye - eye - fly - fry - my - rye - shy - sky - sty - style - try - type - why;
 others:  guy - buy;
 homophones: aisle/I'll/isle - bite/byte - cite/site/sight - die/dye - high/hi - I/eye - knight/night - right/write - sighs/size - time/thyme - whine/wine - why/Y.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /aʊ/

 with "ou": doubt - count - found - loud - out - shout - sound;
 with "ow": brown - cow - down - how - now - owl - towel - tower - town;

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /e/

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /e/ include the following:

 with "e": bed - bred - get - lent - red - sent - ten - went;
 with ""ea"": bread - breath - dead - dealt - death - feather – health - head -  lead - leather - meant - measure - pleasure - read - spread - sweat - thread - threat - treasure - wealth;
 others: again - any - many - ate - friend - leisure - said - says;
 homophones: bread/bred - lead/led - leant/lent - read/red - sent/cent/scent - weather/whether.
IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ei/

 with "a": ache - age - blame - brake - cake - date - escape - game - gate - lake - late - male - name - pale - paper - plate - same - sale- sane - snake - stale - state - whale;
 with "ai": aid - aim - brain - chain - fail - gain - hail - paid - rain - snail - stain - straight - train - trait;
 with "ay": day - pay - play - May - say - stay - tray;
 with "ei": eight - weigh – weight - weighed
 others: ballet - break - café - grey - steak;
 homophones: brake/break - grate/great - male/mail - place/plaice - plane/plain - rain/reign - sail/sale - steak/stake - tale/tail -waste/waist - Wales/whales - weigh/way - weight/wait -
weighed/wade.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /eə/

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /eə/ include the following:

 with "ar": bare - care - dare - fare - hare - rare - scare - share - spare - square;
 with "air": air - chair - fair - hair - pair - stairs;
 with "ear": bear - swear - tear - wear;
 homophones: air/heir - bear/bare - hair/hare - pear/pair - their/there/they're - there's/theirs - where/wear/ware (as in software).

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /i/

Some common words which practice this pronunciation include the following:

 with "i": bit - chips - fish - fit - hip - hit - kill - kiss - link - lip - sing - sit - thick - thin - thing - think - this - win - with;
 with "e": England - English;
 with "qu": liquid – quick;
 with "'-age": mortgage - average - package - percentage - village;
 with "ui": circuit - biscuit ;
 others (repeated in same word): begin - biscuit - busy - city - English - finish - gimmick - limit - minute - physics - rigid - silly - timid - visit - women;
 others: lettuce; Some dissyllables finishing in -ing will also repeat this syllable: living - singing, etc.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /i:/

Some common words which practice this pronunciation include the following:

 with "ea": beat - breathe - cheat - cream - deal - dream - each - eat - heat - jeans - mean - please - reach - scream - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - weak;
 with "e" or "ee": eel - feel - keep - key - me - people - sea/see – he -she - sleep - speed - street - three - we;
 with "ie" or "ei": belief - believe - receipt - receive;
 others: people - suite;
 homophones: feat/feet; genes/jeans; heal/heel; meat/meet; pea/pee/P; peace/piece; sea/see/C; scene/seen; steal/steel; suite/sweet; tea/tee/T; weak/week; we'll/wheel;

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /æ/

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /æ/ include the following:

 act - add - and - ankle - band- bat - bad - can - hand - land - man - sad - stand;
 homophones: band/banned.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ɔɪ/

 with "oi": boil - choice - coin - foil - soil - spoil;

 with "oy": boy - employ - enjoy;

 But:  sawyer and lawyer are words that also have the sound ɔɪ

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ə/

The most common sound in all varieties of the English language is /ə/ – it is so important that it even has its own name – schwa. It corresponds to the syllables which do not carry the wordstress.
And it can actually substitute, obviously depending on the word, any of the five vowelsabout, ago and legal (a);  one being /i/.
It can even occur more than once in the same word, as in another and America. In these last two examples, the schwa occurs twice in each of the two words. Another useful example for students
is a book and the book. It's probably easier to show students its use with two-syllable words for them to clearly contrast the stressed syllable in a single word.

/ə/ at the beginning of a word

 about - again - alone - along - among - around - away - patrol - police;

Verbs

 admire - appeal - appear - arise - protect - supply - support;

/ə/ in the middle of a word

 ignorant - introduce - organise - relative; /ə/ at the end of a word

 able - common - centre - doctor - fashion - flower - foreign - label - level - reason - recent - season - table - towel - woman;
]With -en

 children - happen - lengthen - London - often - sudden - weaken;

With -ten

 listen; often; soften

 fatten - frighten - rotten - tighten;
With -er

 after - brother - daughter - father - mother - other - quarter - teacher - sister - summer - tower - water - winter;
With -ber

 December - November - number - October - September;

With -ther

 another - feather - leather - other - weather/whether

With -ure

 feature - future - nature - picture;

With -ion

 action – fashion - junction -mention - passion - station;

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /əʊ/
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /əʊ/ include the following:

 with "o": don't - ghost - go - home - lone - so – stone - phone -  smoke - won't;

 with "oa": boat - coat - goal - road - roast - throat - toast;
 with "ol": fold - gold - hold - hole - old - pole/poll - told - toll - sold - stole - roll;
 with "ow": bowl - blow - flow - grow - low - row - slow - snow - throw;
 others: should - shoulder;
 homophones: groan/grown - hole/whole - know/no - loan/lone - pole/poll - role/roll - so/sew/sow - sole/soul

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ʌ/ Aspirated vowel - (It’s like a punch in the stomach)

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʌ/ include the following:

 with "u": bun - fun - gun - run - lunch - sun - Sunday - thunder - tunnel - under - sum - summer - luck - truck – cut - but - butter - up - cup - bus - us;
 with "o": another - brother – mother - other - cover - love - lover - some -come - company - stomach – son -done - front - tongue - Monday – money - London - does - once (wʌns) -
wonder;
 with "oo": blood - flood;
 with "ou": country - couple - cousin - double - trouble;
 with "ough": enough - rough - tough;

 homophones: one/won - some/sum - son/sun

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ɜ:/

Some common words containing /ɜ:/ include the following:

 With "e": certain – certify - fern her - herb - herd - merge - nerves - kerb - stern - verb - were;
 with "ea": early - earn - earth - heard - learn - pearl - search;
 With "ur": burn - curb - curly - fur - hurt - murder – surface – surgeon -Thursday - turn - urban - urgent;
 With "ir": circle - bird - birthday - dirty - fir - firm - flirt - girl - shirt - sir - skirt - stir - third - thirsty - thirty;
 With "or": word - work - world - worm - worse - worst - worth;
 Others: journey.
 homophones: birth/berth - earn/urn - fir/fur - heard/herd - tern/turn.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ɪə/

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɪə/ include the following:

 with "ear" clear - ear - fear - gear - near - tears - year;

 with "ee": beer - cheers;
 others: here - mere - we're - weird;
 homophones: dear/deer - hear/here - peer/pier.

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ɑ:/

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɑ:/ include the following:
 with "a": after - ask - bath - half - staff - task;
 with "ar": are - aren't - arm - art – bar - car - dark - farm - hard - harm - part - smart - star - start;
 others: aunt; heart; laugh;
 homophones: aren't/aunt

IPA phonetic symbol (vowel) /ɒ/

Common words
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ɒ/ include the following:

 with "o": cough - gone - got - hot - long - lot - job - song - strong - wrong;
 with "a": wad - wallet - wander - want – warrant - warranty - wash - wasp - watch - what;
 homophones: knot - not.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation may refer to:

 The standard sound of a word when spoken.

 The way that a particular individual pronounces a word.

 The action of speaking.

Schwa
The most common sound in all varieties of the English language is the schwa. We use it for the vowel sounds in many common words – about, water, doctor, another, America, where it
corresponds to the syllables which do not carry the word stress.

Regular verbs
A large group of words affected by the idiosincracies of English is that of the Past tense pronunciation of regular verbs.

Past tense pronunciation refers to the pronunciation of regular verbs in the past or past participle form - that is, verbs which end in "ed". There are three possible sounds which correspond to the
written "ed": /id/, /t/ and /d/.

Voiced sounds
First let’s identify some “voiced” sounds. Put your fingers on your throat and say the words open, explain, allow and agree. You should feel some vibration in your throat at the end of these words.

These words end with “voiced syllables” and the “ed” is pronounced /d/.

So now say the same words and just add the /d/ sound: opened, explained, allowed and agreed.

Unvoiced
Now some “unvoiced” sounds. Say push, wash, brush and reduce. You should feel no vibration in your throat at the end of these words.

These words end with “unvoiced syllables”, and the “ed” sound is pronounced as /t/.

Say the following: pushed, washed, brushed and reduced.

Regular verbs ending with /t/ and /d/

What about words ending in “t” and “d”? When a verb already ends with the letter “t” or “d”, it is impossible to add another “d” or “t”. Try it.

Can you say “want t” or “included d”?

Consequently when a word ends with either a “d” or a “t” we have to pronounce the full “ed” sound as a separate syllable: /-did/ or /-tid/. This is also true of regular verbs ending in "te" or "de" - don't
forget that the final "e" of most words in English is NOT pronounced.

Say – wanted, lifted, needed, computed, estimated, and investigated.

The good news is that the difference between the “t” and “d” sound is not that great. The important thing is to differentiate between the “t” “d” pair on the one hand, and the set of verbs ending “ed”.

Practice
I opened the door, invited her in and asked her what she wanted. She walked in as if she owned the place and, when she replied, she indicated that she wanted to talk about buying my island.
I was very surprised and stated that my island was not for sale and that I had not planned to sell it. She persisted and insisted that I had responded without thinking and offered me 2,000,000
pounds.
I became annoyed and ordered her out. I demanded that she departed my island and I informed her that she wasn’t expected back.

Examples
Practice experimenting with these words:

Examples of regular verbs with the /t/ sound

ask, brush, cook, crash, develop, distinguish, extinguish, finish, hook, hop, hope, increase, lack, lick, look,  network, pick, produce, push, reach, reduce, stop, walk, watch, wish.

Examples of regular verbs with the /d/ sound

agree, allow, apply, approve, argue, believe, clean, deny, earn, explain, gain, improve, move, open, organise, phone, pull, receive, renew, resolve, show, stay, travel, turn, warn .

Examples of regular verbs with the /id/ sound

 Finishing in "t" or "te": act, activate, adapt, compete, create, defeat, estimate, exist, infect, invite, lift, list, pollute, promote, reject, repeat, respect, result, shift, suggest, support, test, unite,
want;

 Finishing in "d" or "de": add, blend, decide, defend, demand, divide, end, extend, include, invade, need, pretend, provide, succeed.
Final c

 In most of the words ending in the letter c, it is pronounced /s/: place /pleis/; race /reis/; rice /rais/ (see above);
Final e
The final e (sometimes called "magic e") is not pronounced, but instead influences the sound of the preceding vowel letter, so that it is pronounced like the name of the letter in the Englishalphabet.

 Typical contrasts with and without the "magic e": rat/rate; bit/bite; rot/rote; met/mete.

There are some exceptions though. Consider the very common word "have", which "logically" should be pronounced in the same way as haven or the end of behave or shave or cave or...

Final r
In Standard British English, the letter r is not normally pronounced before a consonant or at the end of a word: car; door; four; hard; more; start; Thursday; work.
It is however pronounced if the following word begins with a vowel. As "final e" is also not pronounced (see above) a word like "more" is reduced to "moo".
However, if the following word begins with an vowel then the "r" is given a new lease of life and attaches itself to the vowel. Hence, "more apples" becomes "moo rapples".
Final -s or -es
The final s or -es of plural nouns, the possessive ‘s and verbs in the 3rd person singular have three different pronunciations, as follows:

 /iz/ after /tch/, /sh/, /s/, etc.:

– watches – dishes – Alice’s;

 /z/ after /n/, /d/, /m/, /v/, etc.:

– opens – beds – Sam’s – goes

 /s/ after /p/, /k/, /t/:

– stops – books – Bert’s

Note: In most of the words ending in the letter s, it is pronounced /z/: plays /pleiz/; raise /reiz/; rise /raiz/ (see above); but not says – does;
ough
The combination of letters ough has different pronunciations:

 thought, bought, sought, ought, fought, nought, (/ɔ:/);

 tough, enough, rough (/ʌf/);
 drought, plough, bough (/aʊ/);
 though, dough (/əʊ/);
 cough, trough (/ɒf/);
 thorough, borough (/ə/);
 through (/u:/);
 hiccough (/ʌp/).

Short vowels
In general, the vowel sound in single syllable words ending in a consonant, such as hat; get; sit, not and but, is a short and soft sound.

 The same short and soft sound occurs in most words where the vowel letter is followed by two consonants:
i. batter – landing – aspect;

ii. better – rest – ending;

iii. bitter – sister – winter;

iv. bottle – hotter – lost;

v. butter – under – summer;

Silent letters
As a rule, silent letters represent antique pronunciations, though some were introduced deliberately in a misguided effort at spelling reform which attempted to clarify the history of the word.
 dou(b)t - de(b)t - su(b)tle - clim(b) - lam(b); bom(b)
- of(t)en - throu(gh) - wei(gh) - ni(gh)t - ei(gh)t - strai(gh)t - wei(gh)t - w(h)ite - r(h)ythm - t(h)yme - w(h)en - (k)now - (k)nee - (k)nife - ta(l)k -ai(s)le  -  i(s)land - cas(t)le  -  lis(t)en - (w)rite  -  (w)ho.

Silent syllables

 bus(i)ness; diff(e)rent; choc(o)late; ev(e)ning;
th
The combination of letters th has two different pronunciations:

 “unvoiced” (/θ/): thing; think; third; thirsty; thirty; Thursday; bath; birthday; both; earth; fourth; teeth;

 “voiced” (/ð/): there - father - leather - mother - than - that - the - them - then - this - those - together - weather;

Strange pronunciations of consonant letters

In certain words, consonant letters have unusual pronunciations: sugar/sure; station; enough; measure/pleasure

Different pronunciations of vowel letters

 letter "a" (not counting combinations of vowel letters such as "ea" or "ai"): /ei/, as in game; /ae/, as in hand; /ə/, as in chocolate, privacy, about; /ɒ/, as in what, was; /ɔ:/, as
in water, war; /e/, as in many, any;
 letter "u": 3 typical pronunciations: /ʌ/, as in sun; /u:/ (or /ju=/) as in June (or use) and /ɜ:/, as in burn. Less frequent pronunciations include /ʊ/, as in put; /i/, as in busy, biscuit and /e/ as
inbury.

Possible pronunciation difficulties

Possible pronunciation difficulties refer to the anticipated difficulties students may encounter with the perceived idiosyncracies of English pronunciation. Depending on their mother tongue (L1),
they may have difficulty distinguishing between certain vowel and consonant sounds, not to mention consonant clusters.
More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their
pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

This page outlines some of the difficulties of certain sounds in individual words and links to pages with specific exercises. Intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence
stress, are also, of course, of vital importance not only in speaking "better" English, but also in understanding speech.

əʊ/ vs /ɒ/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /əʊ/ vs /ɒ/)

 /əʊ/
 /ɒ/
ʌ/ vs /æ/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /ʌ/ vs /æ/)

 /ʌ/
 /æ/
/i/ vs /i:/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /i/ vs /i:/)

 /i/
 /i:/
/ei/ vs /ai/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /ei/ vs /ai/)

 /ei/
 /ai/
Final "e"
The so-called "magic e", as in man vs mane, gives rise to numerous mispronunciations, including words like determine being pronounced as if they ended in /main/.
Consonant sounds
/s/ vs /z/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /s/ vs /z/)
/s/
/z/

/dʒ/ vs /tʃ/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /tʃ/)
/dʒ/
/tʃ/

/ʒ/ vs /ʃ/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/)
/ʒ/
/ʃ/

/ʃ/ vs /tʃ/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /ʃ/ vs /tʃ/)
/tʃ/
/ʃ/

/b/ vs /v/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /b/ vs /v/)

/d/ vs /t/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /t/)
/d/
/t/
/d/ vs /ð/
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /ð/)
/d/
/ð/

"th"
(See also: Pronunciation exercises: /ð/ vs /θ/)
The combination of letters th has two different pronunciations:

 “unvoiced” (/θ/), as in thing, and

 “voiced” (/ð/) as in there ;