International Phonetic Alphabet

/ˌɪntəˈnaʃən(ə)l fəˈnetɪk ˈalfəbet/

 How to Say “ough”
though

through

cough

rough

plough

ought
• The sounds of English can be grouped into consonants and vowels. There are
44 sounds in English.
• Consonants: sounds produced with a closure or a narrowing of the air
passage in the mouth

• There are 24 consonants in English. They are:

• /p/ : pet, pen, purse, map

• /b/ : box, bed, break, cub
• /t/ : toy, test, attend, late
• /d/ : desk, den, said, paid
• /k/ : kid, king, pick, lock
• /g/ : gold, goat, tug, plague
• /f/ :fish, feet, life, safe, cough, tough
• /v/ :vain, visit, clever, love
• /s/ :sit, sell, bus, ask
• /z/ :zoo, zone, zero, busy
• /h/ :hat, huge, perhaps, heavy
• /m/ :mind, atom, mother, master
• /n/ : neat, sign, nurse, deny
• /l/ : lid, lead, lemon, tell
• /r/ : rat, write, train, run
• /w/ : water, winter, one, why
• /ʃ/: Shop, ship, wash

• /ʒ/: pleasure, measure, mirage

• /tʃ/: church, chin, chicken, nature

• /dʒ/: jam, judge, fridge, June

• /θ/: thin, thing, mouth, think

• /ð/: this, that, them, father

• /ŋ/: sing, finger, long, rung

• /j/: yes, young, university, union
 Identify the consonant sounds in the
following words
• Mosquito
• Desire
• Ketchup • Thunder
• Reward • Scent
• Uncle • Ash
• Treasure • Father
• Catch • Queue
• Jacket • Few
• Leg • Toad
• Liver • Caterpillar
 Vowels
• 20 vowel sounds: of which 8 are diphthongs

• /i/ : ship
• /ʊ/ : bush, book
• /e/or /ɛ/ : bed
• /ɒ/ : hot, bottle
• /æ/ or /a/ : cat, apple

• /ʌ/ : cup, butter, bun

• /ə/ : enter, about, doctor
• A vowel with two dots after it (:), it means it is a long vowel

• /æ/ or /a/ : cat, apple

• /a:/ - card, car, half

• /i/- sit
• /i:/- seat

• /u/ - took
• /u:/- tooth, fool
• / ɒ/ - hot, fox
• / ɔː/ -horse, force

• /ə/ -never, ever

• /əː/ -girl, burn, turn
 Identify the vowel sounds in the following
words:
• Bend • Put
• Tin • Enter
• Map • Rule
• Bus • Learn
• Teeth
• Part
• Top
• Walk
 Diphthongs
• /ei/ - fate, pain, rate
• /ai/- bite, fight, sign
• /ɔi/ - boy, coin, joy

• /əʊ/- home, bone, note

• /aʊ/ - shout, doubt, loud

• /iə/ - dear, here, clear

• /eə/- air, pair, stare
• /ʊə/- poor, sure, lure
Identify diphthongs in the following words
• There
• Soak
• Bow
• Join
• Five
• Clear
• Pure
 Can you read the following phonetic
transcription?

• /ɪstablɪʃ/ • /eɡzamɪˈneɪʃn/

• /tʃeə/
• /telɪˌvɪʒn/
• /dʒəʊkə/
• /kʌstəmə/
• /dɪstrɔɪ/
• /tiːtʃə/
Transcribe:
• Quest nerve
• Van range
• Zone gym
• Rash flight
• Knife job
• Snake use
• Bridge thought
 Word Stress
• Syllable: A unit of sound consisting of a vowel (only one) sound and one
or more consonant sounds

• Monosyllabic words eg. tea

• Disyllabic words eg. cof-fee
• Trisyllabic words eg. cam-er-a
• Polysyllabic words eg. in-ex-per-ri-enced
Mark the syllable division:
• Teacher Person
• Captain Beautiful
• Familiar Banana
• Jump
• Nation
• professor
 Word Stress
BANANA /bəˈnɑːnə/
BA-ˈNAN-A

Stress: Stress is the means of making one syllable appear

more prominent than the others

The stressed syllable is:

Louder
Higher pitched
Longer in time
• Tea

• Breakfast

• Beautiful

• Information

• University
 Some rules:
• Nouns with two syllables
Picture
Doctor
Water
Money

Adjectives with two syllables:

Happy
Yellow
Useful
• Verbs with two syllables:

• Decide
• Forget
• Explain
• Arrive
• Repeat
 Sentence Stress
• Not all words are stressed in a sentence

• Content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs are stressed

• Function words: Pronouns, helping verbs, prepositions, articles, conjunctions are

generally not stressed

• He has gone.

• She wants to buy a camera.

• Rahul lost his keys in the bus.

• The shift in primary stress changes the meaning of sentences.

• This is Ravi’s sister.

• This is Ravi’s sister.
• This is Ravi’s sister.
• This is Ravi’s sister.