44 Sounds

Nahida Akter Poly

Senior Lecturer
Dept. of English
 Phonetics
Phonetics is a component of linguistics that deals
with speech sounds. English has 26 letters of the
alphabet which represents 44 sounds.

26 Letters BUT

44 Sounds
 Problem 1
One letter – many sounds

able /ˈeɪb(ə)l/

again /əˈɡɛn, əˈɡeɪn/

action /ˈæk.ʃən/

are /ɑː,ə/
 Problem 2
One sound – different letters

shoe, through, doom, grew, flue, who, brute, duty

/ʃuː/, /θruː/, /duːm/

 Problem 3
Two letters – one sound

phonetics /fəˈnet.ɪks/ or /foʊˈnet̬.ɪks/

immoral /ɪˈmɒr.əl/ or /ɪˈmɔːr.əl/

 Problem 4
One letter – two sounds

use /juːz/
tax /tæks/
 Problem 5
Silent letters

Dumb, muscle, sandwich, giraffe, sign, hour,

know, balm, autumn, island, often, guess, who
 The Sounds of English

Sounds (44)
Vowels Consonants
(20) 24

Monopthongs Diphthongs
(12) (8)
 44 Sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwTDPu2TE6k&t=92s
 Vowel Vs Consonant Sounds
Vowel sounds allow the air to flow freely, causing the
chin to drop noticeably, whilst consonant sounds are
produced by restricting the air flow. All vowel sounds
are voiced.
Voiced sounds are those that make our vocal chords
vibrate unlike Voiceless sounds when they are
produced.
 Vowel Sounds
“Pronunciation is physical and as we go through these sounds you need to
think about these three questions; Is your mouth open, closed or in the middle?
What is the position of your tongue? What shape are your lips?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72M770xTvaU&t=94s
Monopthongs
(12)
 Diphthongs (8)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HZPx8DuDw
 Consonants (24)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoarwB-7O_c
 Consonants
Voiced Voiceless
Consonants Consonants
(Vocal cords (Vocal cords
moving) not moving)
/b/ back, above /p/ pencil, drop
/d/ day, need /t/ two, wait
/g/ gold, rug /k/ candy, awake
/v/ very, give /f/ find, before
/ð/ the, this /ɵ/ thin, with
/z/ zone, has /s/ see, city
/ʒ/ measure, beige /ʃ/ she, dish
/dʒ/ jeans, enjoy /tʃ/ change, rich
/m/ make, same
/n/, no, town
/ŋ/ sing, pink
/l/ look, believe
/r/ red, car
 “-ed” Past Tense: English
Pronunciation
The “-ed” endings of regular past tense verbs are pronounced
in three different ways. They end with either a /t/ sound, a /d/
sound, or an /ed, ɪd / sound

- Voiced Sounds have a /d/ ending (begged - [bɛgd], loved-

[luvd])

- Voiceless Sounds have a /t/ ending (popped -[papt], kissed -

[kIst] )

- Verbs ending in the sounds [t] or [d] will cause the “-ed”
ending of a verb to be pronounced as the syllable [əd] or [ɪd]
(visited- [vizitid], ended- [ɛndɪd] )
 Pronunciation: plural
- Voiceless consonant sound ending ---- /S/
(coughs, attacks, stops)

- Voiced consonant sound ending ------ /Z/

(grabs, broods, comes)

- Words ending in /s/, /t∫/, /dʒ/, /z/, / ∫ /, /ʒ/ sounds --

----- /IZ/
(Chances, watches, judges)