UNIT 1:

Spelling and pronunciation

 LETTER
All sections with this symbol
are on the recording. Listen to
them while you read this page.
2
A2A. There are 26 letters in the
English alphabet

A B C D E FG H I
J K L M N O PQ R
ST U V W X Y Z
 A B C D E F
G H I J K L
M N O P Q R
S T U V WX
Y Z
Vowel letter: 5 letters A E I O U
Consonant letter: 21 letters
B C D F G H I K
L MN P Q R S T
V WX Y Z
 “
ENGLISH SPEECH
SOUND
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ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS

24 20
CONSONANTS VOWELS

/f/, /g/,
/ iː / , / ɪ / ,
/v/, /b/,
/uː/ , / ʊ /.....
/k/, ...
A2d: But there are more than 40
towel and consonant sound in
English.
In some words, the number of letters
is the same as the number of sounds.
7
 Best /best/ B E S T
4 letters 4 sounds 1 2 3 4

Dentist /dentist/ D E N T I S T
7 letters 7 sounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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But sometimes the number of
sounds is different from the
number of letters.

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 A3a: In green, ee is one sound, and
in happy, pp is one sound.

Green /gri:n/ G R E E N
5 letters 4 sounds 1 2 3 4

Happy /"h&pI/ H A P P Y
5 letters 4 sounds 1 2 3 4
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 A3b: In bread, ea is one sound.

Bread /bred/ B R E A D
5 letters 4 sounds 1 2 3 4

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 A3c: In some words there are silent
letters (letters with no sound). In
listen, t is silent.
Listen / ˈlɪsn / L I S T E N
6 letters 5 sounds 1 2 3 - 4 5

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A3d: In some words, one letter is
two sounds. The x in six two sounds
like k + s.

Six /sIks/ S I X
3 letters 4 sounds 1 2 3 4
We sometimes write the same
sound differently in different
words. For example, the e in red
sounds like the ea in bread.

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A4A. Sometimes two words
have the same pronunciation but
different spellings.
 A: Do you know ?
B: No, I don’t.
Know /n@U/
No /n@U/
HOMOPHONES /ˈhɒməfəʊn/ (the same
pronunciation but different spellings)
A4B. And sometimes two words
have the same spelling but
different pronunciations.
 A: Do you want to read the newspaper?
B: No, thanks, I read in the morning
read /rId/ Infinitive and present tense
read /red/ Past tense

Homograph /ˈhɒməɡrɑːf/ (the same spellings but

different pronunciation)
A4C. Because there are more sounds than
letters, we use symbols for pronunciation.

/best/ best /ˈdentɪst/ dentist /ɡriːn

green /ˈhæpi/ happy /'kɒfi/
coffee /ˈlɪsn/ listen / θriː/
three /sɪks/ six
A4C. Because there are more sounds than
letters, we use symbols for pronunciation.

/sɒk/ socks /bred/ bread

/nəʊ/ no /nəʊ/ know
/red/ red /red/ read (past tense)
/riːd/ read (infinitive and present tense)
The symbols ˈ(look at the beginning
of the symbols for dentist, happy,
coffee, listen) comes before stressed
syllables (see Section B Syllables
and words).

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Thanks!

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