Key to Pronunciation

IPA Symbols


(International Phonetic Alphabet)

VOWELS

FRONT
/i/  see

 /ɪ/  sit

 /e͜i/ name

 /ɛ/  elephant

 /æ/ apple

CENTRAL

 /ɝ/   bird

 /ɚ/  weather

 

 /ʌ/   bus

 /ə/    sofa, police, focus

BACK

 /u/    moon

 /ʊ/   book

 /o͜u/ home

 /ɔ/   talk, song

 /ɑ/  father, possible

DIPHTHONGS
/a͜u/ house

/a͜i/time

/ɔ͜i/  boy

 /ju/   music

R-VOWEL DIHPTHONGS

 /a͜ɚ/   car

 /ɔ͜ɚ/  more

 /ɛ͜ɚ/  care

 /ɪ͜ɚ/   fear

 /ʊ͜ɚ/  poor

CONSONANTS

UNVOICED

VOICED

STOP-PLOSIVES

 /p/   pen

 /t/   tea

 /k/  kitchen

 /b/   boy

 /d/   dog

 /g/    good

VOICED

NASALS

 /m/  some

 /n/   sun

 /ŋ/   sing

VOICED

SYLLABIC

 /m̩/socialism

 /n̩/certain

FRICATIVES
/f/ fish

 /θ/   Thursday

 /h/  happen

 /v/   victory

 /ð/    this

SEMI-VOWEL
/l/   listen (light “l”)

 /ɫ/  bell (dark “l”)

 / / able

SIBILANTS
  /s/   sun

 /ʃ/   shoe

 /ʧ/  church

 /z/   zebra

 /ʒ/   vision

/ʤ/  judge

GLIDES

/w/  winter

 /j/  yes

 /r/  run

UNVOICED/VOICED
 /hw/ whisper

/hj/ human

A single speech sound — either a vowel or a consonant — is indicated by an IPA symbol between two slashes — / p /.  A word is shown phonetically in brackets — [pɛn].

A primary stress is indicated by an accent mark occurring slightly above and before the syllable that is to be stressed: 

[ `fou kəs ] .  A secondary stress is shown by an accent mark occurring slightly below and before a syllable receiving a weak stress: 
[ ,ri ɪn ,tɝ prə `tei ʃən ].

A stop-plosive consonant that is stopped-but-not-exploded is indicated by the symbol /  ̚ / just above and to the right of the IPA symbol / t̚ /: 

[ ə `pɑɚt̚  mənt ].