Is the letter a considered a word

I have heard that a word like «I» is considered a word but why? is every other letter considered a word too?

I have used Grammarly and Microsoft word to write and noticed that every single letter(alone) is considered as a word but based on the definition of oxford dictionaries a word is «a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed.» so why are they considered as a word?

asked Mar 18, 2021 at 23:20

pobig43001's user avatar

pobig43001pobig43001

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1. «I» is obviously a word because it is a personal pronoun. «A» is the indefinite article.

2. Strictly speaking, every letter is a word. «M» is the name of the letter «m» and is a noun.

m (2) noun (ms, m’s) the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. (Lexico: https://www.lexico.com/definition/m )

3. But if you are asking whether the letters are words when they are used to make up longer words then no. For example, if I write the word «globe», none of the individual letters within that word is serving as a word.

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 5:40

rjpond's user avatar

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All the letters of the Alphabet are names once capitalised. I would personally consider that a name is a word.

Nouns;
A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing. Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word. That word is called a «noun.» You might find it useful to think of a noun as a «naming word.»

However, I would suggest that most letters except «a» are never used on there own, except as the name for their character which is mostly used when learning English.

Also note, J and K joined L and M in the Alphabet, would not be marked incorrect by any spell checker


Ref Grammar- Monster… What are nouns

Ref CED J** noun** [C] (LETTER); the tenth letter of the English alphabet

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 4:56

Brad's user avatar

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There are only two words in standard English that are only one letter: “I” and “a.” Those are two regular words that just happen to be only one letter long. No other single letters are English words.

Sometimes people do use nonstandard abbreviations or slang terms, such as writing “are” as “r” because they happen to be pronounced the same. But “r” is not a real English word.

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 1:20

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The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word alphabet is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The alphabet originated around the 7th century CE to write Old English from Latin script. Since then, letters have been added or removed to give the current letters:

English alphabet
Dax sample.png

An English pangram displaying all the characters in context, in FF Dax Regular typeface

Script type

Alphabet

Time period

c.1500 to present
Languages English
Related scripts

Parent systems

(Proto-writing)

  • Egyptian hieroglyphs
    • Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
      • Phoenician alphabet
        • Greek alphabet
          • Old Italic script
            • Latin alphabet
              • English alphabet

Child systems

  • ISO basic Latin alphabet
  • Cherokee syllabary (in part)
  • Scots alphabet
  • Osage alphabet
  • Saanich writing system
  • Numerous other Latin-based orthographies
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Latn (215), ​Latin
Unicode

Unicode alias

Latin

Unicode range

U+0000 to U+007E Basic Latin and punctuation
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
  • A a
  • B b
  • C c
  • D d
  • E e
  • F f
  • G g
  • H h
  • I i
  • J j
  • K k
  • L l
  • M m
  • N n
  • O o
  • P p
  • Q q
  • R r
  • S s
  • T t
  • U u
  • V v
  • W w
  • X x
  • Y y
  • Z z

The exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface (and font), and the standard printed form may differ significantly from the shape of handwritten letters (which varies between individuals), especially cursive.

The English alphabet has 5 vowels, 19 consonants, and 2 letters (Y and W) that can function as consonants or vowels.

Written English has a large number of digraphs, such as ch, ea, oo, sh, and th. Within the languages used in Europe, English stands out in not normally using diacritics in native words.

Letter namesEdit

English alphabet from 1740, with some unusual letter names.

The names of the letters are commonly spelled out in compound words and initialisms (e.g., tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, etc.), derived forms (e.g., exed out, effing, to eff and blind, aitchless, etc.), and objects named after letters (e.g., en and em in printing, and wye in railroading). The spellings listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Plurals of consonant names are formed by adding -s (e.g., bees, efs or effs, ems) or -es in the cases of aitches, esses, exes. Plurals of vowel names also take -es (i.e., aes, ees, ies, oes, ues), but these are rare. For a letter as a letter, the letter itself is most commonly used, generally in capitalized form, in which case the plural just takes -s or -‘s (e.g. Cs or c’s for cees).

Letter Name Name pronunciation Frequency
Modern English Latin Modern English Latin Old French Middle English
A a ā , [nb 1] /aː/ /aː/ /aː/ 8.17%
B bee /beː/ /beː/ /beː/ 1.49%
C cee /keː/ /tʃeː/ > /tseː/ > /seː/ /seː/ 2.78%
D dee /deː/ /deː/ /deː/ 4.25%
E e ē /eː/ /eː/ /eː/ 12.70%
F ef, eff ef /ɛf/ /ɛf/ /ɛf/ 2.23%
eff as a verb
G gee /ɡeː/ /dʒeː/ /dʒeː/ 2.02%
H aitch /haː/ > /ˈaha/ > /ˈakːa/ /ˈaːtʃə/ /aːtʃ/ 6.09%
haitch[nb 2]
I i ī /iː/ /iː/ /iː/ 6.97%
J jay [nb 3] 0.15%
jy[nb 4]
K kay /kaː/ /kaː/ /kaː/ 0.77%
L el, ell[nb 5] el /ɛl/ /ɛl/ /ɛl/ 4.03%
M em em /ɛm/ /ɛm/ /ɛm/ 2.41%
N en en /ɛn/ /ɛn/ /ɛn/ 6.75%
O o ō /oː/ /oː/ /oː/ 7.51%
P pee /peː/ /peː/ /peː/ 1.93%
Q cue, kew, kue, que[nb 6] /kuː/ /kyː/ /kiw/ 0.10%
R ar er /ɛr/ /ɛr/ /ɛr/ > /ar/ 5.99%
or[nb 7]
S ess es /ɛs/ /ɛs/ /ɛs/ 6.33%
es- in compounds[nb 8]
T tee /teː/ /teː/ /teː/ 9.06%
U u ū /uː/ /yː/ /iw/ 2.76%
V vee 0.98%
W double-u [nb 9] 2.36%
X ex ex /ɛks/ /iks/ /ɛks/ 0.15%
ix /ɪks/
Y wy, wye, why[nb 10] /hyː/ ui, gui ? /wiː/ 1.97%
/iː/
ī graeca /iː ˈɡraɪka/ /iː ɡrɛːk/
Z zed[nb 11] zēta /ˈzeːta/ /ˈzɛːdə/ /zɛd/ 0.07%
zee[nb 12]

EtymologyEdit

The names of the letters are for the most part direct descendants, via French, of the Latin (and Etruscan) names. (See Latin alphabet: Origins.)

The regular phonological developments (in rough chronological order) are:

  • palatalization before front vowels of Latin /k/ successively to /tʃ/, /ts/, and finally to Middle French /s/. Affects C.
  • palatalization before front vowels of Latin /ɡ/ to Proto-Romance and Middle French /dʒ/. Affects G.
  • fronting of Latin /uː/ to Middle French /yː/, becoming Middle English /iw/ and then Modern English /juː/. Affects Q, U.
  • the inconsistent lowering of Middle English /ɛr/ to /ar/. Affects R.
  • the Great Vowel Shift, shifting all Middle English long vowels. Affects A, B, C, D, E, G, H, I, K, O, P, T, and presumably Y.

The novel forms are aitch, a regular development of Medieval Latin acca; jay, a new letter presumably vocalized like neighboring kay to avoid confusion with established gee (the other name, jy, was taken from French); vee, a new letter named by analogy with the majority; double-u, a new letter, self-explanatory (the name of Latin V was ū); wye, of obscure origin but with an antecedent in Old French wi; izzard, from the Romance phrase i zed or i zeto «and Z» said when reciting the alphabet; and zee, an American levelling of zed by analogy with other consonants.

Some groups of letters, such as pee and bee, or em and en, are easily confused in speech, especially when heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling alphabets such as the ICAO spelling alphabet, used by aircraft pilots, police and others, are designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite different from any other.

AmpersandEdit

The ampersand (&) has sometimes appeared at the end of the English alphabet, as in Byrhtferð’s list of letters in 1011.[1] & was regarded as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, as taught to children in the US and elsewhere. An example may be seen in M. B. Moore’s 1863 book The Dixie Primer, for the Little Folks.[2] Historically, the figure is a ligature for the letters Et. In English and many other languages, it is used to represent the word and, plus occasionally the Latin word et, as in the abbreviation &c (et cetera).

Archaic lettersEdit

Old and Middle English had a number of non-Latin letters that have since dropped out of use. These either took the names of the equivalent runes, since there were no Latin names to adopt, or (thorn, wyn) were runes themselves.

  • Æ æ ash or æsc , used for the vowel , which disappeared from the language and then reformed. Replaced by ae[nb 13] and e now.
  • Ð ð edh, or eth , and Þ þ thorn or þorn , both used for the consonants and (which did not become phonemically distinct until after these letters had fallen out of use). Replaced by th now.
  • Œ œ ethel, ēðel, œ̄þel, etc. , used for the vowel /œ/, which disappeared from the language quite early. Replaced by oe[nb 14] and e now.
  • Ƿ ƿ wyn, ƿen or wynn , used for the consonant . (The letter ‘w’ had not yet been invented.) Replaced by w now.
  • Ȝ ȝ yogh, ȝogh or yoch or , used for various sounds derived from , such as and . Replaced by y, j[nb 15] and ch[nb 16] now.
  • ſ long s, an earlier form of the lowercase «s» that continued to be used alongside the modern lowercase s into the 1800s. Replaced by lowercase s now.

DiacriticsEdit

The most common diacritic marks seen in English publications are the acute (é), grave (è), circumflex (â, î, or ô), tilde (ñ), umlaut and diaeresis (ü or ï—the same symbol is used for two different purposes), and cedilla (ç).[3] Diacritics used for tonal languages may be replaced with tonal numbers or omitted.

LoanwordsEdit

Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.

As such words become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word (for example, résumé rather than resume).[4] Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason (as in maté, from Spanish yerba mate but following the pattern of café, from French, to distinguish from mate).

Native English wordsEdit

Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate the syllables of a word: cursed (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, while cursèd (adjective) is pronounced with two. For this, è is used widely in poetry, e.g., in Shakespeare’s sonnets. J.R.R. Tolkien used ë, as in O wingëd crown.

Similarly, while in chicken coop the letters -oo- represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), they less often represent two which may be marked with a diaresis as in zoölogist[5] and coöperation. This use of the diaeresis is rare but found in some well-known publications, such as MIT Technology Review and The New Yorker. Some publications, particularly in UK usage, have replaced the diaeresis with a hyphen such as in co-operative.[citation needed]

In general, these devices are not used even where they would serve to alleviate some degree of confusion.

Punctuation marks within wordsEdit

ApostropheEdit

The apostrophe (ʼ) is not considered part of the English alphabet nor used as a diacritic, even in loanwords. But it is used for two important purposes in written English: to mark the «possessive»[nb 17] and to mark contracted words. Current standards require its use for both purposes. Therefore, apostrophes are necessary to spell many words even in isolation, unlike most punctuation marks, which are concerned with indicating sentence structure and other relationships among multiple words.

  • It distinguishes (from the otherwise identical regular plural inflection -s) the English possessive morpheme ‘s (apostrophe alone after a regular plural affix, giving -s’ as the standard mark for plural + possessive). Practice settled in the 18th century; before then, practices varied but typically all three endings were written -s (but without cumulation). This meant that only regular nouns bearing neither could be confidently identified, and plural and possessive could be potentially confused (e.g., «the Apostles words»; «those things over there are my husbands»[6])—which undermines the logic of «marked» forms.
  • Most common contractions have near-homographs from which they are distinguished in writing only by an apostrophe, for example it’s (it is or it has), or she’d (she would or she had).

In a Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Geoffrey Pullum argued that apostrophe should be considered a 27th letter of the alphabet, arguing that it is not a form of punctuation.[7]

HyphenEdit

Hyphens are often used in English compound words. Written compound words may be hyphenated, open or closed, so specifics are guided by stylistic policy. Some writers may use a slash in certain instances.

FrequenciesEdit

The letter most commonly used in English is E. The least used letter is Z. The frequencies shown in the table may differ in practice according to the type of text.[8]

PhonologyEdit

The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they represent vowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as «onion» and «quail» respectively.

The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in «young») and sometimes a vowel (as in «myth»). Very rarely, W may represent a vowel (as in «cwm», a Welsh loanword).

The consonant sounds represented by the letters W and Y in English (/w/ and /j/ as in yes /jɛs/ and went /wɛnt/) are referred to as semi-vowels (or glides) by linguists, however this is a description that applies to the sounds represented by the letters and not to the letters themselves.

The remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not silent they generally represent consonants.

HistoryEdit

Old EnglishEdit

The English language itself was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written Old English have survived, mostly as short inscriptions or fragments.

The Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. As such, the Old English alphabet began to employ parts of the Roman alphabet in its construction.[9] Futhorc influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Þ þ) and wynn (Ƿ ƿ). The letter eth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification of dee (D d), and finally yogh (Ȝ ȝ) was created by Norman scribes from the insular g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside their Carolingian g.

The a-e ligature ash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc rune æsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligature ethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct letter, likewise named after a rune, œðel[citation needed]. Additionally, the v-v or u-u ligature double-u (W w) was in use.

In the year 1011, a monk named Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English alphabet.[1] He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first, including the ampersand, then 5 additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), an insular symbol for and:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ

Modern EnglishEdit

In the orthography of Modern English, the letters thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), ash (æ), and ethel (œ) are obsolete. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of æ and œ into Middle English and Early Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see «Ligatures in recent usage» below), and where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g., for collation purposes), but rather ligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced by th, though thorn continued in existence for some time, its lowercase form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from the minuscule y in most handwriting. Y for th can still be seen in pseudo-archaisms such as «Ye Olde Booke Shoppe». The letters þ and ð are still used in present-day Icelandic (where they now represent two separate sounds, /θ/ and /ð/ having become phonemically-distinct — as indeed also happened in Modern English), while ð is still used in present-day Faroese (although only as a silent letter). Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it was supplanted by uu, which ultimately developed into the modern w. Yogh disappeared around the 15th century and was typically replaced by gh.

The letters u and j, as distinct from v and i, were introduced in the 16th century, and w assumed the status of an independent letter. The variant lowercase form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century. Today, the English alphabet is considered to consist of the following 26 letters:

  • A a
  • B b
  • C c
  • D d
  • E e
  • F f
  • G g
  • H h
  • I i
  • J j
  • K k
  • L l
  • M m
  • N n
  • O o
  • P p
  • Q q
  • R r
  • S s
  • T t
  • U u
  • V v
  • W w
  • X x
  • Y y
  • Z z

Written English has a number of digraphs,[10] but they are not considered separate letters of the alphabet:

  • ch (usually makes tsh sound)
  • ci (makes s sound)
  • ck (makes k sound)
  • gh (makes f or g sound (also silent))
  • ng (makes a voiced velar nasal)
  • ph (makes f sound)
  • qu (makes kw sound)
  • rh (makes r sound)
  • sc (makes s sound (also a blend)[clarification needed])
  • sh (makes ch sound without t)
  • th (makes theta or eth sound)
  • ti (makes sh sound)
  • wh (makes w sound)
  • wr (makes r sound)
  • zh (makes j sound without d)

Ligatures in recent usageEdit

Outside of professional papers on specific subjects that traditionally use ligatures in loanwords, ligatures are seldom used in modern English. The ligatures æ and œ were until the 19th century (slightly later in American English)[citation needed] used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or Latin origin, such as encyclopædia and cœlom, although such ligatures were not used in either classical Latin or ancient Greek. These are now usually rendered as «ae» and «oe» in all types of writing,[citation needed] although in American English, a lone e has mostly supplanted both (for example, encyclopedia for encyclopaedia, and maneuver for manoeuvre).

Some fonts for typesetting English contain commonly used ligatures, such as for ⟨tt⟩, ⟨fi⟩, ⟨fl⟩, ⟨ffi⟩, and ⟨ffl⟩. These are not independent letters, but rather allographs.

Proposed reformsEdit

There have been a number of proposals to extend or replace the basic English alphabet. These include proposals for the addition of letters to the English alphabet, such as eng or engma (Ŋ ŋ), used to replace the digraph «ng» and represent the voiced velar nasal sound with a single letter. Benjamin Franklin’s phonetic alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, introduced a number of new letters as part of a wider proposal to reform English orthography. Other proposals have gone further, proposing entirely new scripts for written English to replace the Latin alphabet such as the Deseret alphabet and the Shavian alphabet.

See alsoEdit

  • Alphabet song
  • NATO phonetic alphabet
  • English orthography
  • English-language spelling reform
  • American manual alphabet
  • Two-handed manual alphabets
  • English Braille
  • American Braille
  • New York Point
  • Chinese respelling of the English alphabet
  • Burmese respelling of the English alphabet
  • Base36

Notes and referencesEdit

NotesEdit

  1. ^ often in Hiberno-English, due to the letter’s pronunciation in the Irish language
  2. ^ The usual form in Hiberno-English and Australian English
  3. ^ The letter J did not occur in Old French or Middle English. The Modern French name is ji /ʒi/, corresponding to Modern English jy (rhyming with i), which in most areas was later replaced with jay (rhyming with kay).
  4. ^ in Scottish English
  5. ^ In the US, an L-shaped object may be spelled ell.
  6. ^ One of the few letter names commonly spelled without the letter in question.
  7. ^ in Hiberno-English
  8. ^ in compounds such as es-hook
  9. ^ Especially in American English, the /l/ is often not pronounced in informal speech. (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed). Common colloquial pronunciations are , , and (as in the nickname «Dubya») or just , especially in terms like www.
  10. ^ why is a homophone of y
  11. ^ in British English, Hiberno-English and Commonwealth English
  12. ^ in American English, Newfoundland English and Philippine English
  13. ^ in British English
  14. ^ in British English
  15. ^ in words like hallelujah
  16. ^ in words like loch in Scottish English
  17. ^ Linguistic analyses vary on how best to characterise the English possessive morpheme -‘s: a noun case inflectional suffix distinct to possession, a genitive case inflectional suffix equivalent to prepositional periphrastic of X (or rarely for X), an edge inflection that uniquely attaches to a noun phrase’s final (rather than head) word, or an enclitic postposition.

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ a b Michael Everson, Evertype, Baldur Sigurðsson, Íslensk Málstöð, On the Status of the Latin Letter Þorn and of its Sorting Order
  2. ^ «The Dixie Primer, for the Little Folks». Branson, Farrar & Co., Raleigh NC.
  3. ^ Strizver, Ilene, «Accents & Accented Characters», Fontology, Monotype Imaging, retrieved 2019-06-17
  4. ^ Modern Humanities Research Association (2013), MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Editors (pdf) (3rd ed.), London, Section 2.2, ISBN 978-1-78188-009-8, retrieved 2019-06-17.
  5. ^ Zoölogist, Minnesota Office of the State (1892). Report of the State Zoölogist.
  6. ^ Kingsley Amis quoted in Jane Fyne, «Little Things that Matter,» Courier Mail (2007-04-26) Retrieved 2013-04-07.
  7. ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (March 22, 2013). «Being an apostrophe (Lingua Franca post)». Chronicle of Higher Education.
  8. ^ Beker, Henry; Piper, Fred (1982). Cipher Systems: The Protection of Communications. Wiley-Interscience. p. 397. Table also available from
    Lewand, Robert (2000). Cryptological Mathematics. Mathematical Association of America. p. 36. ISBN 978-0883857199. and «English letter frequencies». Archived from the original on 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  9. ^ Shaw, Phillip (May 2013). «Adapting the Roman alphabet for Writing Old English: Evidence from Coin Epigraphy and Single-Sheet Characters». 21: 115–139 – via Ebscohost.
  10. ^ «Digraphs (Phonics on the Web)». phonicsontheweb.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

Further readingEdit

  • Michael Rosen (2015). Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story. Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1619027022.
  • Upward, Christopher; Davidson, George (2011), The History of English Spelling, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-4051-9024-4, LCCN 2011008794.

How do you actually read R in English? Simple rules for reading the letter R

английский алфавит как читаются буквы при чтении
I am often asked the question — how to read R correctly in English. Sometimes in the same word, some R are read and some are not. In this tutorial, we will break down simple and working rules to help you understand how to read the English letter R.

With the English letter R, everything is really difficult, because

British not Always read R Americans always read R

The case when R is always readable regardless of accent

If R is not part of a special bundle (syllable with R), then R will be read (sounds like a soft R, as in the word bring). Usually, this is a situation where R comes before a vowel. In this case, the R is usually preceded by a consonant. Also R can start a new syllable. Examples of words:

ready, road, practice, craft, supreme, parable

Cases where vowel + R form a special syllable

This is not uncommon in the English language. The vowel + R refers to the same syllable and together they give a rather unusual sound for Russian speakers.

Interestingly, in vowel + R bundles, Americans will pronounce R, and it will be heard.

The British do not say R, they will instead stretch out a vowel. For the British, R in this case works like an «extension» for the previous vowel. This is the main difference between British and American accents. Listen to 2 ways the word sounds cardhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/card

R at the end of a word in combinations or and er

Americans in this case will say R, they will pronounce it weakly, but you can hear it. The British won’t say R. But if the next word begins with a vowel, then even the British will say r. Hear mother and mother-in-law pronounced: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mother http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mother-in-law

Syllable «vowel + R» in the middle of a word

There are a number of special combinations with r that give an unusual sound. / ɜː /. These are the bundles ir, ur, er and sometimes or. As in the word girl. Americans say r, British don’t. Http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/girl More examples: bird, turn, shirt, world, murder, Berlin Some syllables may have 2 vowels before R. Pronunciation, again, depends on the accent. We look at the picture.

To avoid misunderstandings, you need to decide with what accent the interlocutor speaks. The British version is still considered the reference, but almost the whole world uses the American one. You will gradually learn to hear the difference as you practice and listen to English. In the meantime, I recommend that you watch a video lesson with the rules for reading vowels in American English.

The last block deals with the reading of R in different types of syllables.

Useful articles on the topic:

Russian accent in English: 5 mistakes that give you Russian
All the secrets of English pronunciation
How do you actually read R in English? Simple rules for reading the letter R.

Source: https://ok-english.ru/pronunciation-r/

английский алфавит как читаются буквы при чтении

In English lessons, students moan, «Why are reading rules in English so confusing?»

One of the reasons is that English has borrowed words from many languages. Sometimes they kept their spelling, sometimes they changed them for themselves. In good old England, words were often spelled the way they were read, so that one word could be spelled differently. Take, for example, Shakespeare’s manuscripts — all this chaos is there at a glance.

Ultimately, the spelling of words was standardized and entered into dictionaries, but as you study English, you will notice that a word is often read completely differently from how it is spelled. And there are usually historical reasons for this.

There is good news, too. Although many English words are written, it would seem, «as God puts it on his soul,» there are a number of rules. But be careful, there is an exception for every rule.

English has over 1100 ways to record 44 individual sounds — more than any other language. But let study be a game for you, not a duty.

Learn with our tips!

  1. Jot down the words you are having trouble with in your notebook. Underline the part of the word that is most difficult for you.
  2. Use a dictionary, not a spell checker! Unfortunately, you cannot always trust her.
  3. Learn words with all sorts of prefixes and suffixes, for example: biography — autobiography, child — childhood, etc.
  4. Learn the rules, but don’t rely on them. We have already said: there is an exception to any rule. We will talk about this below.

“I” is written before “e” (exception — after “c”)

One of the first reading rules taught in English class. The rule works for words in which a long “ee” is pronounced, as in shield.

Examples: piece (part), niece (niece), priest (priest), thief (thief).

But after “c”: conceive (to comprehend, to conceive), receive (to receive), receipt (receipt; not to be confused with recipe — recipe).

For words in which the sound «a» or «i» is pronounced, the opposite is true:

“A”: eight, neighbor, reign, weight

«I»: either (any; or), height (height), feisty (absurd), sleight (agility)

Exceptions: seize, weird, conscience, efficient, etc.

silent letters

English is full of unpronounceable letters. The question arises: why do the British insert letters into words, and then they simply do not pronounce them? ..

Silent witness, or What is an unpronounceable letter

A silent letter is a letter that should appear in a word, even if we do not read it. More than half of the letters of the alphabet can be unpronounceable. They can be at the beginning of a word, at the end or in the middle — from the sound of the word, you will not understand that they are there.

Examples of unpronounceable letters:
a — thread, bread, tread
B — lamb (lamb), bomb (bomb), womb (womb)
c — scissors, science, scent
d — edge, bridge, badge e — see below

h — honor, honest, school

Source: https://skyeng.ru/articles/pravila-chteniya-anglijskogo-yazyka

Rules for reading English for beginners: a table of letters and diphthongs with transcription and pronunciation

английский алфавит как читаются буквы при чтении

30.05.2019

Transcription is a recording of the sound of a letter or word in the form of a sequence of special phonetic symbols.

The transcription may not be interesting to everyone, but it is undoubtedly useful. Knowing the transcription, you will correctly read the unfamiliar word without assistance. In the classroom, you yourself can read the transcription of a word (for example, from the blackboard) without asking others, thereby facilitating the process of assimilating lexical material, etc.

At first, there will be errors in the correct reading, tk. there are always some subtleties in pronunciation. But this is just a matter of practice. A little later, if necessary, you can transcribe the words yourself.

Transcription is directly related to reading rules… In English, not everything that is seen (letter combinations) is read (as in Russian and Spanish, for example).

When textbooks (mostly Russian) tell about the rules of reading, much attention is paid to the type of syllable. Usually about five of these types are described.

But such a detailed theoretical presentation of the rules of reading does not greatly facilitate the fate of a beginner, and may even mislead him.

It must be remembered that a good knowledge of the rules of reading is a great merit of practice, not theory.

Your attention will be presented the basic rules for reading individual letters and letter combinations. «Behind the scenes» will remain some phonetic moments that are difficult to convey in writing.

A little patience! Both transcription and reading rules are easy to learn in a short time. Then you will be surprised: «How easy it has become to read and write!»

Note! However, do not forget that, despite its widespread distribution, the English language does not cease to be a LANGUAGE, full of exceptions, stylistic and other delights. And at any stage of language learning, and especially at the initial stage, often look into the dictionary.

Transcription icons and their pronunciation

b ] б ] Single sounds
d ] д ] Λ ] а ] — a short
f ] ф ] a:] а ] — deep
3 ] ж ] i ] и ] — a short
d3 ] j ] i: ] и ] — long
g ] г ] o ]1 о ] — a short
h ] х ] o: ] о ] — deep
k ] к ] u ] у ] — a short
l ] л ] u: ] у ] — long
m ] м ] e ] as in the word «plеd «
n ] н ] ε: ] as in the word «mёd «
p ] п ] Diphthongs
s ] с ] əu ] OU ]
t ] т ] au ] ay ]
v ] в ] ei ] Hey ]
z ] з ] oi ] ой ]
t∫] ч ] ai ] ouch ]
[] ш ]
r ] Soft [ р ] as in a word рUssky
о The sign of softness as in the Russian letter Ё (ёlka)
θ ] æ ]
ð ]
ŋ ] Nasal, in the French manner, sound [ n ] ə ]4 [neutral sound]
w ]

Notes:

  1. In many school textbooks and in some domestic dictionaries, this sound is denoted as [ o ]. But, in modern English dictionaries, this sound is usually denoted as shown in the table.
  2. Diphthong Is a complex sound with two sounds. In most cases, a diphthong can be «split» into two sounds, but not in writing. Since in many cases one of the constituent sounds of the diphthong, if used separately, will have a different designation. For example diphthong [ au ]: separately such a transcriptional icon as [ a ] — Does not exist. Therefore, most diphthongs are indicated not by a set of different transcription symbols, but by their own sign.
  3. In many school textbooks and in some domestic dictionaries, this sound is denoted as [ ou ], which is more descriptive. But, in modern English dictionaries, this sound is usually denoted as shown in the table.
  4. This sign often denotes unstressed vowel sounds in transcription, regardless of the letters (combinations) that this sound give.

Reading rules

English words have several types of syllables. However, to understand the whole system, it is necessary to remember and distinguish between the following two types: open и закрытый.

Open syllable ends in a vowel: game

Source: https://crownenglishclub.ru/baza-znanij/pravila-chteniya-anglijskogo-yazyka-dlya-nachinayushhih-tablitsa-bukv-i-diftongov-s-transkriptsiej-i-proiznosheniem.html

English alphabet with transcription and Russian pronunciation: familiarity with letters and sounds

Linguistic and psychological studies show that teaching a child a foreign language is one of the best ways of his intellectual development. Learning a foreign language will serve as a solid foundation for your child’s future achievements. And the beginning of this business is, of course, the study of the English alphabet.

Why is it easier for babies to learn a language?

Children are born with a special genetic mechanism that allows them to quickly absorb a new language, even without the help of teachers or educators. Therefore, the English alphabet is usually not difficult for children.

If an adult has to include logical analysis when studying a new language system, then the child practically «absorbs» the new alphabet. This is due to the fact that babies have not yet developed that part of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for logical perception.

Scientists estimate that if children did not have this special «linguistic» mechanism, it would take them about a century to master their native language.

When to start learning the alphabet?

Many parents note that as early as 2-3 years old, a child may begin to be interested in letters. At this age, it is useful to tell your baby what a certain letter means, but for now, you should not overload him with unnecessary information.

If one of the letters attracted his attention, you do not need to immediately tell him about all the sounds and letters of the English alphabet..  You can simply repeat the pronunciation of this letter with him, name any word that begins with it.

To read words correctly, an adult can use transcriptions of English sounds.

One of the difficulties of English is that a large number of letters have different sound variations. At an early age, you should limit yourself to the simplest explanations, choosing those words in which the sound most resembles the letter of the alphabet itself. For example, the word “Book” would fit the letter “B” as the simplest one.

for learning english

When toddler starts learning the English alphabet, it is much easier for him to do it playfully. There are many techniques that can motivate a child. After all, if you just put a four-five-year-old student at a desk, and make him learn English letters and soundsnothing good will come of it.

Therefore, it is good with children to learn the English alphabet by songs, watch a video about the English alphabet. Now you can find a large number of videos — fortunately, the authors of various schools and teachers do not skimp on materials. It will be very interesting for the kid to sing the sounds of the English alphabet, repeating them for the host of the video. Also, the parent can sing these simple songs with the baby.

It is always important for children that mom and dad support them.

In the following video, the letters of the alphabet are compared with the names of animals.:

And in this video for children, the English alphabet can be heard in the form of a funny song:

Some time after the kid has watched the video about the English alphabet, it is helpful to ask him about the letters.

For example, draw or show a child a letter and ask if he remembers what it is called, what are the words that begin with it. At the same time, it is better to praise the kid for the correct answer.

Don’t take your child’s success for granted. After all, otherwise the child’s self-esteem will suffer, and interest in classes will come to naught.

Preparation for school

If it is necessary to prepare for schoolwork, it is useful for the kid to start learning the written English alphabet.. At this time, you should also not overload the child very much.

After all, a lot of time must pass before the baby «gets his hand full.» Remember how hard it is for a first grader to write letters.

Therefore, at this stage, short sessions with prescriptions will be quite enough.

Learn English Alphabet: Educational Games

What games will make learning the alphabet more interesting for a child? Learn the English alphabet for kids in a fun and effective way using games:

  • The little ones will love a game called Letter Soup. To carry it out, you will need any saucepan or bowl, as well as cards with letters and corresponding words. It’s good if, in addition to the standard «Apple» and «Book», there is something entertaining like «Snail» or «Frog». The kid must get any card at random, name a letter, as well as the word, the first letter of which corresponds to the name of the letter of the alphabet. This will be his «lunch» for today. It is especially fun for young children to extract snails, toads, and spiders for lunch. This is yummy!
  • An exercise called «ABC» is suitable for schoolchildren. To complete it, you first need to ask the child to tell the entire English alphabet. Then ask him to do this, starting with the letter «C», then with the letter «D», and so on. The exercise should be completed to the very end of the alphabet. This is a rather long exercise — it will take about half an hour. However, the result will be very good.
  • The most commonplace (but also the most effective) method of learning English with a child is to use special flashcards. They can be purchased or made yourself. For this, small squares are taken, cut out of paper or cardboard, a letter and an image of the desired object are drawn or pasted on them. For example, a card with the letter «C» may contain a picture of a cloud — «Cloud». Kids really like bright pictures, so in this respect it is better not to “reinvent the wheel” and use the old-fashioned proven method.
  • Drawing up the alphabet. And this method is well suited for working with the sounds of the English alphabet.. To complete it, you will also need all the cards with the names of the letters. An adult starts recording with a song of the English alphabet, and stops it at any point. The kid needs to lay out the alphabet from the cards to the place where the stop occurred.
  • For the little ones, learning the alphabet with the help of creativity is suitable. For example, you can make a drawing with the letters of the alphabet in the form of animals or funny fairy-tale creatures. Or draw your own dictionary. You can sculpt letters of the alphabet from plasticine.

Does an adult need an alphabet?

And finally, the most important thing is that the parent himself must know the alphabet. After all, we can transfer only the knowledge that we ourselves possess. Therefore, do not hesitate to use the same methods with which we teach children. Here, the English alphabet with transcription and Russian pronunciation will be a good help. Having mastered it, you can safely start classes with your child.

In addition, an adult himself may be interested in learning a foreign language, and, in particular, the alphabet. Indeed, in everyday life, sometimes you have to deal with the process of spelling — spelling words in transliteration. The transcription of Russian words into English will help here. With the help of this transcription, you can correctly sign a student’s notebook in English.

How to write a Russian surname in English? The transliteration table from Russian to English will help you with this, with its help you can write any letter of the Russian alphabet through the English alphabet.

The pronunciation of English letters and sounds is conveyed using Russian letters — this is the so-called practical transcription of the English language. There is a table with transcription of letters and sounds in English.

A table of phonetic transcription signs for vowels and consonants is given. Phonetic transcription characters of the English language are used to graphically represent sounds.

Speaking audio table of sounds is a kind of phonetic game. When you hover the mouse over a letter, a sound is pronounced. English vowel and consonant sounds, consonant combinations, pronunciation of example words are given.

Classic English Alphabet Song (ABC) — British and American version.

English alphabet video, each letter Alphablox makes its own sound. Phonetic song of letters.

Funny blocks of letters — Alphablox, several versions of the video, the letters sing their letters in alphabetical order, in another video they speak and sing the sounds they make when pronouncing, that is, how they are read in words. Phonetic song of letters. This video can be shown in English lessons for children to consolidate the alphabet and when teaching children to read in English.

English alphabet with transcription — vowels and consonants.

English alphabet — we find out how many letters are in it, what vowels and consonants are. table english alphabet with transcription, uppercase and lowercase letters.

Triple consonant combinations — str shr thr spr.

Pronunciation of a combination of consonants with bright pictures and names of objects starting with these combinations of consonants.

English alphabet — uppercase and lowercase letters.

Source: https://tutorblog.ru/uprazhneniya/anglijskij-alfavit-s-transkriptsiej-i-russkim-proiznosheniem-znakomstvo-s-bukvami-i-zvukami.html

How To Read English Correctly | English letter combination table — SPEAK ENGLISH

01.07.2019

Consider letter combinations in English in the key of the rules of reading and pronunciation with the ability to listen to each letter combination in the examples. For brevity, the basic rules for reading letter combinations are given in the tables.

Reading vowel combinations

The table below shows the basic (common) set of vowel combinations (see table 1), Russian and English transcriptions with examples of words and notes.

Table # 1. Reading vowel combinations Letter combination Transcription Examples (listen) Notes

ee, ea [i:] (AND :) see [si:], sea [si:]
ai, ai [ei] (HEY) straight [streit], May [mei]
oo [u:] (U :) too [tu:] before a consonant letter, except for k, r; also at the end of a word
oo [u] (Ooh) book [buk] before the letter k; exception: good [gud]
ear [ɔ:] (Ouch :) door [dɔ:]
ow [au] (au), [u] (eu) now [nau], window [‘windəu]
  •  under stress in monosyllabic words;
  • at the end of two-syllable words in an unstressed position
oi, oi [ɔi] (OH) coin [kɔin], employ [im’plɔi]
ou [au] out [aut]
oa [əu] (EU) coat [kəut]

Reading letter combinations with consonants

Below (in table 2) are the main consonant combinations.

Table 2. Letter combinations in English. Reading consonant combinations Letter (combination of letters) Transcription When used Examples (listen)

b [B] in all cases begin [bi’gin]
mb [m] b is not read at the end of a word after the letter m climb [climb]
c [s] before vowels e, i, y city ​​[‘siti], nice [nais], cycle [saikl]
[k] in all other cases cap [kaep]
k [k] in all cases kite
ck [k] in all cases black [blaek]
kn [n] at the beginning of a word know [nəʊ]
g [ʤ] before vowels e, i, y gentleman
[g] in all other cases gate [geit] Exceptions: give [giv], get [get]
j [ʤ] in all cases jacket [ˈʤækɪt]
z [z] in all cases zoo [zuː]
h [H] in all cases happy [ˈhæpɪ]
sh [ʃ] in all cases she [ʃiː]
tch [ʧ] in all cases catch [[kæʧ]
ch [ʃ] in words of French origin champagne [ʃæmˈpeɪn]
[k] in words of Greek origin school [skuːl], chemistry [ˈkemɪstrɪ]
[ʧ] in all other cases chalk [ʧɔːk]
th [θ] at the beginning and end of significant words think [θɪŋk]
[ð] at the beginning of service words (pronouns, articles) the [ðiː]
in significant words between vowels clothes [kləʊz]
x [ks] before a consonant and at the end of words text [text]
[gz] before the stressed vowel exam [ɪgˈzaæm]
ph [f] photo [ˈfəʊtəʊ]

Source: https://ekaterina-alexeeva.ru/nachinayushhim/kak-pravilno-chitat-na-anglijskom-yazyke-tablitsa-sochetaniya-anglijskih-bukv.html

Reading rules in English

For beginners in learning English, reading rules are often difficult due to their vastness. Indeed, in a foreign alphabet there are 26 letters and 44 sounds, which are pronounced differently in different combinations. In this article, we will analyze the most common cases.

Characteristics of English pronunciation

Each foreign language has its own complex of sounds. And even if some of them are similar at first glance, for example, t — t or m — m, they are pronounced differently. This is the main difficulty in reading letters.

This is mainly due to articulation. The British constantly tighten their lips and open their mouths wider during speech. That is why, when a Russian speaks English for a long time, his cheekbones begin to hurt.

There are four main forms of reading:

  • Open syllable — it ends in a vowel, even an unpronounceable one.
  •  Closed syllable — there is a consonant at the end.
  •  Vowel combined with the letter «r». Such a combination of letters in English affects pronunciation: it becomes extended.
  •  A vowel with «r» followed by a vowel again. In this fourth type of reading, the consonant is unpronounceable.

Let’s fix these rules of reading English for beginners in the form of a table in our lesson.

Ah [hey — ei] O [oh — ou] E [and: — i:] I [ah — ai] Y [wai — wai] U [yu: — ju:]
1 type make [ei] rose [ou] he[i:] vine[ai] type[ai] fume [ju:]
2 type sad [uh] spot [o] pet[e] fit[i] myth[i] bus[a]
3 type card [a:] fork [about:] stern [eh:] girl [e:] byrd [eh:] curl [eh:]
4 type fare [uh] core [about:] sere [ie] mire [aie] tire [aie] during [juе]

What is transcription for and how it helps beginners in reading

Unlike the Russian language, where all letters are always pronounced the same way as they are written, in English the situation is the opposite. For example, the word word consists of 4 letters and is read using 3 sounds: [ˈwɜːd].

From this you can see that every sound is displayed in the transcription. However, the main misconception of all newbies is that you can do without it. And it really is possible, because in English-speaking countries people learn English without even knowing about the presence of such an assistant.

However, the role of transcription in reading for Russian speakers is great. It shows the principles of pronunciation. Example — the Russian sound A is read as we see it. But in English it has as many as 6 versions: [æ], [eɪ], [ɑ:], [ə], [ɔ:], [ə].

Basic reading rules

We talked about the types of reading in English. Now let’s look at the main points that you need to know:

  1.  Not all words correspond to the rules of their reading. After all, English is replete with a variety of exceptions to one or the other of the rules.
  2. Each syllable is necessarily accompanied by a vowel sound. Because of this, the language was called vocal.
  3. We are used to the letter «s» being read like [tse]. But it is not always the case. If there are «e», «l» or «y» next to it, then we pronounce [es]: cigarette [sɪɡəˈrɛt].

Source: https://tutskill.ru/grammatika/pravila-chteniya-v-anglijskom-yazyke

English reading rules for beginners

›Learning the language› Translation and reading ›Rules for reading English for beginners: a table of letters and diphthongs with transcription and pronunciation

Having studied the Russian alphabet, we can easily read any texts. But for correct reading in English, you will have to make more effort, because there are many discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation of words.

If you decide to master this language on your own and cannot understand how to read words in English correctly, then this material is exactly what you need. Today we will analyze the nuances of the pronunciation of English letters and letter combinations, and find out how easy it is to learn to read English from scratch.

And it will help to study the rules of reading English for beginners with a table in which all the letters and their sound are presented.

What are open and closed syllables?

First, let’s get acquainted with the most important law of reading in English — the rule of open and closed syllables. There is no similar norm in the Russian language, so we will analyze in detail what it is. Pay attention to the transcription.

An open syllable is a syllable that ends in a vowel sound. As a rule, it occurs in the following cases:

  • The word ends in a vowel, respectively, the last syllable is always open: tfake [take]. *
  • A vowel is followed by a consonant, followed by a vowel again: edlungstion [editing].
  • There are two vowels in a word: cruel [cruel].

* Ultimate e in most cases, it is considered «dumb», that is, it is not pronounced, but appears at the base of the word precisely for the formation of an open syllable.

In open syllables, the vowel is always pronounced smoothly and stretched out. Accordingly, closed syllables are all those syllables in which the vowel sound is closed by a consonant and therefore sounds short and abrupt: cut [cat].

In addition, special reading rules in English are characteristic of syllables in which the vowel is closed by the letter r. The fact is that in the British version of the pronunciation of such syllables, the letter r is often completely omitted, i.e. not pronounced. Therefore, there are two options for reading such letter combinations:

  1. In an open syllable, when r is surrounded by vowels, only both vowels are read: care [keea]. In such cases, the last e won’t be dumb.
  2. In a closed syllable (vowel + r + acc.), R is also not readable, but it affects the sound of the vowel sound, making it more drawn out: start [staat]

The rule of open and closed syllables is the basic rule of reading in English, although there are many exceptions to it. But it is too early to learn exceptions without knowing the main rules. Therefore, now we will consider the options for the sound of all letters and letter combinations.

Rules for reading English for beginners — a table of correspondence of letters and sounds

Even if you started learning English and reading it from scratch, you probably already know the spelling and sound of all the letters of the English alphabet. But, as we already learned from the previous section, when reading, the pronunciation of letters depends on the type of syllable or letter combination.

Therefore, in the tables below, you can find several variants of the sound of the same letter at once. But do not be alarmed, for each case there will be an accessible explanation.

So, let’s continue to study English for beginners and learn the rules of reading in English.

Consonants

Let’s start with the easiest one: with a table of consonants, the pronunciation of which is similar to the Russian sound.

Letter Transcription Russian pronunciation
B [B] б
D [D] d *
F [f] ф
K [k] к
L [l] л
M [m] м
N [n] н
P [p] п
R [r] р
S [s] с
[z] z (only in special positions: after voiced consonants, between two vowels, and in the -ism suffix.)
T [t] T*
V [v] в
W [w] v**
Z [z] з

* English d and t are pronounced more aspirated than their Russian counterparts.

** w is pronounced with lips extended into a tube, as a result, a cross between the Russian sounds в and у is obtained.

Now let’s deal with more complex letters.

Letter Transcription Pronunciation and explanations
C [s] c (before vowels i, e, y)
[k] to (in other cases)
G [dʒ] j (before vowels i, e, y)
[g] r (in other cases)
H [H] Very weakly pronounced Russian X (almost just a strong exhalation)
Q [kW] square
X [ks] ks (before a consonant or at the end of a word)
[gz] z (between two vowels)
[z] z (at the beginning of a word before a vowel)

And also we will study the letter combinations of consonants in English.

Combination Transcription Pronunciation
ck [k] к
ch [tʃ] ч
tch
ng [ŋ] nasal n
ph [f] ф
sh [ʃ] ш
th [θ] [ð] 1) the sound is average between s and f (tongue between the teeth) 2) the sound is average between z and v (tongue between the teeth)
wr [r] р
wh [w] [h] y / in (just before o)
qu [qw] square

In addition, it is worth considering that the consonants at the very end of a word, the English language never allows stunning. Otherwise, you may not say at all what you wanted. For example: back [back] — behind, behind; bag [bag] — a bag, a bag.

Vowels

It is much more difficult to cope with reading English vowels, but the familiar rules of open and closed syllables will help us to understand it. We take them into service and learn how to read English vowels correctly.

Closed syllable
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [æ] э bat, track, sad
E [e] э pet, red, check
I [ɪ] и pit, fill, tin, system, myth, lynx
Y
O [ɒ] о spot, not, cross
U [ʌ] а spun, truck, butter

Do not forget that in a closed syllable, all letters are pronounced briefly.

Open syllable
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [ei] Hey game, flame, lake
E [i:] и he, be, Pete
I [aɪ] ouch mine,, nine, cry, bye, type
Y
O [əʊ] OU bone, tone, rose
U [jʊ] ю pupil, music, cube

And the vowels of an open syllable are always smooth and drawn out.

Open syllable with r
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [eə] ea square
E [ɪə] ue here
I [aɪə] aye tired
Y
O [ɔː] Toothpaste more
U [jʊə] yue cycle

Remember that the letter r after a vowel is usually not pronounced.

Accordingcovered syllable with r
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [ɑː] aa dark
O [ɔː] Toothpaste sports
E [ɜː] ё pert, bird, myrtle, burn
I
Y
U

Now we know how to read vowels in English words. But there is one more thing that needs to be learned for a perfect English reading.

Diphthongs and triphthongs in English

An important aspect of English for beginners is diphthongs and triphthongs, i.e. combinations of two or three letters with a special sound. Their pronunciation is called sliding, because

first, the main sound is strongly pronounced, and then it is smoothly transferred into a secondary sound. Diphthongs are a kind of exception and do not obey general grammatical laws, so you just have to memorize them.

The table below will help us learn the rules for reading English diphthongs for beginners.

English diphthongs
Combinations Transcription Pronunciation
air, ear, are [eə] uh *
ye, igh, uy, ie [aɪ] ouch
ea, ey, ai, ei, ei [ei] Hey
ere, eer, ier, ear [ɪə] uie
oy, oi [ɔɪ] ой
ou, ow [au] aah
ou, ow, oa, ol [əu] ooh
ure, ue, our, oor [uə] uue
English triphthongs
ower, our [aʊə] aaue
eur, ure [juə] yue
iet, ire, ier, iar, yre [aɪə] aye

* doubled letters indicate the length of the first sound in relation to the second.

So, we examined the basic nuances of reading in English. Treat the outlined rules responsibly: conduct reading lessons more often and be sure to learn to distinguish between the types of syllables in English. Otherwise, you will make gross mistakes in pronunciation, which will lead to a complete misunderstanding of the interlocutor of your words. Good luck in learning English and see you soon!

Rules for reading English for beginners: a table of letters and diphthongs with transcription and pronunciation Link to the main publication

Source: https://speakenglishwell.ru/pravila-chteniya-anglijskogo-yazyka-dlya-nachinayushhih/

18 tips for parents wanting to teach a child to read in English

Hello parents and teachers!

If you have a lively, intelligent and inquisitive child, you can start teaching both your native and foreign languages ​​even before school, as my friends do for their daughter Masha.

Masha is very interested in learning something new, so her parents recently decided to try to teach her easy English. And I decided to help them organize training.

Where does the study of a foreign language begin? Of course, from sounds, letters and reading simple words. In this article I will tell you how to teach a child to read in English: how to start acquaintance with a new language, how to teach you how to pronounce sounds and many other useful things.

Anyone who teaches their kid a foreign language will find this material useful.

Give it a try, and then share your experience in the comments — other parents and teachers will surely be interested to know how these tips are applied in practice.

Where to start?

Any child sooner or later masters speaking and writing. When adults speak their native language nearby, problems with understanding the language, learning to read and write, as a rule, do not arise.

The situation is a little different with a foreign language that needs to be learned for one reason or another.

Here you have to make much more effort and it does not hurt to know certain methodological techniques that will allow you to teach a child to read in English, for example, in the shortest possible time.

Step 1

You should start by learning the alphabet, as in the Russian language. First, we learn the names of the letters, then we introduce the child to the sounds that each letter can transmit. The child should clearly form the concept of a «letter-sound» relationship, because some letters in English can be pronounced differently from the way they are written (for example, Ss [s] [z], Сс [s] [k], etc.) …

Whether or not to teach a child to depict sounds (that is, transcriptions of the sound value of a letter) is up to you. Previously, educational institutions paid special attention to this, today in schools they can do without it. If your child is able to learn quickly, if he has a subtle sense of language and learning gives him pleasure, why not?

You can teach him transcription pictures so that he has an idea of ​​what basic English sounds look like on paper. Knowledge of transcription will give the child the opportunity to independently figure out how to read a particular word, understand many tasks in English textbooks, which certainly contain information about sounds, and correctly read words in dictionaries.

You can study letters with a child in the same way as the study of Russian letters took place — familiarization with their image in books, playing with cards, drawing them on paper, etc.

Children experience the biggest problems with those letters that outwardly resemble the letters of their native language (P, H, C, etc.). Since children have only recently learned these Russian letters, it is quite difficult for them to psychologically rebuild again. Don’t worry — calmness and repetition can easily solve this problem.

Sometimes children have difficulty reading the following letter combinations: sh, th, kn. Here, too, do not rush — sooner or later, children will learn these subtleties and remember them, because every child learns this literacy in his own way, at his own speed and according to his own system.

Step 2

The most important problem in learning to read English words, not only for children, but also for adults, is the inconsistency of the pronunciation of words with their visual image, with the spelling. At the same time, some quickly overcome this confusion, and some take quite a long time for this.

You should start with the simplest examples, with the shortest words, for example, Kate and cat, car and hare, spot, box, pot, dog, etc.

So the process of learning to read in English is faster for children, because according to the same system they learn to read in Russian too — they learn from a simple, from the ability to put letters into words.

Thus, the learning system will be understandable to the child, have a certain logic, which will increase the speed of learning. Gradually, as in Russian, the child will move from easier words to reading more complex and long ones.

Over time, you will understand when the child will need to complicate the task — then it will be possible to increase the number of practical exercises. It is very important for parents to have patience — remember how long it took you to teach your child to read in Russian, how much time has passed since the child learned to put letters into syllables and syllables into words.

Step 3

So, when the child already feels quite free when reading simple short words, you can move on to training reading more complex ones. Show your child how to read a particular difficult word each time. The child must memorize the whole word.

It is ideal to use audio materials for the words you read — they are now included with almost all beginner’s manuals. Invite your child to read with you or with a tape announcer and have him imitate his speech.

He may be funny and uncomfortable at first, but over time he will get better and better. In this case, you kill two birds with one stone — teach him not only reading, but also the correct pronunciation.

The same approach allows the child to learn to feel intonation, the breakdown of a sentence into semantic segments.

Here, as in all previous stages, regularity and systematic exercise, constant training and strict control of an adult play a huge role. The more exercise the better.

It is very important to control the child’s understanding of what he is reading aloud. Each time after reading a piece of text (a sentence, a paragraph, etc.), ask your child to retell this piece to you. The fact is that a person always learns and remembers much better what he understands. In addition, this way you teach your child to quickly master the information read, and not just mechanical reading of the text.

Try to avoid reading the same piece of text multiple times, memorizing whole chunks by heart. This may help develop his memory, but it will not improve his reading comprehension. Train each time texts of different content — this contributes to the development of thinking skills in English.

If you see that after reading the text the child does not understand anything at all, do not worry — this is quite natural and normal. Work with your child to translate each sentence. It is not at all necessary that this translation be literary, beautiful and accurate — let it be «clumsy» and illiterate from the point of view of the Russian language, but it will give the student a feel for the grammatical structure of the English language.

Each time, before reading a new segment, remind your child to try to immediately delve into the meaning of what he read. Over time, even the most difficult-to-learn children get used to such a scheme of work and begin to understand the minimum meaning of sentences.

Good speed will come with time, but if the child’s pronunciation skill is wrong, it will be much more difficult to correct it, so it is better to set it right away. Besides, reading speed in itself is not important, not only in English, but also in Russian.

Dear parents, remember — your child needs your help and love! Be calm and patient, do not rush things! Sooner or later, your child will learn to read correctly, and if he has the right motivation (whether it be a trip abroad for summer holidays or just having a pleasant time with mom or dad), he will quickly cope with any task!

Source: http://1obuchenie.com/kak-nauchit-chitat-na-anglijskom-yazyke-rebenka.html

Lesson 1: Reading English

Lesson plan:

English alphabet

Vowel reading: 4 types of stressed syllables

Reading vowels in unstressed syllables

Reading combinations of vowels

Reading consonants with one reading option

Reading consonants with multiple readings

Reading various combinations of consonants

English alphabet

Learning to read must begin with mastering the correct pronunciation of the English alphabet. If it is not possible to turn to a private tutor for help, then a memo of the English alphabet with sounds and Russian pronunciation will come to the rescue.

  1. The sound of the letters of the English alphabet is conveyed by special characters called transcription;
  2. Transcription is written in square brackets — []

* The letter R in English only vaguely resembles the Russian «r». When pronouncing, the tongue is pulled back, and the sound «r» is, as it were, swallowed. To denote the English sound «p» in further articles, the letter «p» in parentheses — (p) will be adopted.

The English alphabet contains 26 letters, among which you should remember:

6 vowels: A, E, I, O, I, Y

20 consonantsB, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z

Difficulties in reading English texts in most cases happen because the learning process does not take into account the fact that is studied separately, namely, how a letter is read in the alphabet differs from how it is pronounced in words. It should also be borne in mind that English letters, combined with each other in words, form 44 sounds, which contain 24 vowel sounds and 20 consonants.

Meanwhile, in Russian, only 6 vowels are pronounced and perceived by ear, as a result of which difficulties arise in mastering the English language.

Vowel reading: 4 types of stressed syllables

There are three groups of English vowel sounds:

  1. Short vowels (not marked in any way in the transcription);
  2. Long vowels (in transcription they are marked with a colon — «:»);
  3. Diphthongs (a sound consisting of two vowels).

The sound of the vowels of the English alphabet in words depends on the type of syllable in which they are located.

There are 4 types of stressed syllables

  1. Open syllable in English, a type of syllable that ends in a vowel. The reading of vowels in this type of syllable corresponds to their reading in the alphabet.

* The colon in the transcription denotes the duration of the sound.

  1. Closed syllable is called the one in which one or more consonants are located behind the vowel. All sounds in a closed syllable are short. Reading consonants in a closed syllable differs from reading them in the alphabet.
  1. Vowel + — the third type of syllable, in which for a stressed vowel goes a letter rVowels in this position become long and are marked with a colon [:]
  1. Vowel + r + vowel — the fourth type of syllable, in which the stressed vowel is followed by the combination of letters r + vowel. In this syllable, vowels are read as diphthongs (a sound consisting of two vowels)

* stress in the transcription of English words is indicated by the sign [‘] and is placed in front of the syllable on which the stress falls.

Also, for successful reading in English, you need to know how certain letter combinations sound.

Reading vowels in unstressed syllables

Unstressed syllables are those that are not stressed. In these types of syllables, letters can take on unexpected sounds.

Reading combinations of vowels

* ea — the rules for reading the English language contain many exceptions, one of such exceptions is the combination of letters «ea», which in most words is read like the sound [iː] — for example, tea, meat. However, in a number of words it reads like [e], for example, in the following words bread and head

** Both words dear (dear) and deer (deer) are read the same [dɪə] — die, although they are spelled differently. This phenomenon is called — homophones — words, the spelling of which is different, and the pronunciation is the same.

*** In the combination of letters eigh, the letters gh are not read at all. Thus, only the sound remains, which forms a combination of letters ei — eight [eɪt]. There is also a combination of letters igh, which reads as [aɪ], for example, in the following words: right [raɪt] — right, sight [saɪt] — site.

**** they — [ðeɪ] — (h) hey — the combination of the letters th gives a sound that can only be conditionally indicated by the Russian letter «z», so we indicate it in parentheses. TH — give the sound [ð]. It is pronounced as follows: the tongue is clamped between the upper and lower teeth and we try to pronounce the sound (h)

Reading consonants with one reading option

All consonant sounds in English can be divided into three groups:

  1. Sounding similar to Russian;
  2. Differing from the sounds of Russian speech (they can resemble the sound of Russian sounds, but in essence they differ);
  3. English sounds that have nothing to do with any sound of Russian speech.

By the type of reading in words, one can conditionally divide the consonants of the English alphabet into two types: those that have only one reading option, and those that have several different sounds depending on the position in the word in relation to other letters.

Reading consonants with multiple readings

The sound of a consonant letter is related to which letters appear before or after it in the word.

Reading various combinations of consonants

Source: https://100urokov.ru/predmety/urok-1-chtenie-anglijskogo-yazyka

We teach a child to read English in 3 weeks!

Greetings to all parents and teachers who want to teach their children and young students to read in English quickly, painlessly and without wise rules. This page is for you, dear ones! From here we will begin our journey into the world of reading English words and sentences.

I have selected for you everything your child needs most in the process of learning to read in English, then I have broken the material into small lessons that you can master gradually, step by step. It can be every day or every other day — the best pace for the child when assimilating new material.

Who are these reading lessons for?

I will briefly say Who is this cycle of lessons for?.

  1. Teachers and tutors who teach English to kids.
  2. Parents who want to teach their child to read in English on their own even before school starts.
  3. Parents and tutors (teachers) who want to help children who have difficulty reading English words and sentences (usually primary school).

And now also briefly about what the child is must already own before starting these classes.

If all this is a stage already passed, then you can safely proceed to my lessons. They are all voicedso even if you, as a parent, are not friends with English, you will succeed! In addition, you can print the lessons for convenience and sit on the cozy sofa listening, reading and repeating

How to work with lessons

  1. Before each lesson, we explain to the child how a letter or a combination of letters (on which we are working) is read in the presented words — I also explain this in the audio — do not worry.
  2. Next, the adult reads English words aloud or listens to the recording with the child.

    I recommend using a table with pictures first — it will help create a visual association and at the same time replenish your vocabulary. If you think that pictures are not needed, then you can work without them.

  3. Then the child tries to read the words himself. Capital letters first, then lowercase letters.

As you already understood, this method does not involve learning any reading rules or learning English transcription. This is not necessary here! All you need to do is do the lessons regularly! You will soon see the result yourself. Good luck!

For your convenience, I have collected all the lessons in pdf and mp3 formats in one archive. You just have to get them to your e-mail and use.

Due to popular demand, I will briefly tell you about 3 printed manuals that can become indispensable helpers on the way to competently reading English words and sentences:

 Is a very interesting textbook for children. What is very remarkable, in parallel with learning to read, there is an acquaintance with the English-speaking culture. This awakens the child’s interest and curiosity in the language And interest, as you know, is already 50% of success! If not more

 — I am also familiar with this manual and can safely recommend it. Here, first there is a detailed rule for reading letters in different types of words, and then there are many colorful and varied tasks for each rule, aimed at developing the child’s ability to read English words. An important feature of this book is that here the child not only learns to read, but also replenishes his vocabulary with new words.

 — a good analogue to the previous edition. With regular activities with the child, progress is guaranteed.

 — I decided to add this edition here, as it is fresh (2018). Its structure is similar to the previous ones — a short rule and a lot of training exercises based on it. You can study both in class and at home — as additional material and to consolidate what has been learned.

In fact, each of these tutorials will help your child learn to read English with interest and hassle. Choose by price and cover.

After mastering these reading lessons, you can continue learning already with the help of the reading rules, which are given in beautiful tablets. Learn the rules in two parts: Part 1   и   Part 2

  • For those who want to find a tutor for their child at home or via Skype (in English or any other subject), I can advise base of tutors. Find and connect with the teacher you like. Good luck!
  • The online course will be very useful for those who are not yet very friendly with the alphabet and English speech «» from Puzzle English. I have a video where I talk about him in more detail.

I will be glad if you leave your comments, feedback or questions under this post, as well as share an article on social networks — I am trying for you and therefore I humbly ask you to take a moment for these actions And also do not forget to subscribe to my delicious portions of English — I will delight you only with useful materials!

All success and new victories!

Source: https://lizasenglish.ru/anglijskij-dlya-detej/uchim-rebenka-chitat-uroki.html

Why your child can’t read English: 5 common mistakes

English for children → From six to ten years old →

It often happens that a child learns and learns English, knows a lot of letters, and can even recite the English alphabet by heart.

However, as soon as it comes to reading in English, even simple words cause difficulties for him: sometimes children cannot connect the letters at all, sometimes they seem to pronounce the words in the text correctly, but do not understand its meaning.

Why it happens? Let’s see what common mistakes children make when reading in English and how to avoid or minimize them.

I must say right away that many of the mistakes that children make are the result of their age characteristics, and not at all laziness and negligence (as many parents think). Therefore, trying to prevent these mistakes and facilitate the process of learning a foreign language for your child, you must first of all pay attention to the general development of the child.

Mistake number 1: the child reads a word by the name of the letters

For example, a kid sees a simple word dog, he knows the names of all the letters that make it up and starts reading something like [di: — əu- dʒiː] instead of [dɔg], or even falls into a stupor.

It must be remembered that in English, some letters can denote several sounds at once. Since abstract-logical thinking is not yet sufficiently formed in children under 8-10 years old, it is generally not easy for them to realize the close relationship between letters and sounds, especially when many sounds correspond to a letter (or letter combination).

Note

Here’s a simple sentence that reads the letter A differently in each word: Kate has a cat, a scarf and a hare.

There can be only one solution here.

It is important not to scold the child for negligence, but to explain and prompt him the correct pronunciation over and over again, until the child establishes clear connections when reading between the English letter and the sounds of speech corresponding to it.

Mistake number 2: we «read» the English word in Russian

When a child already speaks Russian well and knows the letters of the Russian alphabet, it is very difficult for him not to succumb to the temptation and not start reading the letters of an unfamiliar language in the usual way.

So instead of apple [æpl] it turns out something like [arle]. Adults often make a lot of confusion too, who, trying to make it easier for the child to learn English, offer him Russian transcription of foreign words. For example, the sentence This is a table is tried to be read as [Zis from e table].

Unfortunately, this method will not lead to anything other than the creation of persistent incorrect pronunciation, which in the future is very difficult to eradicate. And this is not to mention the fact that words like mouth-mouse, where the only difference when reading aloud is the sound [θ], which is absent in Russian, will cause a serious obstacle in the child.

Therefore, we immediately teach the baby to read correctly, although this method is not too fast.

Mistake # 3: the child «reads» words without understanding their meaning

Even if this is a simple practice of reading skills, you need to try to select words that are already familiar to the baby so that he can immediately correlate the graphic image of the word with its meaning.

About the reading engine

From a psychophysiological point of view, reading goes something like this: the eyes quickly jump from one word to another in a sentence, and almost at the same time the reader correlates graphic images of words with their meanings, which are already stored in long-term memory.

If the child does not understand most of the words from the text (that is, they are simply unfamiliar to him or are not fixed in long-term memory), then there is no need to talk about full-fledged reading in English. In order to establish normal reading of texts, it is necessary to go back with the child up to the moment where the necessary words were «lost».

Then follows:

  • speak English words out loud several times;
  • use images to consolidate the connection word / its meaning;
  • use puzzles and charades to reinforce the correct form of the word;
  • only then return to the text.

Mistake # 4: the child «adds» words from their constituent letters

Even if children have already gone through the stage of establishing connections between the English letter and the sounds that it stands for (see Mistake # 1), meeting with such common words as daughter, nephew, beautiful, information, they begin to read them, who is into what.

Having noticed such a wrong reading, adults need to show patience and endurance and remember that it is not for nothing that English is called the language of exceptions and sometimes even jokes about English words that “Liverpool is spelled, but Manchester is pronounced”.

Go back to difficult words with your child over and over again, and in the end, your patience will be rewarded!

Mistake # 5: the child forgot the reading rule

For example, he meets the word good or shelf, or take in the text. Their meanings are familiar to him, as well as the graphic form, but the kid simply forgot how to read a complex letter combination. So he reads the word and himself understands that something is wrong, but what exactly?

Here, the adult needs to immediately stop the wrong reading option, remind the child of the meaning of the word, the reading rule. Remember yourself that it is best to remember any reading rules in English because of the psychological and pedagogical characteristics of children «in action»:

  • with the help of games with cards;
  • using puzzles and charades;
  • with the help of multiple repetitions in a fun way (when watching educational cartoons, songs, poems and counting rhymes).

Hopefully, these simple tips will help you figure out why your toddler doesn’t know how to read English words, or can’t understand the meaning of the text he read.

You may have to go back more than once, to those words that were missed, forgotten, or never learned at all.

Try to do this in a playful way, and surely after a while the result will be noticeable. In addition, this approach will not only teach the child to read or speak in English, but also develop his logic, memory, fantasy and thinking in general.

Source: https://englishlittle.ru/razvitie-rebenka/ot-shesti-do-desati-let/oshibki-pri-chtenii-na-anglijskom.html

Transcription and reading rules in English

Transcription Is a recording of the sound of a letter or word in the form of a sequence of special phonetic symbols.

The transcription may not be interesting to everyone, but it is undoubtedly useful. Knowing the transcription, you will correctly read the unfamiliar word without assistance. In the classroom, you yourself can read the transcription of a word (for example, from the blackboard) without asking others, thereby facilitating the process of assimilating lexical material, etc.

At first, there will be errors in the correct reading, tk. there are always some subtleties in pronunciation. But this is just a matter of practice. A little later, if necessary, you can transcribe the words yourself.

Transcription is directly related to reading rules… In English, not everything that is seen (letter combinations) is read (as in Russian and Spanish, for example).

When textbooks (mostly Russian) tell about the rules of reading, much attention is paid to the type of syllable. Usually about five of these types are described. But such a detailed theoretical presentation of the rules of reading does not greatly facilitate the fate of a beginner, and may even mislead him. It must be remembered that a good knowledge of the rules of reading is a great merit of practice, not theory.

Your attention will be presented the basic rules for reading individual letters and letter combinations. «Behind the scenes» will remain some phonetic moments that are difficult to convey in writing.

A little patience! Both transcription and reading rules are easy to learn in a short time… Then you will be surprised: «How easy it has become to read and write!»

However, do not forget that, despite its widespread distribution, the English language does not cease to be a LANGUAGE, full of exceptions, stylistic and other delights. And at any stage of language learning, and especially at the initial stage, often look into the dictionary.

Symbols.
Consonant Sounds
Sound pronunciation
(similar Russian)
Symbols.
Vowel sounds
Sound pronunciation
(similar Russian)
[b] [b] Single sounds
[d] [d] [Λ] [a] — short
[f] [f] [a:] [a] — deep
[3] [f] [i] [and] — short
[d3] [j] [i:] [and] — long
[g] [ G ] [o] 1 [o] — short
[h] [ NS ] [o:] [o] — deep
[k] [ To ] [u] [y] — short
[l] [l] [u:] [y] — long
[m] [m] [e] as in the word «plaid»
[n] [n] [ε:] as in the word «honey»
[p] [ NS ] Diphthongs2
[s] [ with ] [əu] 3 [ OU ]
[t] [ T ] [au] [ay]
[v] [ v ] [ei] [ Hey ]
[z] [h] [oi] [ Oh ]
[t∫] [h] [ai] [ay]
[∫] [ NS ]
[r] Soft [r] as in the word Russian
[ O The sign of softness as in the Russian letter Ё (Christmas tree)
Sounds without analogies in Russian
[θ] [æ]
[ð]
[ŋ] Nasal, in French style, sound [n] [ə] 4 [neutral sound]
[w]

Notes:

  1. In many school textbooks and in some Russian dictionaries, this sound is designated as [o]. But, in modern English dictionaries, this sound is usually denoted as shown in the table.

  2. Diphthong Is a complex sound with two sounds. In most cases, a diphthong can be «split» into two sounds, but not in writing.

    Since in many cases one of the constituent sounds of the diphthong, if used separately, will have a different designation. For example diphthong [au]: there is no transcriptional mark like [a] separately.

    Therefore, most diphthongs are indicated not by a set of different transcription symbols, but by their own sign.

  3. In many school textbooks and in some Russian dictionaries, this sound is designated as [ou], which is more descriptive. But, in modern English dictionaries, this sound is usually denoted as shown in the table.

  4. This sign often denotes unstressed vowel sounds in transcription, regardless of the letters (combinations) that this sound give.

English words have several types of syllables. However, to understand the whole system, it is necessary to remember and distinguish between the following two types: open and closed.

Open syllable ends in a vowel: game,, stone — a vowel in a word is read in the same way as in the alphabet.

Closed syllable ends in a consonant: pen, cat, bus — a vowel in a syllable gives a different sound.

Stress in transcription and words is indicated by a vertical bar before the stressed syllable.

Single vowel sounds

Sound Rules
[e] usually gives the letter e in a closed syllable: get [get], vet [vet] as well as the combination of letters ea: dead [ded], pleasure [´ple3ə]

Note: the same combination of letters often gives the sound [i:] (see below)

[i] usually gives the letter i in the closed syllable: hit [hit], kill [kil] and also the letter y in the closed syllable: gym [d3im], cylinder [´silində]

Note: the same letters in an open syllable give the sound [ai] (see below)

[i:] occurs in the following letter combinations: e + e (always): meet [mi: t], deep [di: p]; letter e in an open syllable: tree [tri:], Steve [sti: v]; in letter combination e + a : meat [mi: t], beam [bi: m]

Note: the same letter combination (ea) often gives the sound [e] (see above)

[o] usually gives the letter o in a closed syllable: pot [pot], lottery [´lotəri],
and also the letter a in a closed syllable after w: wasp [wosp], swan [swon]
[o:] occurs in the following letter combinations:

  1. o + r: corn [ko: n], fortress [´fo: trəs]; more [mo:]
  2. almost always in a + u: fauna [´fo: nə], taunt [to: nt]; the exception is only a few words, for example, aunt
  3. Consonant (except w) + a + w: dawn [do: n], hawk [ho: k].
  4. always in the combination of letters a + ll: tall [to: l], small [smo: l]
  5. The letter combination a + ld (lk) also gives this sound: bald [bo: ld], talk [to: k]
  6. Not often, but you can find the combination of letters ou + r, giving this sound: pour [po:], mourn [mo: n].
[æ] usually gives the letter a in a closed syllable: flag [flæg], married [´mærid]
[Λ] usually gives the letter u in a closed syllable: dust [dΛst], Sunday [´sΛndei]. Also: ouble: double [dΛbl], trouble [trΛbl] ove: glove [glΛv], dove [dΛv] Note: there are also exceptions : move [mu: v] — (see below);

flood [flΛd], blood [blΛd] — (see above)

[a:] occurs in the following letter combinations:

  1. a + r: dark [da: k], farm [fa: m] (see note)
  2. regularly the letter a in a closed syllable: last [la: st], father [fa: ðə] — therefore it is necessary to check with the dictionary, because a closed syllable traditionally gives the sound [æ] as in cat [kæt];
  3. consonant + alm also gives this sound stably: palm [pa: m], calm [ka: m] + note

Note: 1. very rarely a + r gives the sound [o:] warm [wo: m];
3. Rarely: salmon [sæmən]

[u]
[u:]
the length of this sound in most cases varies for historical reasons rather than spelling. That is, for each word, it is determined individually. This difference in longitude does not carry a huge meaningful load, as in other sounds. And in oral speech, it does not need to be specially emphasized.
This sound occurs in the following cases:

  1. always o + o: foot [fut], boot [bu: t], took [tuk], moon [mu: n]

Source: https://www.study.ru/article/fonetika-angliyskogo/transkripciya-i-pravila-chteniya

By first grade, we were taught that the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y are vowels. Most of us probably accepted what we were told (it was just another «rule» we had to follow), and never questioned why that last part was true (there were other things to wonder about, like snack time). Additionally, we unconditionally accepted that the other 20 letters in the English alphabet were strictly consonants. To most, those vowels and consonants were just letters, but to that first grader who aspired to be a linguist, they were more than merely lines on a page.

y photo is y a vowel

Speaking of snack time, when is that…?

Technically, the terms vowel and consonant (from Latin vocalis, meaning «vocal,» and Latin consonare, «to sound together») refer to particular speech sounds: a vowel is one made with your mouth open and your tongue in the middle of your mouth not touching your teeth, lips, etc. (in other words, there’s minimal manipulation of air flow while expelling a vowel sound); a consonant, on the other hand, is one (such as p, d, or s) that is made by partly or completely stopping the flow of air breathed out from the mouth with the tongue, teeth, lips, etc. What is special about the letter y is that it can represent both kinds of speech sounds—depending on its position and the letters surrounding it in a word.

Y is considered to be a vowel if…

The word has no other vowel: gym, my.

The letter is at the end of a word or syllable: candy, deny, bicycle, acrylic.

The letter is in the middle of a syllable: system, borborygmus.

In such cases, the letter y is pronounced as either the long vowel e or short or long i (usually as a long i when ending a word)—and, for all intents and purposes, it is a vowel. When y forms a diphthong—two vowel sounds joined in one syllable to form one speech sound, such as the «oy» in toy, «ay» in day, and «ey» in monkey—it is also regarded as a vowel.

Typically, y represents a consonant when it starts off a word or syllable, as in yard, lawyer, or beyond. Technically, this sound of y is considered a semivowel or glide, which is a less prominent vowel speech sound that occurs in the articulation of two consecutive vowel sounds unequal in prominence. For example, there’s a very brief long e sound when articulating y in yes. Air flow is not impeded in sounding y (if it was y would be a true consonant); however, the mouth is not opened as fully as in articulating the vowel y in early. The result is a vowel-like consonant.

Linguistically, the «sometimes» part of the grade-school lesson doesn’t make sense, since the letter y is more commonly pronounced as a vowel. But its consonant sound is unique, and that seems to be why y is more often considered to be a consonant and only «sometimes» a vowel. In other words, we need y more as a consonant in the English language than a vowel.

Задание № 9132

1. A good source of information

2. Increasing the accessibility

3. The revival of letter writing

4. A beautiful tradition lost

5. Making it quick and efficient

6. The victory of technology

7. As an art form

8. Writing material evolution

A. There is something pleasant about receiving a handwritten letter from a friend. It is also very enjoyable to write a letter — choosing the paper and envelope, writing with a favourite pen, and the satisfying closure of licking the envelope and putting on a stamp. Unfortunately, since the widespread use of email, not many people write and send letters any more. The history of letter writing, however, is very interesting.

B. Before the invention of the postal service, letters were delivered on foot by couriers. The ancient Greeks used athletic runners for that. Later, horses were used because they were faster and could be changed at various stations. The Romans developed this system into a postal service. The Latin word ‘positus’ meant carriers, and that is where the English word ‘post’ comes from.

C. The material of letter writing has changed over time. Originally, people wrote on clay tablets. Later the Egyptians started using papyrus, a plant that grows in the river. The English word ‘paper’ comes from this plant. In the West, paper was produced from animal skins. In medieval times, the Saxons used the bark of the beech tree, called bok. This is where the English word ‘book’ comes from.

D. Literacy has had a big effect on letter writing: if you can’t read you can’t write letters! Before the 15,h century letter writing was restricted to governments, the church, and the aristocracy. After the invention of the printing press that made books cheaper, literacy was greatly increased. Ordinary people started writing letters and it became the most popular and the only way of long distance communication until the invention of the telegraph in 1837.

E. Much of what we know of the lives of people long dead comes from personal letters. Certainly books have provided historical information about the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, but much of what we know of daily life from these periods comes from letters. Modem biographers get most of their information about the famous people they are writing about from their correspondence.

F. In the 18th and 19th centuries, letter writing was considered an art and essential part of life. People wrote not only to keep in touch but also as a method of literary expression, as a work of art, and conformed to conventions of etiquette and form. Literary figures wrote letters knowing that they would be read in the future by historians, and one day might be published. There were even novels consisting of a series of letters, known as the epistolary novel.

G. Even after the telephone became a common fixture in homes, people continued to write letters. What killed the letter was the widespread use of email, and the development of texting and chatting on social media. This type of communication holds many advantages. You don’t need to worry about finding paper, envelopes, stamps, and going to the mailbox. It is also possible to get an instant reply.

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Комментарий:

A — 4. Unfortunately, since the widespread use of email, not many people write and send letters any more.

B — 5. Before the invention of the postal service, letters were delivered on foot by couriers. The ancient Greeks used athletic runners for that. Later, horses were used because they were faster and could be changed at various stations.

C — 8. The material of letter writing has changed over time. Originally, people wrote on clay tablets. Later the Egyptians…

D — 2. Before the 15th century letter writing was restricted to governments, the church, and the aristocracy. After the invention of the printing press that made books cheaper, literacy was greatly increased.

E — 1. Much of what we know of the lives of people long dead comes from personal letters.

F — 7. In the 18th and 19th centuries, letter writing was considered an art and essential part of life. People wrote not only to keep in touch but also as a method of literary expression, as a work of art…

G — 6. What killed the letter was the widespread use of email, and the development of texting and chatting on social media.


Ответ: 4582176

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