Word with no phonetic pronunciation

Words that aren’t pronounced like we’d expect.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy’s American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 159th episode.

English is a phonetic language. That means that there is a relationship between the spelling of a word and its pronunciation. Teachers in the United States have the challenge of teaching kids to read by teaching them which letters and combinations of letters correspond to the sounds of English. Similarly, one of the goals of Pronuncian.com is to help English language learners understand these phonetic patterns as well. For English language learners, it is about being able to predict the pronunciation of a word based on its spelling.

However, as you have probably already discovered, the pronunciation of lots of words in English don’t match their spelling. Words whose pronunciation and spelling do not match are called non-phonetic. Children learning to read are taught to memorize each of these words as a whole word instead of reading it letter-by-letter. As adult English learners, a similar memorization process is necessary. The pronunciation of words that are not pronounced as expected must be memorized. To help you, each sound lesson on Pronuncian.com includes a non-phonetic word section. This section lists the most important words of English that are pronounced with the sound, even if the spelling makes it look like it should be pronounced differently.

For example, a classic non-phonetic word is the word said. According to its spelling, the word said should be pronounced as *sayed*. It should rhyme with the word paid. But it doesn’t. Instead, the word said is pronounced with a short e sound and rhymes with the word bed (as well as the word instead).

Since the word said is non-phonetic, it is included in the short e lesson, along with the words says, friend, guest, and again. As a reminder, the short e sounds like (short e). Can you hear the short e sound in those words? I’ll say them again:

said
says
friend
guest
again

Not just vowels have non-phonetic words, though. If we look at the sh sound lesson, we see the words sure, ocean, issue and sugar. Why are those words non-phonetic? They’re non-phonetic because letters s or c are not normally used to create the sh sound.

Repeat those words after me, using the sh sound (sh sound):

sure
ocean
issue
sugar

Let’s do one more example. The or sound is pronounced (or sound). It’s common spellings are o-r as in the word corn, o-r-e as in the word more, o-a-r as in the word board, and the letter w plus a-r as in the word warm. However, the words four (f-o-u-r), floor, and door are also pronounced with the or sound. Since they don’t fit within the common spellings, they’re considered non-phonetic.

Repeat those words after me, using the or sound:

four
floor
door

To help you remember the concept of non-phonetic words, I’ll have you repeat these examples after me again.

short e (short e):

said
says
friend
guest
again

sh sound:

sure
ocean
issue
sugar

or sound:

four
floor
door

Just like kids learning to read in the United States, you’ll need to memorize these special words and we’ve created material to help you do exactly that! First, you can find the lessons for these sounds from the links we’ve added to this episode’s transcript page. Just go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast, and click episode 159.

Also, lessons for all of the sounds of English, including their non-phonetic words, are included in our second edition of Pronunciation Pages. If you don’t want to buy the whole book, the lessons specific to the short e and or sound are also available in English or Spanish version of our Vowels ebooklet, and the lesson for the sh sound is included in the Spanish or English version of our Fricatives ebooklet. You can find information about these products by going to www.pronuncian.com and clicking «Products» on the right-hand side of the screen. Don’t forget, without people purchasing our materials, we would not be able to continue this free podcast. So please help support this show by making a purchase from our Products page.

That’s all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.

You got it right in your title. A word that is not spelled phonetically (that is, a word that’s pronounced differently than it’s spelled) is commonly called a non-phonetic word.

I couldn’t find any authorities which use this term, but it’s found all over the web. For example, this site defines non-phonetic words as «words that aren’t pronounced like we’d expect.»

This term is natural given certain senses of phonetic:

phonetic (Dictionary.com)

agreeing with pronunciation

phonetic spelling.

And:

phonetic (Oxford Dictionary)

(Of a system of writing) having a direct correspondence between symbols and sounds.

We can easily imagine this latter definition being broadened to include in its domain words.

You can also find many discussions of phonetic languages versus non-phonetic languages.

A phonetic language is defined here as a language in which

The letters in its alphabet consistently correspond to the same sounds and form reliable patterns of pronunciation. If you know the rules, you can spell any word you hear. The relationship between spelling and pronunciation is strong.

The mapping between spoken sounds and written letters is much looser and inconsistent in English than in other languages like Spanish and Russian. Thus, English is regularly brandished as an example of a non-phonetic language. For example, here, here and here.

Given the above, it seems like non-phonetic word is exactly what you’re looking for.

Unfortunately, this term would apply not only to extreme cases like victuals and colonel, but probably also to words like island and weigh and many others (especially loan words). If you only want to include extreme cases where the pronunciation isn’t even mildly predictable from the spelling, you might use the term highly non-phonetic word.

Alternatives include:

  • phonetically irregular word

  • irregular word

« previous post | next post »

Our recent discussions about syllabicity («Readings» below) made me wonder whether it’s possible to have syllables, words, and whole sentences without vowels.  That led me to this example from Nuxalk on Omniglot:

Sample

clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ / xłp̓χʷłtłpłłskʷc̓

IPA transcription

xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ

Translation

Then he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant.

This is an example of a word with no vowels, something that is quite common in Nuxalk.

Souce: Nater, Hank F. (1984). The Bella Coola Language. Mercury Series; Canadian Ethnology Service (No. 92). Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.

If you want to hear what the above sample sounds like, listen here.  The slides following the first one have words, phrases, and sentences meaning:

2. shape; style

3. bent; curved

4. bunchberry

5. he already arrived

6. little boy

7. saliva

8. northeast wind

9. cut with a knife

10. animal fat

11. that’s my animal fat over there

12. seal fat

13. strong

14. go to the shore

15. bent; curved — a synonym of #3

16. then you saw me pass by on a path

Information about the Nuxalk Language (from Omniglot):

Nuxalk [nuχalk] is a Salishan language spoken in Bella Coola in British Colombia in Canada. In 2014 there were 17 Nuxalk speakers, all of whom were elderly. The language is also known as Bella Coola, although Nuxalk is the preferred name, particularly for the Nuxalk Nation government. The name Bella Coola comes from bḷ́xʷlá, which means «stranger» in Heiltsuk, a Wakashan language also spoken in British Colombia.

Links

Wikipedia

Native Languages of the Americas

Ethnologue

Acwsalcta

First Voices

Selected readings

  • «Syllables» (2/24/20)
  • «English syllable detection» (2/26/20)

[Thanks to Diana Shuheng Zhang]

March 2, 2020 @ 1:58 am
· Filed by Victor Mair under Orthography, Parsing, Phonetics and phonology

Permalink

Jared Spool, an expert on the subjects of usability, software, design, and research, once said on the subject of usability in software design:

Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.

Pronunciation mistakes, like poor design, stand out sorely. Just 1-2 slipups in a 10-minute conversation are enough. They’ll show your communication skills in poor light, especially when those listening to you are good at it.

Second, when you’re about to speak words whose pronunciation you’re not sure of, you’ll have an uneasy feeling that you’re about to make a mistake. You’ll hesitate to speak such words, thereby robbing your speech of apt words. Few examples of such words (test yourself and check what the correct pronunciation is):

Cache. Echelon. Gourmet. Hypocrite. Midas. Realm. Sleuth. Trio.

After correcting my pronunciation of more than 3,400 words, I can say with lot of confidence – and experience – that pronunciation is probably the easiest and quickest component of English to improve.

I started with words, but then expanded to proper nouns (names, brands, cities, countries, and so on). I’m still improving. I still add words to my pronunciation list, but now I encounter just a word or two a month, a trickle compared to flood of more than 100 when I embarked on this journey. Now, I’ve started to spot mispronunciations even among fine speakers of English, including news presenters. All this only to tell you that you too can make dramatic progress.

In this post, I’ll broadly cover how most people are not even aware that they’re committing dozens of pronunciation goof ups every day, how you can find out words you’ve been mispronouncing for decades, and then how you can correct them for good.

Let’s start with a small exercise.

Improve Pronunciation Fast: 2,000+ Commonly-Mispronounced Words

Pronunciation in audio and written form. Common patterns of errors.

Test yourself: a pronunciation exercise

I bet you’ll learn a lot about your pronunciation through this exercise. Pronounce following words aloud without looking at the answers in the table below:

Refrigerator, adjective, Oxford, Wednesday, competitor, kerosene, object (verb), conscience, jewelry, and comb

Here is how people commonly pronounce these words (for ease of perusal, I’ve highlighted the error in red font). Also mentioned are correct pronunciations of these words:

Word Incorrect Pronunciation Correct Pronunciation
Refrigerator refrij-uh-rey-ter ri-frij-uh-rey-ter
Adjective ad-jek-tive aj-ik-tiv
Oxford oksford oks-ferd
Wednesday wednuhz-dey wenz-dey
Competitor kompi-ti-ter kuhm-pet-i-ter
Kerosene keroh-seen ker-uh-seen
Object (V.) ob-jekt uhb-jekt
Conscience Konsience kon-shuhns
Jewelry jewel-ree joo-uhl-ree
Comb komb kohm

Pronunciations in this post are written in non-phonetic form, which is more intuitive than phonetic/ IPA form (more on this at the end of the post). To bring out the difference between the two, the pronunciation of word refrigerator has been written below in both the forms:

phonetic vs. non-phonetic form of pronunciation

Note: Feel free to use the above and other images in the post, using the link of this post for reference/attribution.

If you’re new to reading pronunciations in the two right columns of the table above, here is a brief 101 lesson (click to open).

How to read non-phonetic pronunciation?

1. Each group of letters separated by the hyphen is called a syllable. For example, the pronunciation ‘re-frij-uh-rey-ter’ has five syllables. Syllables are the building blocks of pronunciation and are spoken as a unit sequentially.

2. The syllables in bold need to be stressed (means they need to be said louder and longer than other syllables). For example, the syllable ‘frij’ is stressed more than other syllables while pronouncing refrigerator. It may seem complicated when you read this, but it’s not. Listen to the pronunciation of refrigerator here, and pay attention to how the syllables are spoken separately (however, quickly) and how ‘frij’ is stressed.

3. ‘Uh’ or schwa sound appears in almost every second pronunciation. It is a neutral sound that occurs in unstressed syllables. I would suggest you to listen the pronunciation of few words such as address, balloon, and cadet at dictionary.com to get a hang of ‘uh’ sound.

4. When in doubt on any of the pronunciations, type in the word in dictionary.com and listen.

How did you fare in the above exercise?

If not well, don’t lose heart. An overwhelming majority of non-native speakers of English are serial, cold-blooded mispronouncers. To give an example from India, National Spoken English Skills Report (based on a sample of more than 30,000 students from 500+ colleges) by Aspiring Minds finds pronunciation and fluency to be the biggest barriers to spoken English.

The same report says that only 15 percent has pronunciation without noticeable number of mistakes, of which only 6.6 percent qualify in the top category:

Pronunciation data

Let’s come back to the above exercise.

Many of you may be surprised at the pronunciation of Wednesday. (Most pronounce the word as it is spelt.) I had been pronouncing it wrong for decades till I learnt it two years back.

Do you see the subtle difference between the correct and incorrect pronunciation of refrigerator?

Do you see that object is pronounced in a way different from you may be used to. This is because the word here is being used as a verb, not noun. If it were used as a noun, then the pronunciation ‘ob-jekt’ was correct. However, most of us pronounce the word as ‘ob-jekt’ whether it is verb or noun. And there are many words such as object.

If you’re speaking in the company of good communicators, even small departure from correct pronunciation (example: refrigerator) can get noticed. Significant departures (example: Wednesday and competitor) stand out like sore thumb.

Pronunciation is tougher in English than in many other languages, because English is not a phonetic language. For the uninitiated, in a phonetic language (examples: Spanish and Italian), words are pronounced exactly (or close to) the way they’re spelt. So easy right. You don’t have to scratch your head over why though and thought are pronounced so differently in English. Variations and exceptions are the only norm in English pronunciation.

People are mispronouncing in volume every day, but, guess what, most aren’t even aware they’re.

Most aren’t even aware they mispronounce by dozens every day

I’ve observed this.

Because this is an area of interest for me, I sometimes mentally note down mispronunciations of the person I talk to, and at the end ask him if he realized he made few pronunciation mistakes. Almost all say ‘no’. They don’t know where they mispronounced.

Aside my asking this question, why would anyone mispronounce knowingly.

Let’s see why this happens.

Pronunciation is rarely touched in schools. We learn pronunciation, over the years, mainly by listening to how others pronounce. Isn’t it?

But what if what you’re listening to from others is not the right pronunciation? (That’s what mostly happens in countries where English isn’t the first language for most.) You’ll pick wrong pronunciation and reinforce it by repeating it many times over the years, right?

Vicious pronunciation cycle

That’s why many, including seasoned professionals in top-tier multinational organizations, are blissfully unaware of their mispronunciations and continue mispronouncing by dozens every day, not knowing what impression they’re creating of their communication skills.

You need an external intervention to break this cycle. It won’t correct on its own, and certainly not by speaking more.

I’ll cap this section with a brief anecdote.

A friend of mine who emigrated from India to U.S. more than twenty years back was once corrected by his 10-year-old son on the pronunciation of word panacea. Some may call his son to be exceptional who could point out a flaw in his father’s otherwise impeccable pronunciation. But he is not.

Over the years, my friend ironed out his pronunciation of most common words by listening to native speakers in U.S., but few mispronunciations – most of them of not-so-commonly-used words such as panacea – stayed with him. But his son carried no such pronunciation burden. He heard every pronunciation the right way from the word go.

For the same reason, you’ll rarely find people who have spent considerable time in an English-speaking country or environment making pronunciation mistakes. Shashi Tharoor and Karan Thapar being two examples.

Your pronunciation becomes what you listen.

How to identify words you routinely mispronounce?

Two ways.

One is quick & dirty way to improve fast on common pronunciation mistakes. The other is the age-old, sustainable, common method of listening.

Let’s start with listening.

1. Listen to experts

Listen more to improve pronunciation

Most persons who actively work toward improving their pronunciation adopt this method.

When I say ‘experts’, I mean proficient speakers who are less likely to make pronunciation mistakes – news anchors, professional speakers, and native speakers to name few. They’re almost always spot on in their pronunciation. I say almost always, because they too can slip on pronunciation sometimes, but for most practical purposes they’re fine guiding light.

When listening to them, pay attention to words that sound strange… strange because you pronounce the very same words differently. You don’t really need to strain your ears to spot such words. You just need to be attentive. It can put your English Language skills on fast track.

To give an example, when watching the 2017 Shanghai Rolex Masters final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, I heard the commentator say ‘sahyz-mik’. It instantaneously caught my attention even though I wasn’t focusing on the commentary word for word. (Like anyone else, I was more focused on visuals, and less on commentary.) I hadn’t heard this pronunciation before, but I immediately knew that the commentator spoke the word seismic, which I used to pronounce as ‘seis-mik’ (the way it is spelt) till then. I noted the word down in my Excel sheet meant specifically for pronunciation (more on this later), and later confirmed through an online dictionary that the correct pronunciation indeed was ‘sahyz-mik’.

You too can easily catch such words even if you’re not consciously focusing on individual words. All it takes is little bit of attentiveness and keen desire to improve pronunciation.

However, a person who is not actively looking to improve his pronunciation may not be attentive enough to notice the difference. And even if he does, he would do so fleetingly and not take any further steps mentioned in the next section.

Keep noting such words you come across when listening to experts. Besides throwing up words you mispronounce, listening, through repeated exposure, will also reinforce pronunciations you corrected in the past.

(Caveat: on few occasions, the pronunciation will sound different because the speaker may be using American pronunciation whereas you may be used to British pronunciation. However, you don’t need to bother on this count because, in practice, you’ll encounter very few such words.)

On choice of what to listen, you should avoid listening to something only for the purpose of improving pronunciation (or for that matter any other aspect of English). Assimilate what you’re already watching (and listening) into your pronunciation exercise. In case you need to add more to your list of content, pick something that is educative. Improving English should ideally be an offshoot of your main work or should fill the time you otherwise waste, after all you’ve only 24 hours in a day.

2. Get commonly-mispronounced words and names

When you’re just starting out on your journey to improve pronunciation, it’s good to master those pronunciations where most people stumble. This would mean more work in the beginning, but it’ll raise your level fast to a respectable level.

How do you get these words?

Search them on Google and YouTube with search strings such as ‘difficult to pronounce words in English’ to get commonly-mispronounced words. You may use search strings such as ‘difficult to pronounce brands’ to get results for brands. And so on. Listen to the pronunciation of these words and names on an online dictionary or YouTube and note down those which sound unfamiliar.

You can continue with this method till you stop seeing new words and names.

I mentioned ‘brands’ in one of the search strings above. Idea is to cover everything, and not just dictionary words, that comes up in regular conversations. (Conversation! Never forget the end goal.) I’ve added not just regular dictionary words, but also brands, celebrity names, cities, countries, cuisines, and more to my list. However, majority of entries in your list would come from the first category, dictionary words. Few examples from my list:

Brands Cities Countries Cuisines
Versace Leicester Peru Pizza
Lacoste Worcester Morocco Lasagna
Oxford Nice Israel Minestrone
Tissot Melbourne Portugal Quinoa
Peugeot Cannes Chile Sushi
Mont Blanc Cairo Indonesia Fajitas

You’ll be surprised how rampantly people mispronounce names mentioned in the above table. Try for yourself.

Once you know how to find words and names you mispronounce, it’s time to learn how to master their pronunciations.

1. Note down the words you’ve been mispronouncing

In the previous section, we looked at how to identify words you’ve been mispronouncing for years. When you come across such words, note them down. You may use an App, a word document, or something else. I use an Excel sheet.

Noting words down is not a requirement though; you can improve your pronunciation without it. But here I’m trying to outline the most effective method that will help you retain what you’re learning for the long term. The list you build by noting down words you’ve been mispronouncing is a sine qua non for review (point # 4) through Spaced Repetition.

2. Check pronunciation on an online resource

Why check pronunciation when you’ve already listened to it while listening or watching?

Although you may notice the difference between your and the expert’s pronunciations, you may not get the exact pronunciation in a fast-flowing video or audio. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to refer an online dictionary and confirm the pronunciation. Moreover, checking pronunciation will also enable you to note down non-phonetic pronunciation which is crucial for later review. More on this follows.

Two good online resources for checking pronunciation are dictionary.com and Cambridge English Dictionary. Whereas dictionary.com is one of the few dictionaries that mention pronunciation in non-phonetic form as well, Cambridge dictionary provides both British and American pronunciations separately.

Here is an example of pronunciation in non-phonetic form from dictionary.com:

And here is an example of pronunciation of the same word in phonetic form:

I use non-phonetic form, because it doesn’t contain unfamiliar symbols and is more intuitive.

Check pronunciation of the word you find challenging to pronounce using the above-mentioned or any other suitable resource:

Step 1: Listen to the pronunciation. (Most dictionaries provide audio of the pronunciation.)

Step 2: Imitate the pronunciation you just listened. Speak it out loud few times. Then pronounce the word as part of complete sentences.

A pertinent question at this stage: Is listening and repeating the best way to learn pronunciation? Aren’t there pronunciation rules we can apply to all or most words?

Like we saw earlier in the post, English is not a phonetic language and its words may be pronounced completely different from the way they’re spelt. To repeat what I said earlier, variations and exceptions are the only norm in English pronunciation. It’s difficult to fit plethora of variations and exceptions in few rules.

Listening – and then repeating – remains the best option to learn pronunciation. That’s how babies learn speaking words. They listen to different sounds for several months, and then gradually start imitating those sounds. I do the same to correct my pronunciation.

Step 3: Read the pronunciation in non-phonetic form and copy-paste it in your App or document in front of the corresponding word. (For names and few words which you can’t find on online dictionaries, leave the space blank. Listen to the pronunciation on resources such as YouTube, and later, after you take the printout, write down in the blank space what you hear in your native language.)

This will act as a flashcard and help you review what you’re learning. I’m not sure you can store sounds in flashcards, and, therefore, non-phonetic description is a great alternative.

This is how my Excel sheet looks:

pronunciation flashcard

If you’re following Step 3 and copy-pasting pronunciation, you can find audio as well as the non-phonetic form at the same place, dictionary.com. If you’re only listening, you can use Cambridge Dictionary as well.

3. Follow spaced repetition to embed pronunciations for the long term

We forget fast what we learn.

The best way known to mankind to retain information for long is Spaced Repetition. As part of Spaced Repetition, you actively review what you learnt in increasing time intervals. A common rule-of-thumb advice it to review after a day, a week, a month, and three months.

However, you don’t need to strictly adhere to this timeline. Even if you miss them by few days here and there, you’ll be largely fine. The earlier rounds – immediate and after a day – however are more sacrosanct than the later rounds and therefore you should be more disciplined about them.

But aren’t multiple reviews too time consuming? Not really. You would probably take more time to review once after a month than the combined time taken to review multiple times in Spaced Repetition. I encourage you to read this post on Spaced Repetition to learn how it is done.

It was for Spaced Repetition that copy-pasting pronunciation in non-phonetic form was advised at the beginning of this section.

In your reviews, you can speak out pronunciations using words as the cue, like you do in flashcards. Speaking out gets your vocal organs – tongue, lips, and throat – used to producing the new sounds. In case you’re at a place or situation where you can’t speak out loudly, speak softly while still working your vocal organs. You’ll still reap most of the benefits that come with speaking out. A review of 35 studies showed that mental practice alone – picturing oneself performing the activity from start to finish – improves performance significantly. Now, speaking at a low volume is way above mental practice.

Spaced Repetition will dramatically improve your retention. When I reviewed the initial set of words from my list after more than two years, I could recall 95+ percent (in a sample of more than 1,000 words) of pronunciations correctly. It works like charm. I can certainly vouch for its efficacy.

I agree wholeheartedly with what Norman Lewis mentioned in his book Speak Better Write Better English:

Frequent repetition of the words aloud will make correct habits so deep-seated that the possibility of error, even in the heat of animated conversation, will be reduced to the vanishing point.

If you’re not able to follow all the steps…

What I covered in this section was the best way to improve your pronunciation and to retain it. However, if, for some reasons, you’re not able to follow all the steps recommended, try at the very minimum to develop the habit of:

  • Noticing the difference between your and an expert’s pronunciation,
  • Listening to the pronunciation on an online dictionary, and
  • Speaking the pronunciation out loud few times

You’ll still take significant strides.

Should I learn pronunciation phonetically using IPA symbols?

As I mentioned earlier in the post, English is not a phonetic language. That is, in English, words are not necessarily spoken the way they’re written. For example, cut and put are written the same way, but pronounced differently. In other words, spelling alone isn’t sufficient to deduce pronunciation of a word.

Therefore, International Phonetic Association (IPA) came up with a set of symbols to represent all 44 sounds in English. We saw IPA symbols for refrigerator and realm earlier in the post.

Let’s come back to the question we started with.

Do you need to learn IPA symbols to master pronunciation?

No.

Much has changed since IPA symbols came into existence. Now every online dictionary worth its salt carries pronunciation in audio form besides either phonetic or non-phonetic text description. The audio very well serves the purpose of IPA symbols – knowing how a word sounds.

Moreover, IPA symbols can easily scare away people – it did scare me. I learnt pronunciation completely through audio and non-phonetic form. Just to give bit of data from an informal survey I did through show of hands, less than 1 percent (sample of around 400) of college students said they’ve used IPA symbols to learn pronunciation. I also showed both phonetic and non-phonetic forms of few words (like the image for refrigerator at the beginning of the post) to them, and asked which is more comfortable to practice, almost everyone went with non-phonetic form. I agree that the sample is small, but the results are so overwhelmingly one-sided that they leave little to doubt.

Here is an independent, strong evidence, which I came across after my own experience with the two forms and that survey by show of hands. In his book Dictionary of Pronunciation, Norman Lewis mentions that in departure from the third edition, fourth and the latest edition of the book contains pronunciations in only non-phonetic form, which he calls respelling form. (The third edition contained both phonetic and non-phonetic forms.) He says phonetic form in the earlier edition was ‘largely ignored’ by the readers and that ‘it was the respelling on which readers leaned’.

People are simply repulsed by alien symbols. They’re probably for connoisseurs. They’re probably for absolute beginners whom some of the 44 sounds in English elude and they need to learn them very precisely.

Summary

Matthew Syed in his book Bounce describes how professional golfers practice:

When he [professional golfer] finds a difficult or unusual shot, he hits up to half a dozen balls, providing feedback that will prove invaluable when he finds himself in a similar situation during a competition.

When you see a professional golfer connect a winning swing from a seemingly irretrievable ‘rough’, you often don’t see those countless shots in practice sessions mimicking a similar tough situation.

Likewise, each word that you pronounce correctly today is a result of first listening and then speaking it multiple times so that your vocal organs – lips, tongue, and throat – get accustomed to producing the sounds of that word.

Native speakers, because they’re exposed to English more than you are, have heard those sounds and practiced those sounds at least few times. That’s why they seem flawless in their pronunciations. You too can imitate these sounds at any stage of your life and ace pronunciation… and it’s much simpler than golfing retrievals. What you need are few habits, consistent work, and few months.

What is a phone in phonetics?

In linguistics, a phone (from the Greek fōnḗ) is a distinct speech sound. We study phones in phonetics, the branch of linguistics that deals with the physical production and reception of sound. Phones are not specific to particular languages and aren’t always vital for understanding the meaning of a word. Phones are represented by letters and symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Let’s take a look at an example:

Look at the words spin and pat. They both contain the letter p; however, the speech sounds differ slightly. By looking at the phonetic transcription of the words, we can compare the two different phones.

[spɪn] and [pʰæt]

As you can see, the word spin contains 4 phones (s, p, ɪ, and n) and the word pat has 3 (pʰ, æ, and t). Notice how the first phone in the word pat is the symbol p accompanied by a small h — this is because the p is aspirated (pronounced with an exhalation of breath). Whether or not we pronounce the word pat with an exhalation of breath, the word’s meaning won’t change, and most people will understand what you’re saying. However, the phone [pʰ] shows us the actual sound made when [p] is used in this word.

You might be wondering what all these strange-looking letters within brackets are — this brings us to the symbols used to represent phones and the International Phonetic alphabet.

Symbols for phones

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system for representing phonetic sounds (phones) with symbols.

It was developed by the language teacher Paul Passy in 1888 and is a system of phonetic symbols based primarily on Latin script. The chart was initially created as a way of accurately representing speech sounds and is now used by linguists and language educators around the world.

The IPA aims to represent all qualities of speech and sounds present in language, including vowels, consonants, prosodic features (pitch, intonation, and tone), gaps between sounds, and syllables.

The IPA currently comprises:

  • Pulmonic consonants — Sounds made by air pressure from the lungs. All consonants within the English language are pulmonic.

  • Non-pulmonic consonants — Sounds that are not produced with air pressure from the lungs. There are no non-pulmonic consonants in English.

  • Monophtongs— Single vowel sounds in a syllable.

  • Diphthongs — Two vowel sounds in a syllable.

  • SuprasegmentalsA group of symbols that represents the prosodic features of speech.

  • Tones and word accents — Used when transcribing tonal languages, such as Vietnamese.

  • Diacritics — Small marks that show slight distinctions in pronunciation.

Diacritics are small marks placed above, below, or next to the letter-like symbols to show slight distinctions in sounds and pronunciation. There are 44 different diacritics in the IPA. Some common ones include:

  • ◌̥ Voiceless
  • ◌̬ Voiced
  • ʰ Aspirated
  • ◌̃ Nasalised

The IPA chart

Phone The IPA chart StudySmarterThe IPA chart lists all of the sounds of speech and categorises them. — Wikimedia Commons (fig. 1)

It is important to note that the IPA is not specific to any particular language and can be used globally to help language learners.

How do you transcribe phone pronunciations?

When we describe phones, we use narrow transcription (including as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as possible) and place the letters and symbols between two square brackets ( [ ] ). Phonetic transcriptions give us lots of information about how to physically produce sounds.

The phonetic transcription of the word scissors is [ˈsɪzəz].

The diacritic [ ‘ ] over the s shows that it is a syllabic consonant sound — meaning it’s a sound that creates a syllable on its own.

Phones vs. Phonemes

We’ve already said that phones are distinct speech sounds, so what exactly are phonemes?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of meaningful sound in a specific language. In the English language, there are 44 different phonemes (20 distinct vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds).

If you have seen transcriptions for English pronunciation before, you have likely seen phonemic transcriptions. Let’s take a look at an example:

The phonemic transcription of the word book is /bʊk/. As you can see, the word book has three distinct phonemes (b, ʊ, and k).

Whereas phones are not necessarily critical to understanding the meaning of words, phonemes are! If one phoneme is exchanged for another, it could change the word’s meaning completely. Take the words sheep and sheet, for example. The ending phonemes are different (/p/ and /t/), resulting in two completely different words!

You can tell whether transcription is phonetic or phonemic by looking at the brackets it’s encased in. Phonetic transcriptions go within square brackets ( [ ] ) and phonemic transcriptions go within slashes ( / / ).

What are allophones?

An allophone is a term used to describe the group of phones represented by a single phoneme in a particular language.

For example, In English, the phones [tʰ] (aspirated), [t] (unaspirated), and [tʃ] (affricated) are all represented by the single phoneme /t/ — this makes them all allophones for the phoneme /t/.

Look at the following words: Trick, Tack, Stack. Each word contains one of the previous allophones for phoneme /t/. Can you figure out which word has which allophone?

Answers:

  • Trick = [tʃ] (africated — T makes a ‘CH’ sound)

  • Tack = [tʰ] (aspirated — an exhalation of air after the T)

  • Stack = [t] (unaspirated)

When we transcribe phones, we use narrow transcription — meaning we include as much detail about the pronunciation as possible with the help of diacritics. In contrast, phonemic transcription is much broader and only contains the phonemes.

Phone — Key takeaways

  • A phone is any distinct speech sound and is not specific to any particular language.
  • We study phones in phonetics, the branch of linguistics that deals with the physical production and reception of sound.
  • Phones are represented by letters and symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). When creating phonetic transcriptions, we include as much detail about the pronunciation as possible and place the transcription between two square brackets. For example, the phonetic transcription of IPA is [aɪ pʰiː eɪ].
  • Changes in pronunciation, such as aspirated or unaspirated (with an exhalation of air or without), are represented by small marks called diacritics.
  • Phones are different from phonemes in that they are not language-specific and do not play an essential role in the meaning of words.

References

  1. Fig. 1. International Phonetic Association, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

English transcription

как транскрибировать английские слова

In English, like no other, there are many words whose spelling is difficult to explain. The fact is that the writing of the Angles and Saxons, who conquered Britain, did not change with the same intensity as the pronunciation during the transition from the runes to the Latin alphabet. The conquests of the Franks, Vikings and the Catholic Church had a huge impact on the development of speech.

For this reason, many lexical units in the English language are pronounced far from how they are written, and there are also words that are read differently in different contexts. For example, for a beginner to read a word fall it is almost impossible without the help of a native speaker, and the pronunciation of the verb read (in the past time read) sounds different in different contexts.

Transcription in English Is a system of special characters denoting actually pronounced sounds of speech and created in order to most accurately convey the pronunciation of words or whole phrases.

Transcription is used for the written transmission of the reference sound of English vocabulary, and its knowledge allows you to easily correctly pronounce previously unfamiliar words yourself. The need to master English transcription is also due to some discrepancies between the spelling and pronunciation of individual words that have either unreadable letters or exceptions to the rules.

Transcription Symbols

There are different classifications English sounds on the participation of the organs of speech, methods of forming obstacles to air currents, the place of pronunciation and other options for articulation. In total, modern linguists in the English language have 44 sounds, which correspond to certain transcription signs. Along with them, the following service characters are used in the English transcription:

  • square brackets denoting the transcription record itself:

pen[ pen ] — a pen

  • colon character used to express the longitude of a sound:

dark[ da: k ] — dark

  • parentheses — if it is possible to «drop out» of a certain sound:

summer [ ˈSʌmə (r) ] — summer

  • accent marks of two types — the upper one, similar to an apostrophe, and the lower one in the form of a stroke at the bottom before the syllable:

demonstration [ ˌDemənˈstreiʃn ] — demo

As well as individual characters, transcribed words are enclosed in square brackets. According to the type of stress, the transcription of words can be divided into three groups:

  • monosyllabic, where there is no need to put an accent mark:
desk [ desk ] — desk
bad [ bæd ] — bad
  • words with single stress:
public[ ˈPʌblik ] — public
entire [ inˈtaiə ] — whole, whole
  • words with double stress, one of which is called weak and the other strong:
population[ ˌPɒpjəˈleiʃn ] — population
accidental [ ˌÆksiˈdentl ] — random

In transcription, you can record whole phrases, in this case, some changes may occur in the pronunciation of words.

In the text[ in ðə text ] — In the text
Is this a pencil? [ izðisəpensl ] — This is a pencil?
teach Tim to ski [ ti: tʃ tim tə ski: ] — teach Tim how to ski

Sounds of English transcription

Our guide to English phonetics provides detailed descriptions of individual sounds with examples of their pronunciation. Here we will look at a brief explanation of the pronunciation of sounds used in English transcription.

For ease of memorization, we will distribute sounds into consonants, vowels and diphthongs (indivisible vowels, consisting of two elements that form one syllable). It is not recommended to find complete correspondences of English sounds to the transcriptional signs of the native language. Some of them are unique, others are pronounced with significant differences, and some of them are very close in pronunciation to Russian sounds.

Consonant Sounds

Vowel monophthongs

Vowel diphthongs

Thus, taking into account the above, it is safe to say that the value English transcription hard to overestimate. Without it, independent language learning is almost impossible. This system of auxiliary characters allows you to practice correct English pronunciation and greatly reduces the time for recognizing new words and mastering speech skills.

Source: https://www.native-english.ru/pronounce/english-transcription

How to make a transcription of English words, sentences and whole texts

как транскрибировать английские слова
Modern robots (programs) read English words very well

I recently added transcriptions to the 500 and 3000 common English dictionaries, spending a lot of time on it. I want to tell you exactly how I did it without spending an eternity on it. If you suddenly need to make a transcription of English words, texts, this advice will help you.

We make transcription using online dictionaries

In «Lingvo» you can not only see the transcription and meanings, but also listen to the word

When composing a transcription on a computer, and not by hand, the problem is that phonetic characters that are not on the keyboard need to be found somewhere and somehow typed.

If you need to transcribe several words, the easiest way is to find them in an online dictionary, for example, Lingvo Online, and copy / paste the transcription from there. It is much faster and easier than searching for symbols in a text editor or copying them from somewhere one by one.

But difficulties arise when there are tens, hundreds or even thousands of such words, as it was in my case. You can’t do without a special program.

Lingorado — transcription of English words and texts in a few clicks

There are quite a few online tools where you can copy English words, click OK and get the transcription, I’ve tried a few and my favorite is lingorado.com.

It works like this:

  • Add words or text to the window (there is only one).
  • Select transcription settings such as British or American, output only transcription or text with transcription, etc.
  • Click the Show Transcription button.
  • You can also listen to the pronunciation of the text (the robot reads well).

Depending on the selected settings, the program will issue a transcription, text + transcription, or even “transcription in Russian letters” (may name from Vitya).

But these are all small things, what I liked the most about this program is that it can cope with the main difficulty of transcribing: in English, the same spelling word can be pronounced differently, its meaning depends on it.

For example, the word progress can be read with stress on the first syllable [ˈPrəʊgrəs], and maybe with an emphasis on the last [prəʊˈgrɛs]… In the first case it is the noun «progress», in the second — the verb «to progress». Word wind can be pronounced like [wɪnd] — the wind, or maybe how [waɪnd] — twist. And there are quite a few such nuances.

Most sites that convert text into transcription ignore these nuances. That is, if you hammer in the words progress and wind, they are transcribed in one way, and you will not even know that there is another option. Lingorado has taken this nuance into account. If there are words with different pronunciation options, their transcription will be highlighted in blue.

The word «progress» can be pronounced in two ways — and they will be two different words.

Hovering over the blue word, you will see a hint where it will be written, what are the options for its pronunciation and how they differ. If you click on the blue word, the transcription will change to another version.

Words can also be highlighted in red — this means that the given word is absent in the dictionary base of the program. Here you will have to look for it manually in the online dictionary, but from my own experience I will say that this rarely happens.

The only drawback I see is that the parentheses in the transcription are either added to each word, or not added at all. That is, the phrase “be afraid of” is transcribed either like this:

biː əˈfreɪd ɒv

either like this:

[biː] [əˈfreɪd] [ɒv]

And if you need it like this:

[biː əˈfreɪd ɒv]

will have to dig deeper manually, removing unnecessary parentheses.

How to quickly watch the transcription of English words in the browser

In conclusion, I will give one more little advice. If you often read English in a browser, the easiest way to see the transcription and translation of an unfamiliar word is with a dedicated translator plugin. My favorite is “LeoTranslator” (works with Chrome browser).

It works like this:

  • We click on the word with the mouse.
  • A window appears with translation, transcription and pronunciation.
  • Words can be added to the personal vocabulary layer to repeat later.

Click on the picture to learn more about the plugin

The LeoTranslator plugin works in conjunction with the Lingualeo service. Words saved with it are saved in your Lingualeo account (if you have one, of course).

Source: https://langformula.ru/transkripciya-anglijskih-slov/

Russian mistakes in English: pronunciation of consonants — OTUK

как транскрибировать английские слова

Some problems can arise with the use of other consonants, for example, [h] and [dʒ]. Read more about the difficulties with the pronunciation of consonants in this article.

In the English alphabet, there are 21 consonant letters, while the number of consonant sounds is 24. The fact is that some sounds are formed as a result of using a certain sequence of letters. So, the sound [ŋ] appears, as a rule, in words where there is a combination of ng (sing, wing).

How do consonants come about?

Since school times, we know that consonants are formed with the help of any «obstacles», in contrast to vowels, which are obtained as a result of voice work. The pronunciation of consonants involves various components of the articulatory apparatus. For example, to pronounce the Russian sound [p], you need to rest the tip of your tongue against the base of your upper teeth and create vibration. Lips, tongue, palate can participate in the articulation of consonants.

Russian mistakes in English pronunciation are due to the fact that the speech apparatus of Russian-speaking people from childhood adapts to produce sounds in a certain way, and when learning a foreign language, it hardly adjusts to new norms.

Russian mistakes: English consonants

Let’s look at specific examples of incorrect pronunciation:

  • Interdental [θ] and [ð] cause the greatest difficulties, since they are completely not characteristic of the Russian phonetic system. Very often they are replaced by the Russian sounds [s] and [z], [f] and [v]. You’ve probably heard it in the words that, the, weather, thin, etc.
  • Nosovoy [ŋ] also has no analogues in Russian and therefore is often replaced in speech by [n] or [g], for example, in the words wing, ring.
  • Russian-speaking people do not always distinguish between the sounds [w] and [v] in their speech, which leads to confusion between west and vest, while and vile.
  • According to the rules of Russian phonetics, consonants are voiced if they stand in front of vowels and in some other positions. Errors in English occur when Russian-speaking people pronounce voiced [b], [d], [g] as voiceless [p], [t], [k], for example, in the words pig, big, sad.
  • Sounds similar to English [p], [k] and [t] in Russian sound without aspiration. Therefore, Russian speakers pronounce them incorrectly at the beginning of English words, which leads to misunderstandings. Often come is pronounced almost like gum, pit like bit.
  • The sound [h] can be replaced by a rougher and more distinct [x], for example, in horror, home, etc.
  • When playing the sounds [t], [d], [l], [n], Russians often touch their upper teeth with the tip of their tongue, trying to give their pronunciation an “English accent”. As a result, speech errors occur.
  • Russian speakers tend to soften most English consonants before the vowel sounds [i:], [i], [e], [ei], [iə]. This can be seen in words like tea, where [t] starts to sound almost like [ts], deed, where [d] looks more like [dz], etc.
  • In English speech, there are two sounds corresponding to the letter l: light l [l] (, leaf, black) and dark l [ɫ] (pool, milk, full). A typical Russian mistake is to pronounce both sounds the same as [l]. You can feel the difference in the sounding speech of the native speaker, however, for Russian-speaking students, the problem is also that most dictionaries and reference books also do not provide different characters for transcribing dark l.
  • The sound [∫] is often harder pronounced, especially before vowels and at the end of words.
  • The sound [t∫], in turn, is pronounced softer than it should sound in English. It is more reminiscent of the always soft Russian [h] (chase, check, etc.).
  • In Russian phonetics there is no sound [dʒ], but there are separate [d] and [g]. The sound [dʒ] in Russian speech appears only in words borrowed from English and some other languages: jeans, John, etc. Pronunciation of this sound as two different ones, without the confusion inherent in them in English speech, becomes a mistake.
  • The Russian analogue [j] is pronounced with much more noise, which leads to phonetic inaccuracies in words such as young, joy, etc.
  • The letter r is often, especially at the beginning of learning English, pronounced as [r] at the end of the words doctor, enterpreneur, etc., which is a gross Russian mistake.

Consonant combinations

  • Combinations [θ] + [s], [ð] + [z], [s] + [ð] cause difficulties even for advanced learners. Often these combinations are replaced by [ts] and [z] (clothes, months, sixth).
  • Problems also appear when pronouncing [t], [d], [s], [z] before [j], as in the words situation, education, where Russians ignore the phenomenon of «addition» of neighboring sounds.
  • When pronouncing a combination of two explosive sounds, such as [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g], Russians make a serious phonetic error in English speech. Many people utter the first sound with an explosion, while the second is lost a little (asked, lobbed).
  • Russian-speaking people tend to insert a neutral [ə] between consonants in the combinations [tl], [dl], [tn], [dn]. For example, in the words little [‘lit əl], button, modern.
  • Combinations of sounds at the beginning of words [tw], [tr], [pr], [dr], [br] also cause Russian mistakes in English. Russian-speaking people often pronounce them as two separate sounds, sometimes inserting [ə] between them, instead of producing a single sound. You can see this in words like tree, where the start [tr] should look like the start sound in chair, or in dry, here [dr] should sound like [dʒ], and so on.

Read also

Source: https://onlineteachersuk.com/ru/russkie-oshibki-v-anglijskom-proiznoshenie-soglasnih/

We translate English text into transcription

You can immediately get a transcription of your English text here.

Recently I needed a transcription of not a single word, but a complete text. This is about the poem «The Chaos», which I wrote about earlier. Trying to read it without transcription is a dead number. Even native speakers of English are not overwhelmed by this or that word.

I’ve watched a dozen videos, and each has at least one word incorrectly pronounced. By the way, adult educated Englishmen confessed to me that it is a common thing for them to see a new word and do not know how to pronounce it.

What can we say about us studying.

Automatic online transcription

The benefits of parsing the entire poem with transcription are obvious — you may not remember all the readings, but you will get an idea of ​​all the diversity. With this in mind, I went to the Internet, looking for an online service that would help me quickly transcribe all the text. It turned out to be not so easy, since there are many transcription systems, and we need the IPA we are used to.

Or some services process the entire text, but give out a transcription of the American pronunciation, but I would like to see the British one. And the machine translation of a text into transcription itself is quite difficult, since the pronunciation of a word can change depending on the context and adjacent words. For example, «read» can read both [riːd] and [red].

Or the «r» at the end of a word will only sound if it is followed by a vowel (in British English). Well, and so on.

(Added on 25.03.2013/XNUMX/XNUMX: Since this article was published, this site has its own transcriptor of the English text, which is in many ways more convenient than the service, which is discussed below.)

I ended up stumbling across a website like this: photransedit.com/Online/Text2Phonetics.aspx. True, it only allows you to translate up to 300 characters at a time. But otherwise, he copes with the task.

To get what we usually see in our dictionaries, I turned off the «Syllabic Consonants» and «Intrusive / r /» checkboxes in the settings. The pronunciation that most textbooks in our country are guided by is Received Pronunciation (RP), a kind of British standard. We leave him. However, the site can also show you the American version if that’s what you are targeting or want to compare both pronunciations with each other.

Pronunciation of words in a weak and shock position

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw the result of the transcription was the unusual representation of service verbs, pronouns, etc.:

“You” and “your” look like [ju] and [jə]. “Does” look like [dəz], “has” like [həz], and “will” like [wəl]. “But” — [bət] , “As” — [əz], “and” — [ənd], “just” — [dʒəst].

And «is» and «are» are transformed in places into [z] and [ə].

The site follows the following rule here, which, with reservations, corresponds to English colloquial speech: a word is in the stressed position — and accordingly pronounced without reduction — if it is not a pronoun and at the same time is at the end of the phrase. For example,

I found some. => [aɪ faʊnd sʌm]
I found some coins. => [aɪ faʊnd səm kɔɪnz]

Pronunciation of the words «the», «to» and «is» usually follows its own rules.

  • “The” sounds like [ðə] before consonants (the boy, the house) and [ði] before vowels (the egg, the hour).
  • «To» sounds [tə] before consonants and [tu] before vowels.
  • «Is» sounds [ɪz] after words ending in [s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ], [ʧ], [ʤ]. The weak form [s] is used after words ending in [p], [t], [k], [f], [θ], and the form [z] is used after words ending in a vowel or sounds [b], [d] , [g], [v], [ð], [m], [n], [ŋ], [l], and in American English also [r].

As you can see, this is just a natural process of facilitating pronunciation, like our stunning-voicing of consonants. Therefore, I would not begin to memorize these «rules» in order to specifically speak in accordance with them. Where it is helpful to have an idea of ​​them is when communicating with native speakers, then the number of surprises and listening difficulties caused by «incorrect» pronunciation will not be so discouraging.

It is clear that the stressed or weak form is determined by the semantic stress, intonation and context, so the computer does not always succeed in choosing the right form. For example, I had to correct the pronunciation of the word «some» in the poem «The Chaos» for a percussive one, since it is part of the enumeration here. And the word «does» occurs in both versions. I also took the liberty of correcting «is» here and there for the full form, because otherwise the size of the verse would break.

The complete phonetic transcription of the poem can be seen alongside the original text on the updated English reading rules page.

Source: http://lingorado.com/english-text-phonetic-transcription/

Phonetic exercises for transcription of English words for children

The English alphabet has 26 letters, but there are twice as many sounds. A letter can have two or more sounds at the same time. But there is no need to be afraid of this — a list of exercises for transcription of English words for children will help to remember how to read and pronounce certain words correctly. In order to fulfill them, each student in English classes has a separate notebook, divided into three such columns:

  1. «Word»
  2. «Transcription»
  3. «Translation».

New words are entered into it to be learned later.

What is transcription?

Transcription should be understood as certain instructions on how to correctly read a word. Most often it is enclosed in square brackets. For example, book is [‘buk]. One symbol represents one sound.

The characters in the transcription may differ from the letters of the alphabet, the number may also be different. Remembering these rules, as well as understanding the transcription, is difficult for children at first.

Our specialists understand this and in their work use non-standard methods of presenting the material, one of which is given below.

«Association» is the best transcription exercise

In learning something new, the method of association is best of all. Here are some examples of how you can relate sounds from transcriptions to objects that children are familiar with.

  • ʊ — short [y] (resembles a horseshoe)
  • æ — wide [e] — open our mouth and say «e» (the symbol resembles a crawling bug)
  • ŋ — [ny] — you need to read «in the nose» (as we often talk when we have a runny nose)
  • ð — interdental [h]
  • θ — interdental [s]

To learn these sounds, you can read a small fairy tale: “Once upon a time there was a little rabbit (tongue) who was afraid of everything, so he always sat in a house (in his mouth). But one day he decided to show the tip of his nose from the house (we stick the tip of the tongue between the teeth). First he uttered a quiet [θ], and then a sonorous [ð]. » The pronunciation rules are as follows:

  • s, d, n, t — [s], [d], [n], [t] — when pronouncing the tongue touches the upper palate (closer to the row of teeth)
  • ɜ — medium-length [e] — pronounced like ё (remember the word «ice»).

Writing exercises for transcription of English words for children

The list of English transcription exercises for children provided to our students allows them to easily navigate the above rules and hone their correct pronunciation.

Exercise No. 1

Write a transcription of the vowel sounds of the following words:

  • be, feel, we, me, see, meet
  • it, is, in, ill, sit, fill, live
  • bed, pen, ten, tell
  • tie, lie, my, pie, die, life
  • man, bad, hat, lamp, fat, cat
  • day, late, tale, main, rain
  • park, mark, arm, are
  • air, chair, care, fair
  • there, where
  • here, near, mere
  • hire, fire, tire, buyer, flyer
  • our, flour, power, flower, down, town
  • her, term, bird, turn, learn
  • story, warm, door, taught, talk

Exercise No. 2

Write a transcription of the consonants of the following words:

  • think, thing, thin, thought, death, threat
  • sing, song, bang, long, something, going, hung, wrong
  • this, that, those, the, these, there, other, another
  • ship, shop, she, clash, sharp, shine, shame, shape
  • chess, chop, chamber, charm, charity, future
  • phone, photo, phenomenon, phantom, pharos, phase
  • knife, know, knock, knit, knight, knee, knack
  • what, where, when, wheel, whiff, whip, whim.

Exercise No. 3

In the Russian language there are no unambiguous analogs of the English sounds [ð] and [θ], which is why students have difficulty in their pronunciation (for which it is necessary to stick out the tongue a little), due to a certain constraint. To remove this fear, learn a cute rhyme about kittens.

Source: https://englishgood.ru/uprazhneniya-na-transkripciyu-anglijskih-slov-dlya-detej/

Transcription of English words and pronunciation of sounds

Download this online tutorial in PDF

Surely, starting your acquaintance with the English language, you noticed that this language has a significant difference between the way a word is written and pronounced. Unlike our Slavic languages, in English, words are rarely read in the same way as they are written. That is why learning English includes acquaintance with the phonetics of speech.

Phonetics includes a special recording of the sound image of a word, better known as transcription… If you want to know how one or another English word is read correctly, then always pay attention to the transcription. Knowing the signs of the transcription is like the key to the chest. I would like to know the contents — look for the key. Without a key, you cannot find the way to the correct pronunciation of this or that word.

Transcriptions of English words are enclosed in square brackets. Sounds are always written in printed type, separately and without tilting. Transcription sounds are divided into vowels, consonants, diphthongs and monophthongs. And now, in order.

Vowel sounds: monophthongs

They are divided into short and long. The length of a vowel sound is indicated by a colon. Monophthongs — these are vowel sounds that do not split into several vowels.

designation Pronunciation (in Russian)
[a:] Long a (poppy)
[æ] Open sound e; the mouth is wide open
[i:] Long and (world)
[I] Brief and
[e] Open uh (this one)
[ɔ] Brief about
[ɔ:] Long o
[ə:] Between o and e, reminds yo
[ə] Unstressed, reminiscent of uh (needed)
[ʌ] Unstressed a (cook, scold)
[h] Reminiscent of the sound ё in the word «honey» (softer than ё)
[at] Short y
[u:] Long y

Vowel diphthongs and triphthongs

Diphthongs Are two-syllable sounds. Triftongs Are three-syllable sounds.

[ju:] ю
[ei] Hey
[ɑi] ouch
[ɑu] ay
[ɔi] ой
[ɔu] OU
[iə] ue
[ɛə] ea
[uə] ue
[juə] yue
[ɑiə] Triftong aye
[ɑuə] Triftong aue

Consonant Sounds

Consonant sounds in English are differentiated into voiced and voiceless. Only in English deaf sounds are pronounced more clearly and abruptly than in Russian. Also, in English, voiced sounds are not stunned if they are at the end of a word.

[ð] Voiced z (tip of the tongue between the teeth)
[θ] Deaf with (tip of tongue between teeth)
[ʧ] ч
[ʤ] j
[ʒ] ж
[ʃ] ш
[ŋ] n (the center of the tongue is raised to the upper palate)
[j] й
[w] Between y and b (lips rounded)
[p] п
[b] б
[m] м
[f] ф
[v] «in»
[s] с
[z] з
[t] т
[d] д
[n] н
[l] л
[r] p (fuzzy sound, more like French p)
[k] к
[g] г
[h] х

Some consonants have double readings. In other words, the symbiosis of several consonants sounds like one consonant sound, and six vowel letters convey twenty vowel sounds. It depends on whether the vowel is stressed or unstressed, as well as on the syllable whether it is open or closed.

Three main rules of pronunciation of English words

  1. The meaning of the word directly depends on whether it is a short or long vowel sound. For example, [ʃip] is a ship and [ʃi: p] is a sheep.
  2. In English, consonants are not stunned if they are at the end of a word, as this can change the meaning of the word.

    For example, the word [bæg] is a portfolio, and [bæk] is a back, back.

  3. The vowel «e» at the end of a word is not pronounced if it comes after a consonant. In addition, the reading of this vowel depends on its location in the word and the type of syllable.

Features of English pronunciation

During transcription of a sentence, some words can be reduced or pronounced differently, for example, «the» is sometimes pronounced not «ze», but «zi». This happens if the next word after the article «the» begins with a vowel. The same applies to the preposition «of». It is mostly pronounced «of», but sometimes it can be read «ev» if it comes before a vowel.

Thanks to the Internet, a special program «transcription of English words online translation and pronunciation» has appeared. Thanks to this program, you can translate not only a printed word, but also its transcription. You can also hear the word you want to pronounce.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of exceptions to the pronunciation rules in English, which often reduces their study to cramming. Watch the video as the announcer reads a poem by a famous linguist Gerard Nolst Trenitéwhich has collected many exceptions in one poem «The Chaos»:

Source: http://englishgu.ru/transkriptsiya-angliyskih-slov/

Pronunciation and transcription of English words: online translator

Mike American English 20 words
Lela American English 10 words
Jeevin American English 3 words
Andrew British English 8 words

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English transcriptions will help you improve your pronunciation

Mastering pronunciation of english words can be challenging for many people starting to learn English.

As you should be aware, there are no strict reading rules in English — one and the same english letter (or a combination of letters) can be pronounced differently in different words.

What’s more, the same English word is often pronounced differently by native English speakers from different countries and even from the same country! Because of this pronunciation of English words and listening comprehension of spoken language can be difficult for many beginners to learn English.

With the help of this online translator you can get phonetic transcription of English wordswritten by symbols International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

This translator of words into transcription will save you time, because you don’t have to look up the pronunciation of English words in a dictionary. When used regularly alongside educational audio and video materials phonetic transcription will help you improve pronunciation and listening skills in English.

Homographs (words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently) will be highlighted in light green. If you hover your mouse over such a word or touch it on your mobile device, you will see all possible pronunciations. Often you can also see which part of speech a given word belongs to.

Variants of pronunciation (in cases where a word is pronounced differently by different native speakers or when pronunciation changes in rapid speech) are highlighted in light blue. You can also hover your mouse over a given word to see all possible options.

The translator supports both dialects of English and works on the basis of two dictionaries:

  1. Dictionary of Transcriptions of English Words (British English)compiled from various sources. Contains over 110 words. Homographs (over a thousand words) and pronunciations (over four thousand words) are fully supported in this dictionary.
  2. Dictionary of Transcriptions of English Words (American English)compiled from various sources. Contains over 140 word forms. Homographs (000 words) and pronunciations (over 300 words) are also supported.

Highlighting frequently occurring English words

A special option allows you highlight the most common words of the English language with different colors… To do this, you can choose one of two lists:

  • frequency word listderived from corpus of modern American English,
  • frequency word listbased on movie subtitles.

Depending on the frequency rating, words will be highlighted in the following colors:

1-1000 1001-2000 2001-3000 3001-4000 4001-5000

If you want to carry out a detailed analysis of your text and see detailed statistics, you can use online tool for frequency analysis of English text.

English explanatory dictionary

The translator has a built-in English dictionary WordNet. To see the definition of a word in English, send the text to the site and click on any word in the translation results. The dictionary works only in the mode «Display transcription above each word» (it is installed by default).

You can also create your own vocabulary dictionary. To do this, select unfamiliar words by clicking on them with the mouse. After that click on the orange button «Create a vocabulary dictionary»… In the next step, you need to choose appropriate word meanings and transcriptions in the context. After that, you can export your dictionary to a file (Word, Excel, PDF, HTML).

You might be interested in phonetic english subtitle converter… With it, you can get the following output:

Alphabetical list of all words with audio or video recordings

abcdefghijklmnopqrstu vwxyz

To access all audio and video recordings, you need to subscribe!

Subscription on the site

Source: https://easypronunciation.com/ru/english-phonetic-transcription-converter

Table and rules for the pronunciation of consonants and vowels of English letters

By Natalia Mar 6, 2019

The sounds that English letters represent are 44 English phonemes, which are divided into two categories: consonants and vowels. Since sounds cannot be recorded, graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) are used to convey sounds in writing.

English alphabet

There are 26 letters in English. The standard English alphabet starts with a and ends with z.

When classifying alphabetic characters, the following are distinguished:

  • 5 pure vowels: a, e, i, o, u;
  • 19 pure consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z;
  • 2 semi-vowels: y, w.

Learning the English alphabet requires knowledge of both the symbol representing each letter and the phonetic sounds associated with that letter. Learning English phonetics is difficult. Only a small number of letters have no exceptions in the basic sound.

In most cases, each letter has multiple phonemes. The letter B sometimes sounds like bat (bat) or does not sound, for example, in the words crumb (kram), dumb (dam). The letter C sounds like «k» for cat (cat) or «c» for ceiling (si: ling), or «pm» for church (tch: pm). And the list of exceptions is endless.

Vowel sounds

Vowels represent the main category of phonemes in English speech. There are 20 vowel sounds in spoken English. This discrepancy (in relation to alphabetic characters) underlies the difficulty of writing in English.

Short Long Diphthongs
a [æ] A (ā) [eı] [eɪ]
e [ɛ] E (ē) [i:] [aɪ]
i [ɪ] I (ī) [aı] [ɔɪ]
o [ɒ] O(ō) [ou] [ɪə]
u [ʌ] U (ū) [ju:] [eə]
[ʊə]
[əʊ]
[aʊ]

For short and long vowels, additional vowel sounds are used. For sounds a and e — when the vowel accompanies the sound r. For o, the options are varied.

Transcription and stress

Phonetic transcriptions tell about the pronunciation of words. In English dictionaries, this is a necessary condition, since the spelling does not say how the word is pronounced.

Phonetic transcriptions are written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each English sound is assigned its own symbol. For example, the IPA-based phonetic transcription of the word home is / hoʊm /, the transcription come is / kʌm /, although the spelling of the words is similar (both ends in -ome), but transcribed with differences.

Vowels Consonants
ʌ b
ɑ: d
æ f
e g
ə h
ɜ: ʳ j
ɪ k
i: l
ɒ m
ɔ: n
ʊ ŋ
u: p
r
s
ʃ
t
ɔɪ
eəʳ θ
ɪəʳ ð
ʊəʳ v
w
z
ʒ

The rules do not fully cover aspects of stress in English words. The language is characterized by the presence of exceptions, and the English themselves are mistaken, especially in polysyllabic words.

But, obviously, some basic rules still apply:

  1. In 80% of two-syllable nouns and adjectives, the stress falls on the first syllable: PURple, PREsent, CARton, TABle, CLEver, CHIna.
  2. In most verbs and two-syllable prepositions, the stress falls on the second syllable: reLAX, beCIN, deCIde, betWEen.
  3. In English, there are many two-syllable words of the same spelling that will refer to nouns or verbs, depending on whether the stress falls on the first or second syllable. For example, PREsent as a noun, but if the second syllable preSENT is underlined, it becomes a verb, or OBject and obJECT.
  4. The accent falls on the syllable before the suffix if the «ending» begins with the letters i or u: -ion, -ual, -uous, -ial, -ient, -ious, -ior, -ic, -ity, and so on. Examples: sufFICient, explaNAtion, residual, geoGRAPhic. The exceptions are -ist, -ism, -ize, and -ing.
  5. Other suffixes do not affect the stress in the word: -al, -ous, -ly, -er, -ed, -ist, -ing, -ism, etc. The stress falls on the first syllable. ORderly, Silently
  6. Words ending in consonants or y are stressed on the first syllable: RARity, OPtimal.

Prefixes in two-syllable words are not stressed, except in some nouns or adjectives. Two-syllable nouns starting with a prefix are studied individually.

English consonants

There are fewer consonants in the English alphabet than consonants. Therefore, to expand the alphabet, digraphs are used like «Ch», «sh», «th» and «zh», and some letters and digraphs represent more than just one consonant. For example, the sound written “th” in this is transcribed as / ð /, and “th” in thin is / θ /.

English consonants are classified according to their combination of functions:

  1. Articulation method (how air comes out of the vocal tract).
  2. Place of education (which organs are involved).
  3. Phonation (how vocal chords vibrate).
  4. The time of the beginning of the sound (time of formation of sounds), aspiration is part of the function.
  5. Air flow mechanism (how air moves along the vocal tract).
  6. Length (how long consonant obstruction lasts) — a feature of the English language, for example, wholly / hoʊlli / and holy / hoʊli /.
  7. Articulating force.

In addition, there is a function «Dull alveolar stop», / t / when the airflow mechanism is down.

According to the method of formation, consonants are divided into:

  1. Approximants: j, w, r.
  2. Nine fricative consonants: f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h.
  3. Lateral approximant: l.
  4. Two affricative sounds: tʃ and dʒ.
  5. Six explosive sounds: p, b, t, d, k, g.
  6. Nasal consonants: m, n, ŋ.

Sound — [x] — voiceless fricative — non-standard for English. Although in some original words, such as ugh (ugh!), It is an additional marker of irritation. In writing, the fricative is represented as «gh».

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Features of English consonants

A consonant combination is a set of two or three consonant letters that, when pronounced, retain the original sound. Such sets occur either at the beginning or at the end of a word. For example, the word brave, where both «b» and «r» are pronounced, is an initial combination. In the word bank «-nk» is the final combination.

Classification:

  1. Initial combinations are classified into sets with «l», «r», and «s». In «l», the combination ends in «l». An example would be the letters «bl» in blind. Likewise, the final sound in «r» combined with «r» when «br» and «cr», for example, in the words bridge, crane. In contrast, «s» starts with s, «st» and «sn» — stap, snail.
  2. The final combinations are grouped into sets with «s», «l» and «n»: -st, -sk, -ld, -nd, -nk. Examples, first, desk, gold, sand, sink.

Digraphs

Consonant digraphs refer to a set of consonants that form one sound. Some digraphs are found both at the beginning and at the end of a word — «sh», «ch» and «th». There are also strict initial and final digraphs — «kn-» and «-ck».

Examples of digraphs:

Ch- — ch
Kn- — ck
Ph- -sh
Sh- -ss
Th- -th
wh- -tch
Wr-

Features of digraphs:

  1. In some cases, consonants become unpronounceable:

Source: https://eng911.ru/words/transcription/zvuki.html

Do I need to learn English transcription?

Do you want to know if you need to learn English transcription? Then check out our article, it will tell you what transcription is used for and whether you need to learn it.

Is it worth learning English transcription? If before everyone polls started learning a language by learning transcription, now some beginners consider it a waste of time. Yes, with the advent of online dictionaries that pronounce a word in the voice of a native speaker, it has become much easier for us to live: we do not need to read the squiggles in square brackets.

It is enough to enter a word into an online dictionary, listen to its sound, repeat several times after a native speaker, and you’re done. It is a convenient and modern way to learn a language. Its advantage is that you do not need to spend time learning transcription.

At the moment, more and more often, teachers save the time and nerves of students and do not force them to learn the signs of transcription.

At the same time, we would like to tell you why to learn transcription of English, how it can help you in the process of mastering the language.

1. By studying transcription, you learn the rules of reading English

Studying the first couple of hundred words, reading the transcription, you will establish logical connections, identify patterns in the English language. Thus, you will quickly remember that, for example, the combination “ck” reads like “k”. You will not need to constantly check the dictionary. Gradually, you will stop thinking about how to pronounce this or that word, and will begin to do it automatically.

Where can I get the transcription of a word? Any regular dictionary or online dictionary like Macmillan. Some opponents of learning transcription say that similarly, reading rules are remembered if you just listen to the sound of a word, and not watch its transcription.

However, when reading the transcription of a word, you use visual memory, and in most people it is much better developed than auditory, so reading rules will be remembered faster.

2. Online dictionaries are not always convenient

Even at the Beginner level, students begin to read the first simple texts in English. By reading aloud, you improve not only your reading skill, but also your pronunciation.

If you do not read from an electronic device, but in a book, then it is not very convenient to search and listen to every word in an online dictionary.

In books with adapted English texts, a dictionary is always provided, so you will not have to waste time looking for an unfamiliar word in online sources, you can learn how to pronounce a word without interrupting your reading.

3. Correct transcription teaches us good pronunciation

Don’t have perfect hearing? Learn the transcription of English. Of course, the letters in square brackets alone will not teach us how to speak. But provided that you learn new words by reading the English transcription, mastering the English accent will become much easier than reading the “transcription for the lazy” — Russian letters.

And all because Russian letters cannot accurately convey all the sounds of the English language. If you are taking your first steps in English, you do not have a very good ear for music, it may be difficult for you to recognize all sounds correctly by ear in the online dictionary.

In this case, it is worth spending a couple of days studying transcription and using it when you need to learn how to pronounce a word.

1. Phonetic — accurate recording of the sound of a word

Phonetic transcription is written in square brackets, you can see it in any dictionary. Example: night — [naɪt]. This type of transcription is the most correct one, it is with it that experienced English teachers advise to work. It will take you only 3-4 days to study it, but the positive effect will be felt throughout the entire period of learning English.

2. Phonemic — notation of phonemes

Phonemic transcription is used when you need to show the structure of a word, and not how it sounds. Example: night — / nayt /. The average student of English does not need to use this type of notation: phonemic transcription does not convey the sound of a word.

3. Russian-speaking — English in Russian letters

Recently, the authors of some textbooks on «easy» / «for fools» / «for dummies» learning English have been using Russian transcription, that is, they write English words in Russian letters. They see it as a simplified option that will help a person learn English quickly and easily.

BUT such a transcription cannot convey the exact sound of the word, because in the Russian language there are no letters that could convey some English sounds. For example, the word «winter» — / screw /. How to read it? Only by opening the English transcription, it becomes clear that the sound is w, not v.

As you can see, the Russian transcription is easy to use, but it often becomes the culprit for the accent.

Several rules for reading English transcriptions for beginners

  1. The stress in the transcription is always put BEFORE the stressed syllable: development — [dɪˈveləpmənt].
  2. A long vowel sound in transcription is indicated by a colon: tea — [tiː].
  3. In the transcription of the English language there are vowels (i, e, u, ʌ, i :, u :, ε :) and consonants (p, t, d, n, k, l, etc.) sounds, as well as diphthongs — two vowels connected in one syllable (əu, ai, ei, oi, au).
  4. For more details on the transcription of the English language and the rules of reading, see the article «Transcription of the English language».

LetterTranscriptionPronunciation

Aa [ei] Hey
Bb [bi:] би
Cc [Yes:] yours
Dd [gave:] ди
Ee [i:] и
Ff [ff] eff
Gg [dʒi:] Ji
Hh [eitʃ] heych
Ii [ai] ouch
Jj [dʒei] jay
Kk [kei] kay
Ll [he] el
Mm [em] Em
Nn [en] en
Oo [Where] OU
Pp [pi] пи
Qq [kju:] q
Rr [a:] ар
Ss [it] es
Tt [you:] you
Uu [ju:] ю
Vv [vi:] in and
Ww

Source: https://englex.ru/is-it-worth-learning-transcription/

English Speech to Text Conversion: Prices for English Speech to Text Conversion Services

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Often, leading companies meeting with their foreign partners or investors record many conversations or information texts using recording devices. This information is further subjected to careful processing, including speech recognition and its further conversion into text format. This procedure is called transcription, and is carried out by professionals who speak foreign languages, in particular English.

High-quality conversion of English speech into text by specialized companies is often quite time consuming and is carried out at inflated prices. Therefore, it is a wise decision for many employers, publishers, international business companies or individuals to order the services of a specialist who can convert English speech into text.

Where can I convert English speech to text format?

Today, the need to translate English speech into text is not a problem. This can be done with:

  • various programs on the Internet that allow you to translate English speech into text;
  • special companies for transcribing audio and video files;
  • freelancers — individuals who remotely provide voice-to-text conversion services.

There are some sites that allow you to quickly convert your voice recording to text format:

  • zamzar.com — a site for converting voice to text; convenient for working with speech in Russian and English;
  • seclub.org — voice recognition and converting it to text;
  • and other similar sites offering professional conversion of the recording.

In addition to these resources, you can use the YouDo service and remotely find an experienced freelancer, and then order his services one-time or for long-term cooperation. All performers of the server guarantee you high quality work performance, as well as decryption of the text within the time frame you set.

Benefits of the YouDo service

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Go through the simple registration process and then start looking for freelancers. Submit a request «transcribed English speech to text», indicate a satisfactory price taking into account modern prices, and then wait for professional freelancers to respond to your order. The rating system on the server allows each customer to hire the most experienced performer to transcribe the English speech.

Keep in mind that too low prices can attract unscrupulous performers.

Leave applications online or call the specified phones, talk over the acceptable cost of this or that work and expect high-quality execution of your order as soon as possible.

Source: https://freelance.youdo.com/kontent/transcription/voice/ct/angliyskaya/

Learning English Sounds — Pronunciation Chart

Phonetics is the section that studies sounds. Its main goal is to teach you how to pronounce English sounds and words correctly, as well as to develop your ability to comprehend the speech of native speakers. Therefore, in order to learn how to speak and read English correctly, you need to know the English alphabet and learn the pronunciation of individual phonemes and words in which they are used.

English phonetics

The English language is built on the Latin alphabet, has only 26 letters (instead of the usual 33), but almost twice as many sounds are superimposed on these familiar letters, namely 46 different phonemes. English sounds are very important for learners of this language, so you need to understand how they are used in speech and why.

As mentioned above, the hallmark of the English language is a huge number of sounds that do not correspond to the number of letters available. That is, one letter can convey several phonemes, depending on the letters that are next to each other. Based on this, it is necessary to speak very carefully and accurately. Misuse of a particular sound leads to misunderstandings.

For example, the word “bed” and the word “bad” are pronounced and spelled almost the same, so it is easy to get confused. At this stage of learning English, many begin to transcribe pronunciation in Russian in order to facilitate the memorization process.

However, this «relief» is very misleading, as it often leads to even more confusion between words with similar pronunciation. After all, both words «bed» and «bad» in Russian can be transcribed exclusively as «bad», without reflecting the duality of sound. Therefore, it is better to learn sounds in isolation.

How to learn English sounds correctly?

Learning the phonetics of the English language will undoubtedly bring some clarity to the pronunciation and mastering of all phrases and words that will come across on your way during training.

First of all, you should create a dictionary in which you will designate all sounds in traditional transcription, and after that, next to them — their version of the sound in your native language.
It is also worth pointing out special cases of pronunciation, indicating that this word needs to be pronounced in a special way or written down, which is impossible to bring an analogy to the Russian sound.

London — London

For convenience, phonemes are best divided into groups. For example, consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs. You also need to constantly practice and perform exercises of this type:

The main city of Great Britain is London. London — [‘lʌndən]— 6 letters, 6 sounds. Let’s find it on the map of England. Where is it? Then, we will clarify with our friend: How do you write it? How do you spell it? Spell this name for us:

[el] [ou] [en] [di:] [ou] [en] — London — [Landen]

Thus, you will practice not only the pronunciation of sounds, but also learn useful words and phrases in a foreign language.

And now let’s move on directly to their writing and pronunciation.

Sounds of English

Let’s get acquainted with a brief description of all sounds using this table

Sound Pronunciation
Vowels
[I] short [and] as in «outsideи»
[e] similar to [e] — «wеst «
[ɒ] short [o] — «inоt
[ʊ] short, close to [y]
[ʌ] similar to Russian [a]
[ə] unstressed, close to [uh]
[i:] looks like a long [and]
[ɑ:] deep and long [a] — «gаlka «
[ə:] = [ɜ:] long [yo] in «svёkla «
[u:] long [y] like “bуlka «
[ᴐ:] deep and long [o] — «dоlgo «
[æ] Russian [e]
Diftogi (two tones)
[eı] [hey] — same
[ʊə] [ue] — poor
[əʊ] [oh] — tone
[ᴐı] [oops] — join
[aı] [ay] — kite
[eə] [uh] — hair
[ıə] [ie] — fear
Triftongs (three tones)
[aʊə] [aue] — power
[juə] [yue] — European
[aɪə]  [а́е] — fire
Consonants
[B] Russian [b]
[v] analogue [in]
[j] weak Russian [th]
[D] how [d]
[w] short [y]
[k] [to] aspirated
[ɡ] how [r]
[z] how [h]
[ʤ] [d] and [w] together
[ʒ] how [w]
[l] soft [l]
[m] as M]
[n] like [n]
[ŋ] [n] «in the nose»
[p] [n] aspirated
[r] weak [p]
[t] [t] aspirated
[f] like [f]
[H] just exhale
[ʧ] how [h]
[ʃ] middle between [w] and [w]
[s] how [c]
[ð] voiced [θ] with voice
[θ] tip of tongue between upper and lower teeth, no voice

Notes:

  • Double vowels are read as one sound: moon — [mu: n] — [moon] or bitter — [‘bitǝ] — [bit]
  • Voiced consonants in English, unlike Russian, do not become voiceless: in good [gud], the sound [d] is pronounced clearly, just like [g] in dog [dog], etc.

The meaning of correct pronunciation

As I said, it is very important and extremely necessary to improve English pronunciation, because a large number of words in this language differ by only one or two sounds. But sometimes, even such a small difference is critical for correct and accurate contact with the primary native speakers.

Pronunciation

I repeat once again that some words that have approximately similar sounding need to be written down, their spelling memorized and their pronunciation learned. For better mastering and ease of learning, you can create phrases and sentences with them, constantly pronounce them.

For example, the word «row» can mean both «quarrel» and «row» at the same time, depending on how you pronounce them. To remove this ambiguity and remember the correct option, you need to make sentences or just phrases with these words: a terrible row — a terrible quarrel, row of apple trees — a row of apple trees.

The only sure way to deliver the correct speech is listening and repetition with a professional, as well as live communication with native speakers. You can listen to how the sounds are pronounced in the next article.

Have a good mood! Bye!

Source: https://englishfull.ru/uroki/fonetik.html

Oh, this transcription Do children need it when learning English?

Good-good-good morning planet!

I don’t know about you, of course, but it’s morning on my planet of English (called Liza’s English). And I decided to write an important informational and practical article about English transcription on a cheerful morning head. I think you don’t mind). Then let’s start analyzing this simple, but often questionable topic.

:

And I’ll start with the question:

Do you need English transcription at all?

What can I say to you? .. If in the school curriculum in English it is passed and forced to teach, then of course you can’t get out! Globally speaking, its absence in learning English will not affect the results and knowledge in any way.

BUT! Since our children still study English, it is a matter of honor to know what transcription is in it. This is about the same as it is important to know that there are 6 cases in Russian (and this, by the way, differs it from English and many others). But after all, we can learn to speak and write words without thinking about what case to use in them. «ANDВан Рodil Дyevchonka Well, you understand me, I think.

Therefore, my verdict is — we will study! But quickly and without any stretching for a year! A lesson or two — and English transcription» will become the most pleasant phrase in the world

In addition, having the ability to decipher the English transcription, any schoolchild and adult will be able to read and pronounce any, even the most «terribly incomprehensible» word in the English dictionary !!!

Why was it invented?

They came up with it a very, very long time ago, while the British themselves, for themselves — when they realized that they themselves could not always understand how this or that word is read.

The fact is that in English there are reading rules according to which you can read words correctly. For example, such a rule: «In a closed syllable, the English letter» a «will be read like this (words bag, laptop)». But at the same time, there are so many exceptions in these rules that sometimes it is impossible to remember them (for example, to this rule we take an exception with a word with a closed syllable task, in which the letter «a» is already read differently).

Well, they came up with such a concept as transcription, so that every English word can be read correctly, even without knowing the rules, but simply by owning a set of transcription symbols.

Sometimes you may see two variations of the same icon, this is normal. Both of them have a place to be. My analogies with Russian letters are very arbitrary. The main thing here is to hear the sound and simulate it as accurately as possible.

Transcription icons for vowel sounds

[i] or [ı] a sound similar to «and», but more abrupt and solid.

[e]  a sound similar to «e», but more abrupt and solid.

[ӕ]  a sound similar to «e», but broader.

[ɔ] or[ɒ]  a sound similar to «o», but more abrupt and open.

[∧]   sound similar to «a», but more staccato.

[u] or [ʋ] a sound similar to «y», but more staccato.

[i:] a sound like a long and.

[ɔ:] a sound like a long «o».

[ɑ:] a sound like a long and deep «a».

[u:] a sound like a long «y».

[ə:] or [ɜ:] a sound resembling something in between «o» and «e».

In English, there is one single transcriptional icon that denotes an unstressed vowel — [ə]. It is pronounced very shortly and indistinctly. We often hear it at the end of words ending in unstressed vowels. Teacher, computer

Transcriptional icons for consonants

[p] a sound similar to «p».

[b] a sound similar to «b».

[t] sound like «t».

[d] a sound similar to «d».

[k] sound like «k».

[g] a sound similar to «g».

[f] a sound similar to «f».

[v] a sound similar to «in».

[s] a sound similar to «s».

[z] a sound similar to «z».

[m] a sound similar to «m».

[n] sound like «n».

[l] a sound similar to «l».

[h] a sound like an airy «x».

[ʃ] a sound similar to «u».

[tʃ] a sound similar to «h».

[ʒ] a sound similar to «g».

[dʒ] sound like «j».

[r] a sound similar to «p».

[j] a sound similar to «th». Softens vowels, ex. [jɒ] [je] [ju:]

[w] the sound made by the lips.

[ŋ] a sound similar to «n» pronounced in the nose.

[θ] dull interdental sound.

[ð] ringing interdental sound.

Transcriptional icons for diphthongs (double sounds)

[aı] or [ai] a sound similar to «ah».

[eı] or [ei] a sound like «hey».

[ɔı] or [ɔi] a sound similar to «oh».

[aʋ] or [au] a sound similar to «ay».

[əʋ] or [ou] sound like «oh».

[ıə] or [iə] a sound similar to «ee».

[ʋə] or [uə] a sound similar to «ue».

[eə] or [εə] a sound like «ea».

Practice time

Well, we have reviewed with you all the signs of the English transcription. Most of them are easy for kids and adults to remember. Difficulties sometimes arise with icons denoting diphthongs or some sounds that are not at all similar to Russian. But this quickly corrects if everything is consolidated right away with good practice and exercises, which we will now do.

I recommend buying and taking an online course (from the well-known service LinguaLeo). There, the letters and sounds of the English language are analyzed in detail. The transcription can also be worked out well. and try the course for free. If you like it, go ahead! ..

Exercise 1

The first thing to do is to repeat several times the sound corresponding to a certain sign of the English transcription. Go in order (according to the list I gave). Repeat one sound 3-5 times, trying to associate a complex icon with an image.

For example, repeating the sound [ӕ], imagine a kitty [kӕt], a hat [hӕt] or any other image, but only let this image correspond to a word that is pronounced with this sound in English.

 For example, an image of a bag [bӕg] with such a corporate badge appeared in my head.))

How is it? Hard? If yes, then I will share with you my ideas regarding the most «intractable» transcription signs. Please do not judge strictly my clumsy pictures. I swear they look much prettier in my imagination)).

Icon [ʋ] — foot-heel image.

The word foot [fʋt].

Icon  [ɜ:] — the image of a bird.

The word bird [bɜ:d].

Icon [ʃ] — the image of the shoe.

The word shoe [ʃu:].

Icon [tʃ] -image of a chicken.

The word chick [tʃık].

Icon [dʒ] — the image of the page in the textbook.

Source: https://lizasenglish.ru/anglijskij-dlya-detej/transkripciya.html

Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of the sounds of speech. It is usually written using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) where each English sound has its own symbol. Phonetic transcription is usually given within forward slashes /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ / or within square brackets [ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ]. Each sound in the phonetic transcription is written separately. Phonetic Transcription

Why is Phonetic Transcription important?

Phonetic transcription is very important because it helps to pronounce words correctly. It is necessary, especially for the English language. As we know, the same English letter or combination of letters can be pronounced or read differently in different sentences. Of course, there are reading rules in the English language, but there are many exceptions as well. The spelling of a word in English will not always tell you how the word is read or pronounced. But if you can read the phonetic transcription, you will be able to pronounce any English word correctly without hearing its audio pronunciation. This tool will help you find the transcript online and read English words without mistakes. Phonetic Transcription

Why should you worry about having the correct pronunciation?

Pronunciation is important for people who are learning English. This helps to communicate in English. If your pronunciation is wrong, you may be misunderstood by other people or it will be difficult for them to understand what you mean. At Myefe.com you can practice your English pronunciation online by listening to how English words are pronounced correctly.

Pronunciation in English Phonetic Transcription

English phonetics is the basis for the pronunciation of each of the words in the language; Spanish is pronounced as it is read, but this, as you know, is not so with English. The different ways of pronouncing certain vowels, consonants, diphthongs … make you have to pay special attention to this part of the language. Phonetic Transcription

The first effective tip and trick to pronounce well is to loosen up and shame yourself when it comes to pronouncing. As we said in the introduction, your pronunciation or your accent may give you some trouble: don’t suffer, they all have different accents! As in Spain, a Basque and an Andalusian have very different accents, native or foreign people who speak English also have their own accent and way of pronouncing.

English phonetics: symbols and transcriptions Phonetic Transcription

Once embarrassment is no longer a problem, he gets to work to learn more about English phonetics, its symbols and how to pronounce them. Let’s see a very illustrative table about how each letter of the alphabet should be pronounced in English:

LYRICS PRONUNCIATION PHONEME EXAMPLE
A [ei] / ɑ: / Father
A [ei] / æ / Cat
B [bi:] / b / Crab
C [Yes:] / k / Certain
D [gave:] / d / Door
E [i:] /and/ Bed
F [ef] /F/ Follow
G [i:] / g / German
H [ei] / h / Happy
I [ai] / ɪ / Little
J [ei] / dʒ / Jump
K [kei] / k / Key
L [the] / l / Eleven
L [the] / l̩ / Tidal
M [em] / m / Meeting
N [on] / n / Nice
N [on] / n̩ / Oven
N [on] / ŋ / Song
O [ou] / ɒ / Dog
P [pi:] / p / Parrot
Q [kju:] / k / Question
R [to:] / r / Rock
S [it is] / s / Saint
Sh [it is] / ʃ / Shoulder
T [you:] / t / Train
U [Thu:] / ɜ: / Fury
V [saw:] / v / Came
W [d blju:] / w / Woman
X [eks] / ks / Appendix
Y [wai] / j / Yellow
Z [zed] / z / Zero

One of the biggest challenges facing people who are trying to learn English as a second language is the thought that, there are so many hard English words to pronounce! 

What makes a word hard to pronounce? Often times the
difficult words to pronounce for non-native English speakers are those that are spelled completely different from how they are pronounced.

Not all English words are pronounced phonetically.  When a word is pronounced phonetically, it is pronounced how it is spelled. Take the word “know”, if it was pronounced phonetically, the “k” would be spoken. However, the “k” is not spoken and this makes “know” one of the English
language’s tricky pronunciation words. 

Take a look at the
English vocabulary words below. These are hard words for kids to say, even if they are native English speakers, and that can trip up adults as well. So don’t be ashamed to look them up and practice the correct way to pronounce them.

1. Accede

How is it pronounced?

“ak-SEED”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean? 

To accede means to give your consent or approval to someone else’s actions. It can also mean that you agree with the opinions of a group.

2. Alias

How is it pronounced?

“AY-lee-iss”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean? 

An alias is an assumed name or identity.

3. Anathema

How is it pronounced?

“un-NATH-uh-muh”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean? 

This means that you dislike something or someone intensely

4. Anemone

How is it pronounced?

“uh-NEH-muh-nee”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

Properly called a “sea anemone”, this is a marine animal that lives on reefs and ocean floors. It’s a sedentary animal that attaches itself to a particular area and doesn’t move, that many people think looks like a flower.

There is also a type of flowering land plants that are called anemones.

5. Antarctic

How is it pronounced?

“ant-AHRK-tik”

What does it mean?

The Antarctic is simply the South Pole.

6. Brewery

How is it pronounced?

“BROO-uh-ree”, emphasis on the first syllable.

What does it mean?

Why is it that words that have something to do with drinking are such hard words to say when drunk? This three syllable word is used for bars specializing in beer. They often brew their own beers.

7. Camaraderie

How is it pronounced?

“kah-muh-RAH-duh-ree”, emphasis on the third syllable

What does it mean?

This is the feeling of warmth and familiarity you get when around a group of trusted friends.

8. Cavalry

How is it pronounced?

“KAV-uhl-ree”, emphasis on the first syllable. 

What does it mean?

Traditionally, the cavalry were soldiers on horseback. Now, cavalry is usually used to mean someone or something who offers help when you really need it.

9. Choir

How is it pronounced?

“kwah-yuhr”

What does it mean? 

A choir is a group of singers. Traditionally, choirs sang religious songs during church services.

10. Colonel

How is it pronounced? 

“ker-nul”

What does it mean?

A military officer. 

11. Comfortable

How is it pronounced?

“KUHM-fer-tuh-buh”, with emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

If you are comfortable, you are relaxed and at ease. 

12. Defibrillator

How is it pronounced?

“dee-FIB-ruh-ley-ter”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

If you watch a lot of medical TV shows, you might have seen this. It’s that device, with two paddles attached to wires that are held to someone’s chest to deliver a shock that is supposed to help restart your heart.

13. Deteriorate

How is it pronounced?

“dih-TEER-ee-uh-reyt”

What does it mean?

When someone deteriorates their condition grows worse. This can also be used to talk about a situation you find yourself in. Basically, things are getting bad.

14. Draught

How is it pronounced? 

“draft”

What does it mean?

An alcoholic beverage, usually traditional kept in a keg. Like draught beer.

15. Epitome

How is it pronounced?

“ih-PIT-uh-mee”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

Someone or something that is the perfect example of a quality or of a type.

16. Espouse

How is it pronounced?

“ih-SPOWZ”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

When you follow or support a particular idea. Usually you are vocal and proud about your support.

17. Espresso

How is it pronounced?

“eh-SPRES-oh”

What does it mean?

When you order an “espresso” you are asking for a type of strong Italian coffee.

18. Explicit

How is it pronounced?

“ik-SLIS-it”, with emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

This is not one of those hard words to say with a lisp, as you are supposed to sound like your lisping slightly. When you are explicit about something, you state it clearly and in complete detail. 

19. Exponentially

How is it pronounced?

“ek-spoh-NEN-shuh-lee”, emphasis on the third syllable

What does it mean?

This is an adverb that means something is increasing rapidly.

20. Ignominious

How is it pronounced? 

“ig-nuh-MIN-ee-uhs”, emphasis on the third syllable

What does it mean?

This is usually used as an adverb to describe and action that is considered disgraceful or dishonorable.

21. Isthmus

How is it pronounced?

“is-muss”

What does it mean?

This is the name of a geographical feature. An isthmus is a narrow piece of land that is located between two different seas.

22. Know

How is it pronounced?

“noh”

What does it mean?

This is a tricky word because it is an example of a word with what we call a silent “k”. To know how to pronounce “know”, you need to know it has a silent k.

23. Knell

How is it pronounced?

“nel”

What does it mean?

The rule about a silent “k” makes for tricky pronunciation words. Here’s another word where the “k” is silent and so is the second “l”. This word is used to refer to the ringing of a bell. Usually, this is a big church bell that makes a slow, loud noise.

24. Library

How is it pronounced?

“LAHY-brer-ee”, emphasis in the first syllable

What does it mean?

This is a building which contains a collection of books and other published materials.

25. Mauve

How is it pronounced?

“mohv”

What does it mean?

Mauve is a color. It is a shade of pale purple.

26. Mischievous

How is it pronounced?

“MISS-chiv-us”, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

What does it mean?

This is an adjective that basically means behaving in a way that causes “trouble”. A mischievous action is not bad or evil. It is usually playful and with no malice behind it. 

27. Nadir

How is it pronounced?

“NAY-deer”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

This means reaching the lowest point.

28. Neophyte

How is it pronounced?

“NEE-uh-fahyt”

What does it mean?

This word is used to refer to a beginner, someone who is new to a task, job, or a group.

29. Often

How is it pronounced?

“AW-fuhn”, emphasis in the first syllable

What does it mean?

If you do something “often” you do it a lot or repeatedly.

30. Onamatopeia

How is it pronounced?

“on-o-mot-o-PEE-a”, with the emphasis on the fifth syllable.

What does it mean?

This is a term for a word that refers to a sound. These words actually imitate the sound they are supposed to refer to, such as “roar” or “buzz”. It has six syllables which make it quite
a mouthful to pronounce, even for native speakers of English.

31. Otorhinolaryngologist

How is it pronounced?

“oh-toh-rye-no-lar-ing-GOL-uh-jee”, emphasis on the seventh syllable.

What does it mean?

This nine syllable word is the formal title of a specific type of medical doctor. This is a doctor who specializes in treating eye, nose, and ear conditions. The simpler way to refer to these types of doctors is as an ENT doctors. 

32. Panacea

How is it pronounced?

“pan-uh-SEE-uh”, emphasis on the third syllable

What does it mean?

This refers to a remedy for illness.

33. Phlegmatic

How is it pronounced?

“fleg-MAT-ik”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

This is someone who is easy-going. No matter what happens around them they remain calm and collected.

34. Penguin

How is it pronounced?

“peng-gwin”

What does it mean?

A penguin is a type of flightless sea bird. They are typically black and white.

35. Phenomenon

How is it pronounced?

“fi-NOM-uh-non”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

A phenomenon is an event that is observable,

36. Puerile

How is it pronounced?

“PYOO-er-il”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

When you think something is “purile” you believe it is foolish or childish.

37. Quinoa

How is it pronounced?

Either “KEEN-wah,” “ken-WAG, or “KEN-o-ah”

What does it mean?

Quinoa is an ancient grain that has grown in popularity in the recent decade because of its nutritional values. It’s considered a “superfood” and is actually a Spanish word.

38. Quixotic

How is it pronounced?

“kwik-SOT-ik”

What does it mean?

This is someone who is very idealistic, to the point that their ideas are impractical or unrealistic.

39. Rural

How is it pronounced?

“roor-uhl”

What does it mean?

When you say a place is “rural” you mean that it is located in the countryside.

40. Sanguine

How is it pronounced?

“SANG-gwin”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

Someone who is sanguine is cheerful and hopeful, even if they are facing a bad situation.

41. Scissors

How is it pronounced?

“sizzors”

What does it mean?

These are two bladed cutting instruments that you use to cut into thin materials such as paper or cloth. 

42. Sixth

How is it pronounced?

“siksth”

What does it mean?

When you say something is the “sixth”, your saying it is item number six in a sequence.

43. Specific

How is it pronounced?

“spi-SIF-ik”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

This means that something is clearly defined.

44. Squirrel

How is it pronounced?

“skwi-rel”

What does it mean?

A squirrel is a bushy tailed rodent that lives in trees.

45. Staid

How is it pronounced?

“steyd”

What does it mean?

Someone who is staid is sedate and calm.

46. Successful

How is it pronounced?

“SUKH-ses-fuhl”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

If you are successful in pronouncing this word, then you pronounced it correctly. When you are successful in something, you accomplished your aim or your purpose.

47. Surfeit

How is it pronounced?

“SUR-fit”, emphasis in the first syllable

What does it mean?

A surfeit is an extra amount of something.

48. Temperature

How is it pronounced?

“tem-PER-uh-cher”, emphasis on the second syllable

What does it mean?

This is a scientific measurement meant to gague the degree of heat that is present in an object or a substance. 

49. Truculent

How is it pronounced?

“TRUHK-yeh-luhnt”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

Someone who is truculent is quick tempered. They get into arguments or fights easily.

50. Worcestershire

How is it pronounced?

“WOOster-sher”

What does it mean?

A special sauce that originated in Worcester, a town in England. The town name is also pronounced the as “WOOster-sher”.

51. Zephyr

How is it pronounced?

“ZEF-er”, emphasis on the first syllable

What does it mean?

This refers to a breeze that is soft and mild.

Conclusion

If you want to learn how to correctly pronounce tricky vocabulary words, the answer is: Practice, practice, practice.

It’s also a really good idea to get a native language speaker as an English tutor who can listen to you say these words and help you with your pronunciation.  You can also practice using these hard to pronounce words in conversation which will really help you learn them.


This portion of the site is intended for advanced English learners and our international visitors.

  • English phonetic alphabet (transcription)
  • English pronunciation
  • Bold letters for given sound
  • Easy to use one button player

Did you ever feel like breaking down because of English orthography? Don’t worry, English spelling system is very confusing, and often puzzles even the native speaker. Dr. Edward Rondthaler the noted typographist, the chairman of the American Literary Council and master of the English language says that «nothing seems to be spelled, or said, quite the way you expect it to be!» In fact, there are two English languages – the Written English and the Spoken or Phonetic English. But if we really want to communicate, which means speak, understand, read and write English, we have to deal with both of them.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet but they stand for at least 44 sounds of real English. The table below contains phonetic symbols used in various English dictionaries and their audio pronunciation (MP3 format). However it doesn’t list all possible sounds of American or British English considering that some researchers count up to 49 (or even more) distinct sounds in English language. The number of sounds and sounds themselves depend of course on dialect i.e. country, area and … evaluation procedure.

There are quite a few phonetic transcription systems in the world.
Some of them are too sophisticated to learn, the others are too simple to feature all sounds of English.
The most popular and commonly used among them is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
IPA is used by Oxford dictionaries and virtually all printed and digital dictionaries worldwide, except American ones. American dictionaries each make up their own peculiar pattern. The most known of them are the Merriam Webster and American Heritage Dictionary. The Longman Dictionary of American English uses IPA, which could have been an exception to the rule if it hadn’t been issued by British publisher named Pearson. There are some similarities but also many differences between these systems especially in the way they express vowels. The main table here represents the IPA alphabet while at the bottom of the page you will find a guide to Merriam Webster Pronunciation. Compare and choose…

Phonetic transcription is usually written in [square brackets] or between two backslash symbols.
Stress: main stress is a short vertical or slant line placed at the top before the stressed syllable in the phonetic transcription of the word; secondary stress is a short vertical or slant line placed at the bottom before the stressed syllable. E.g.:
pronunciation

And now all you have to do is read, listen and repeat as much as possible!

English Phonetics – Reference Table

Vowels (Monophthongs)

IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
i ː tree, sea, receive, women, believe, we, people
ɪ bit, symbol, recall, business, surface
æ cat, apple, compact
ɑː car, far, garage, heart
ɔː sort, ball, ought, awful, board, floor, audacity, saw
ʊ put, foot, could, butcher, woman
u ː fool, rule, shoes, true, crew, move, through
ʌ up, other, but, couple, blood, love
ɜ ː her, first, turn, search, word
ə until, about, alias
e bed, effort, head, said, friend
ɒ rock, impossible, body, cough, knowledge

Diphthongs

IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
tray, eight, make, sail, say, great, ace
sky, I, bye, buy, by, guide, flight, rye, die, choir [‘kwair]
ɔɪ joy, coin, oyster
ɪə (-r amer.) fear, beer, here
(-r amer.) hair, care, there, hare
ʊə (-r amer.) tour, poor
trousers, cow, hour, our
əʊ joke, coat, own, go, though, sew, toe

Consonants

IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
p parking, gallop, open
b board, tab, abandon
t trunk, request, receipt
d add, ad, diligent
k kitchen, cord, accomplish, school, ache, conqueror, exchange (x = k+s)
g grace, agree auxiliary (x = g+z)
chance, achieve, catch, mutual
jungle, judge, logic, procedure
f fool, atmosphere, enough
v vocal, give
θ thanks, ethic
ð there, other
s sunday, citizen, east, scissors, psychology
z zebra, cosmonaut, scissors, resign, xenon
ʃ shine, sure, action, special, issue, conscience, anxious (x = k + ʃ)
ʒ visual, casual, usual, garage,
h head, uphill
m mother, lamb
n note, intrusion, knowledge, pneumatic
ŋ sing, sink
l laughter, illegal
r random, orange; (amer.) order
j yet, yesterday, you, utility; (u = j + u)
w what, windows, quest, one (o = w + ʌ)

Compare IPA Phonetic Alphabet with Merriam Webster Pronunciation Symbols.

Although some similarities are present there are also many differences between these two phonetic Alphabets.

Merriam Webster Pronunciation Symbols

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