- Dr. Johanna E. Rubba
- English Department (Linguistics)
- California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo, California
Last updated 1/29/03
Copyright Johanna Rubba 2003
Learning the IPA for English
NOTE: Symbols between angle brackets < > are letter of the English spelling system. Symbols between slash brackets / / are phonetic symbols.
Learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is not as difficult a task as it seems. The most difficult thing about learning to transcribe English phonetically is breaking your habits of association of English sounds with English spellings, and learning to truly hear the sounds in a word/sentence. This comes with practice, practice, and more practice.
Most of the IPA symbols are familiar to you from English spelling; there are some new symbols to learn: 8 new consonant symbols, and 8 new vowel symbols. Learning the new symbols is not the most difficult aspect of learning the IPA: the most difficult thing is learning new sound values for certain symbols whose IPA value is different from their most typical English spelling value! This is a major pitfall for the vowels. If you have studied Spanish, think of the Spanish pronunciations of [ i, e, a, o, u ], and these are close to their IPA values.
It is also important to keep in mind that an IPA symbol always has the same sound value; it does not have more than one pronunciation. This is different from English spelling. For example, the symbol <s> has various sound values in English spelling, for instance the / s / of words like 'so', 'bus' and the / z / of words like 'easy', 'busy'. In IPA, the symbol /s/ always represents the sound of the <s> in 'see', 'bus'. The sounds represented by the letter <s> in 'easy', 'busy', are transcribed phonetically with / z /.
Here are the speech sounds of Standard American English, given in IPA, with an example word for each sound. (The letters in bold in the example words spell the sound represented by each IPA symbol.) The list is not in the familiar order of the English alphabet (A, B, C, D, E), but in the order of place of articulation from the front to the back of the vocal tract.)
When you transcribe words (that is, write words using the IPA symbols), you do not have the same freedom as in handwriting. For instance, a / z / should never be crossed. Do not use upper-case letters, even if you are transcribing a name. 'Pete' would be / p i t /. Try to copy the symbols exactly. For help with drawing new symbols, visit the Animated IPA symbols page.
Another NOTE: Some of these sounds, especially the vowels, vary from one region of the country to another. If some of the words listed don't seem right to you, this may be why. Answers to common student questions about some of the symbols can be found on the page entitled Frequently-asked Questions about phonetic symbols.
The column entitled 'Alternative IPA symbols' shows you other ways that certain sounds are transcribed. The alternative symbols shown are the true international symbols. The other symbols are ones that were developed specifically for transcribing American English. You may come across either set of symbols in any particular linguistics book.
English Consonants and their IPA symbols
|
IPA symbol
|
Example word(s)
|
IPA symbol
|
Alternative IPA symbol |
Example word(s)
|
|
p |
puppy
|
l
|
last, follow, pal | |
|
b
|
babble
|
r
|
rib, write, sorry, far | |
|
f
|
phone, fire, staff, cough
|
 |
 |
chin, match |
|
v
|
verse, liver, of
|
 |
 |
gym, joke, fudge, age
|
|
m
|
mood, summer, come
|
 |
 |
shin, fashion, crush, machine |
|
w
|
we, queen, tweak, where
|
|
|
pleasure, azure, fusion |
|
|
('theta') |
y
|
j
|
you, beyond, pure* |
|
|
('eth')
this, bother, tithe, either |
k
|
kid, back, cat, tax** |
|
|
t
|
toe, putty, pat
|
g
|
good, plague, soggy |
|
|
d
|
doubt, puddle, odd, lead
|
|
('angma') sing***, bank |
|
|
s
|
sin, city, fuss, face
|
h
|
high, who | |
|
z
|
zoo, buzzard, easy, as
|
|
('glottal stop') |
|
|
n
|
near, sunny, knock, fin
|
|
 |
where, white**** |
*There is a [ y ] sound between
the 'p' and the 'u' in 'pure' (it's 'pure', not 'poor').
** The letter 'x' represents
the sound sequence [ ks ].
*** In some dialects of English, words like 'sing' have a true 'g' sound
at the end; but most dialects do not have this feature.
**** In some dialects of English, <wh> is pronounced something like
[ hw ] — a voiceless [ w ], shown in the last box in this table.
English Vowels and their IPA symbols
|
IPA symbol
|
Example word(s)
|
IPA symbol
|
Example word(s)
|
|
i
|
beat, meet, machine
|
u
|
boot, crude, new
|
 |
bit, mitt, live
|
 |
book, could, put
|
|
e
|
bait, great, play, they
|
o
|
boat, no, sew |
 |
bet, said, head
|
|
bought, caught, coffee* |
 ('ash') |
bat, fad, plaid
|
bottle, father, palm |
|
|
|
but, son, none, cup
|
ay/aj
|
bite, buy, fly, might |
|
|
about, focus, sofa*
|
aw/au
|
about, cow, flour |
|
oy/oj
|
boy, coin, Freud
|
/a
* Schwa appears only in unstressed syllables.The vowel of words like 'bought', 'coffee' varies among dialects. Northeastern American varieties use this one, called 'open o', while most Californians (esp. Southern Californians), use 'ah' (the next one down in the table).