The IPA is a system of phonetic notation used to represent the pronunciation of words in written form as the spelling of the words does not tell you the way it is pronounced. In the IPA, each English sound has its own symbol, and those symbols are used to represent the pronunciation of the words combined to other symbols like the word stress symbol (‘) the use of brackets and superscripts.
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
e | Went, intend, send, letter. |
æ | Cat, hand, nap, flat, have. |
ʌ | Fun, love, money, one, London, come. |
ʊ | Put, look, should, cook, book, look. |
ɒ | Rob, top, watch, squat, sausage. |
ə | Alive, again, mother. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
i: | Need, beat, team. |
ɜ: | Nurse, heard, third, turn. |
ɔ: | Talk, law, bored, yawn, jaw. |
u: | Few, boot, lose, gloomy, fruit, chew. |
ɑ: | Fast, car, hard, bath. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
ɪə | Near, ear, clear, tear, beer, fear |
eə | Hair, there, care, stairs, pear |
eɪ | Face, space, rain , case, eight |
ɔɪ | Joy, employ, toy, coil, oyster. |
aɪ | My, sight, pride, kind, flight |
əʊ | No, don’t, stones, alone, hole |
aʊ | Mouth, house, brown, cow, out |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
f | Full, Friday, fish, knife. |
v | Vest, village, view, cave. |
θ | Thought, think, Bath. |
ð | There, those, brothers, others. |
z | Zoo, crazy, lazy, zigzag, nose. |
ʃ | Shirt, rush, shop, cash. |
ʒ | Television, delusion, casual |
h | High, help, hello. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
p | Pin, cap, purpose, pause. |
b | Bag, bubble, build, robe. |
t | Time, train, tow, late. |
d | Door, day, drive, down, feed. |
k | Cash, quick, cricket, sock. |
g | Girl, green, grass, flag. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
ʈʃ | Choose, cheese, church, watch. |
dʒ | Joy, juggle, juice, stage. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
m | Room, mother, mad, more. |
n | Now, nobody, knew, turn. |
ŋ | King, thing, song, swimming. |
IPA Symbol | Word examples |
r | Road, roses, river, ring, ride. |
j | Yellow, usual, tune, yesterday, yard. |
w | Wall, walk, wine, world. |
l and ɫ | Law, lots, leap, long, pill, cold, chill, melt. |