International Phonetic Alphabet Sounds In Everyday Speech
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.
Short Vowels
| 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. |
Long Vowels
| 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. |
Diphthong Vowels
| 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 |
Consonants Sounds: Fricatives
| 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. |
Consonants Sounds: Plosives
| 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. |
Consonants Sounds: Affricates
| IPA Symbol | Word examples |
| ʈʃ | Choose, cheese, church, watch. |
| dʒ | Joy, juggle, juice, stage. |
Consonants Sounds: Nasals
| IPA Symbol | Word examples |
| m | Room, mother, mad, more. |
| n | Now, nobody, knew, turn. |
| ŋ | King, thing, song, swimming. |
Consonants Sounds: Approximants
| 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. |