English Phonetics
A practical system for understanding English sounds, IPA, word stress, connected speech, rhythm and intonation. The focus is intelligibility and listening control rather than imitation of a single “perfect” accent.
IPA Soundboard
All core English sounds in one place. Use the buttons to hear an example word, then repeat it and compare the target sound.
Consonants
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Detailed phonetics library
1. How speech sounds work
Voicing
Vocal folds vibrate for voiced sounds such as /b d g v z ʒ dʒ/. They do not vibrate for /p t k f s ʃ tʃ/.
Place of articulation
Where airflow is shaped: lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, velum, glottis.
Manner
How airflow is controlled: plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, approximant, lateral.
2. English consonants
| IPA | Example | Key point |
|---|---|---|
| /p/ | pen | Voiceless bilabial plosive; often aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable. |
| /b/ | bed | Voiced bilabial plosive. |
| /t/ /d/ | ten / den | Alveolar plosives. /t/ varies strongly across accents and positions. |
| /k/ /g/ | coat / goat | Velar plosives. |
| /f/ /v/ | fan / van | Labiodental fricatives; keep /v/ voiced. |
| /θ/ /ð/ | think / this | Dental fricatives; tongue lightly between or against the teeth. |
| /s/ /z/ | sip / zip | Alveolar fricatives. |
| /ʃ/ /ʒ/ | ship / vision | Post-alveolar fricatives. |
| /tʃ/ /dʒ/ | cheap / jeep | Affricates: stop + fricative released as one unit. |
| /m n ŋ/ | map / no / sing | Nasals. /ŋ/ normally does not add /g/ in words like sing. |
| /h/ | hat | Glottal fricative; absent in many unstressed function words in connected speech. |
| /l r j w/ | light / right / yes / we | Approximants. English /r/ differs significantly from Italian/Spanish trilled or tapped /r/. |
3. Vowels
Vowel symbols vary slightly by transcription system and accent. The examples below are broadly compatible with standard British learner dictionaries; General American differs especially in rhoticity and some vowel qualities.
| IPA | Example | Contrast |
|---|---|---|
| /iː/ | sheep | Compare /ɪ/ ship. |
| /ɪ/ | ship | Shorter/laxer than /iː/. |
| /e/ | bed | Front mid vowel. |
| /æ/ | cat | Open front vowel. |
| /ʌ/ | cup | Central/open-mid in many British descriptions. |
| /ɑː/ | father | Long/open back or central quality, accent dependent. |
| /ɒ/ | lot | Common British symbol; many American accents use /ɑ/. |
| /ɔː/ | thought | Accent-dependent merger patterns exist. |
| /ʊ/ | book | Compare /uː/ food. |
| /uː/ | food | Long close back/centralised vowel. |
| /ɜː/ | bird | Non-rhotic British transcription; American English is typically rhotic. |
| /ə/ | about | Schwa: central unstressed vowel and a key feature of English rhythm. |
4. Diphthongs
| IPA | Example |
|---|---|
| /eɪ/ | day |
| /aɪ/ | my |
| /ɔɪ/ | boy |
| /əʊ/ | go (standard British notation; often /oʊ/ in American dictionaries) |
| /aʊ/ | now |
| /ɪə/ | near traditional non-rhotic British transcription |
| /eə/ | hair traditional non-rhotic British transcription |
5. Minimal pairs
/iː/ vs /ɪ/
sheep–ship · leave–live · seat–sit · feel–fill
/æ/ vs /ʌ/
cap–cup · ran–run · bad–bud
/θ/ vs /s/
think–sink · thick–sick · thought–sought
/v/ vs /w/
vest–west · vine–wine · veal–wheel
/b/ vs /v/
boat–vote · berry–very
/l/ vs /r/
light–right · glass–grass · collect–correct
6. Word stress
Primary stress
Stress changes the prominence of a syllable through pitch, duration, loudness and vowel quality. Use a mark before the stressed syllable in IPA: /əˈbaʊt/.
Stress can distinguish word class: REcord (noun) vs reCORD (verb) in many varieties.
Suffixes and stress tendencies
Useful tendencies: -tion/-sion usually attract stress to the preceding syllable (eduCAtion); -ic often attracts stress to the preceding syllable (geoGRAPHic); -ity often shifts stress (eLECtric → elecTRIcity). Treat these as patterns, not absolute rules.
7. Sentence stress and rhythm
English is often described as stress-timed: content words tend to carry strong beats while function words are frequently reduced. This is a tendency, not a mechanical rule.
8. Weak forms and schwa
| Word | Common weak form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| to | /tə/ | I want to go. |
| for | /fə/ | It’s for you. |
| and | /ən/ or /n/ | bread and butter |
| can | /kən/ | I can do it. |
| of | /əv/ | a lot of people |
9. Connected speech
Linking
Words connect across boundaries: pick_it_up. In non-rhotic accents, linking /r/ may appear when a word ending in written r is followed by a vowel: far away.
Assimilation
A sound may become more like a neighbouring sound: ten bikes may show place assimilation in rapid speech. Teach recognition before production; intelligibility matters more than forcing every assimilation.
Elision
Sounds may be omitted in clusters in natural speech, e.g. the /t/ in next day for some speakers. Do not confuse natural reduction with careless articulation.
Contractions
I’m, we’ve, he’d, they’ll, don’t, can’t are central to natural spoken English. Note that he’d can mean he had or he would, resolved by grammar and context.
10. Intonation
Falling tone
Often signals completion, certainty or a neutral statement.
Rising tone
Common in yes/no questions and for checking/continuation, though patterns vary widely.
Fall-rise
Often signals reservation, partial agreement, contrast or an implication that more is unsaid.
11. Accent variation
There is no single “correct” English accent. Learners should understand major variation: rhotic vs non-rhotic /r/, vowel differences, /t/ realisations, yod dropping, cot–caught and other mergers. The goal is flexible listening and clear speech.
12. Practice routine
Notice
Choose a 20–30 second recording. Mark stress, reductions and linking.
Shadow
Repeat with the speaker, focusing on rhythm and chunking rather than individual sounds only.
Record
Record yourself, compare timing and prominence, then repeat with one specific target.
References
For the official IPA chart, see the International Phonetic Association. For learner-focused sound practice, see the British Council’s LearnEnglish Sounds Right. Dictionary transcriptions may differ by accent and notation system.
Image credit: zhendong wang / Unsplash.