The sounds of English

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1. Phonetics - the sounds of words 

    One of the problems with learning to speak English is that some letters, for example "c" are pronounced differently in different words. We say "cat", but we say "cell", the same letter "c" in writing, but two different sounds, [k] in cat, and  [s] in  cell.  So to represent sounds as they are spoken, we can write not in normal words, but using a "phonetic alphabet", which has more than the normal 26 letters of the written English alphabet.  When we write words using a phonetic alphabet, we put them between square brackets [....].  
     Phonetic alphabets use one symbol for each sound. Most of these symbols, such as [b], [s] and [m] are easy to understand; a few others, such as [ θ ] as in "thick" or [ ʊə ] as in "sure" need to be learned.... but this is not very difficult.
    There are a few different phonetic alphabets, but the most frequently used set of phonetic letters is the "IPA".... which in this case means the International Phonetic Alphabet.
   

1.1.  Consonants

Consonants are sounds that are not usually used on their own. We can't say "b"... well we could say "b" but it has no meaning, just like the sounds "k" or "n".  The good thing about consonants is that they tend to be the same from one type of English to another, and even fairly similar from one language to another. English has consonants that some other languages do not have, such as [ ð ] or [ ŋ ] ... but generally speaking even consonants like [ ð ] are the same in different accents of English - though in some accents people may say [ d ] instead of [ ð ]. 
    There are three basic groups of consonants, 1. plosives or occlusives, 2. fricatives or sybillants and affricatives, 3. liquids, semivowels and nasals.  We will not concern ourselves here with the subcategories of these groups.


Group 1 - Plosives
    Plosive and fricative consonants can be either unvoiced (voiceless) as in [t], or voiced, as in [d]. We do not use our vocal cords to produce unvoiced or voiceless consonants. Standard English has six plosive consonants:

Voiceless	examples	Voiced	examples
p	put = [pʊt]  skip = [skɪp]	b	big [bɪg]  grab [græb]
t	tent = [tent]  tiny = [tainɪ]	d	duck  [dʌk]  would [wʊd]
k	cat  [kæt]   pick  [pɪk]	g	go [goʊ]  flag  [flæg]

As these examples show, the phonetic transcription of a word can contain more or less letters than normal writing of the word. It depends on the word, and how it is pronounced. At the start of a word, plosives are pronounced in full, at the end of a word or group of words they may be weaker. Listen to the difference in pronunciation between the two "p"s in this sentence. "Put it in the cup". The final p is hardly audible. If we pronounced it in full, the sentence would sound like "Put it in the cuppa".

Group 2 - Fricatives and affricatives
There are eleven consonants in this group.

Voiceless	examples	Voiced	examples
h	hit = [hɪt]  inhale [ɪn'heil]
f	fit = [fɪt]  stuff = [stʌf]	v	van [væn]  live [liv]
θ	thick = [θɪk] path = [pa:θ]	ð	then  [ðen]  with [wɪð]
s	sat  [sæt]   Miss  [mɪs]	z	goes [goʊz]  flags  [flægz]
ʃ	shall  [ʃæl]   wish  [wɪʃ]	ʒ	beige [beiʒ]
tʃ	chip  [tʃɪp]   which  [wɪtʃ]	dʒ	jog [dʒɒg]  badge  [bædʒ]

Fricative sounds occur when air through the mouth is restricted by lips teeth or tongue.  The affricative consonants  [tʃ] and [dʒ] combine a plosive and a fricative sound.

Group 3 - Liquids, semivowels and nasals
The liquid consonants are [l] and [r], the semivowels are [w] and [ j ] , which are generally found at the start of words or before vowels; the nasal consonants are [n] [m] and [ ŋ ].

Sound	examples
l	lit = [lɪt]  will = [wɪl]
r	red = [red] sorry = [sorɪ]
w	what  [wɒt]
j	you  [ju:]   refuse  [rɪ'fju:z]
n	net  [net]   can  [kæn]
m	met  [met]   come  [kʌm]
ŋ	sing [sɪŋ]   singing ['sɪŋɪŋ]   finger ['fɪŋgə]

1.2.  Vowels

Standard English speakers use two kinds of vowel, simple vowels and diphthongs.  Simple vowels consist of a single vowel sound, and can be short, as in "cat" [kaet]  or long as in "cart" [kɑ:t].  Diphhongs are a combination of two vowel sounds, as in "wait" [weit]  or "side" [said]. They are not two distinct vowels, but a slide from one vowel to another: [said], not [sa-id]

Group 4 - Simple vowels (monophthongs)
Different dictionaries and textbooks use slightly different phonetic symbols for some vowels, in particular for long vowels. Sometimes long vowels are designated with a colon (:) after the symbol. Using the colon makes it easier for learners to quickly see if a vowel is short or long.

Short	examples	Long	examples
æ	cat  [kæt]	ɑ  or ɑ:	cart [kɑt] or  [kɑ:t]
e	bed  [bed]
ɪ	ship [ʃɪp]	i  or  i:	sheep [ʃi:p]
ɒ	shot  [ʃɒt]	ɔ  or  ɔ:	short  [ʃɔ:t ]
ʊ	pull [pʊl], push [pʊʃ]	u  or u:	pool [pu:l], few [fju:]
ʌ	duck  [dʌk], mother ['mʌðə]
ə	away  [ə'wei], brother ['brʌðə]	ɜ  or  ə:	bird [bə:d] or [bɜd] first [fə:st]

The last short  vowel in this list, which we call the "schwa"  [ə], is the most common vowel in English, and is used in a large number of unstressed words and syllables, as in the example above, away  [ə'wei], where the first syllable is unstressed. It is the vowel most often used for words such as the articles "a" [ə] and "the" [ðə] (we only pronounce these words as  [ei] and  [ði:] in specific cases).

Group 5 - Diphthongs in standard English.
In most cases, diphthongs are used in stressed syllables

Sound	Examples
ai	light = [lait]  while = [wail]
ei	made = [meid] display = [dis'plei]
ɔɪ	boy  [bɔɪ]   join  [dʒɔɪn]
əʊ	note [nəʊt]   go  [gəʊ]
aʊ	shout  [ʃaʊt]   confound  [kən'faʊnd]
ɪə	dear [dɪə]   period ['pɪərɪəd]
eə	fair [feə]   compare [kəm'peə]
ʊə	poor [pʊə]   pure [pjʊə]

2 More examples.  

Note four final points:

• Phonetic transcription does not use normal punctuation nor capital letters at the start of words.
• The stressed syllables of words with two syllables or more are preceded by an apostrophe (') .
• The pronunciation of words, paticularly short words such as "you" or "the", may vary according to their place in the sentence.
• When we speak, we do not generally pause between words; the spaces used in phonetic transcription are essentially there to relate the spoken text to the words that are being used.

Normal writing	phonetic transcription
He lives in a big house in London	hi: lɪvz ɪn ə bɪg haus ɪn 'lʌndən
Where's my computer gone ?	weəz mai kəm'pjutə gɒn
I asked you to put it in the shed, not in the shade!	ai ɑ:skt ju: tə pʊt it ɪn ðə ʃed nɒt ɪn ðə ʃeid (or  ai ɑ:st ju:..... )
You should eat a good breakfast before you go to school!	ju: ʃʊd i:t ə gʊd 'brekfəst bɪfɔ: jʊ gəʊ tə sku:l
The chairman will introduce the invited speakers at the start of the conference	ðə 'tʃeərmən  wəl  ɪntrə'dju:s ði: ɪn'vaitɪd 'spi:kəs ət ðə stɑ:t əv ðə 'kɒnfrəns
You're joking ?	jɔ:  'dʒəʊkɪŋ     OR  jʊə  'dʒəʊkɪŋ
There are fewer and fewer visitors each year, aren't there?	ðeər ə fjʊər ən fjʊə  'vɪzɪtəz i:tʃ yə: ɑ:nt ðeə
I think I've broken my thumb !	ai θɪŋk aiv brəʊkn mai θʌm

► For more on the sound of spoken English, go to word stress in English  on Linguapress.com