Phonology in the English Language

Phonology is the study of the basic sounds and speech patterns of a language. The English language is full of words and sounds borrowed from other languages, giving it a mixture of sound patterns. Examples: English word pizza skunk academy tobacco robot kidnap lottery mammoth data Origin Italian Native American Greek Spanish Czech Danish Dutch Russian Latin

Vowel sounds:
There are only five vowels in the American English language. Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu

Depending on the word and blend, these five vowels can make up about 21 unique sounds. Vowel A Long sound baby trade day teeth need green wide like side open bone nose use unicorn Short sound apple dad sad next bed red pick trip lip olive October on under up umbrella book loose Additional sound father water ball Blended sounds wheat lead train cried bread said laid tried road toad crowd blue true loud thought

purple

Consonant sounds:
There are 21 consonants in the American English language. Consonants are all letters in the alphabet except for the vowels. Bb Pp Cc Dd Qq Ff Gg Hh Jj Kk Ww Xx Ll Yy Mm Nn Zz Sounds ball boy color city dog daughter fight father girl giant happy hard jump January kid king long love mom may November nice purple pink quick queen row river September wise teacher time visit vampire word wife

Rr Ss

Tt Vv

Consonant B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W

X Y Z

x-ray extra yellow lady zipper zap

Note: the letters c and g can have a hard sound or a soft sound. When the letter c is pronounced as in cat or corner, we call it hard.

When the letter c is pronounced as in city or center, we call it soft. When the letter g is pronounced as in go or get, we call it hard. When the letter g is pronounced as in giant or gentle, we call it soft.

The same sounds

The consonants only make 18 unique sounds individually. Some of the letters can make the same sound. Examples: city and snake cake and kids zip and rose

Blended consonants
Blended consonants make many more sounds. Let us look at a few examples of blended consonant sounds. Examples: Word cracker white with the thin rough ghost through daughter quick Christmas English gh blended in this word makes an F sound gh blended in this word makes a G sound gh blended in this word makes an /oo/ sound gh blended in this word is silent q and u work together to make a /kw/ wound ch blended in this word makes a hard K sound sh makes a blended sound like shut Explanation The blended ck makes a hard K sound. The blended wh makes an airy sound. th blended together can make a few sounds

nternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) English Pronunciation, Lesson 01

The International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA in short, will help you learn how to pronounce correctly each and every word in English! But first, you need to learn what it is, and how to use it. Read the following explanation, and watch the videos. Answer the questions in the end to test your understanding. The English language may have only 26 letters, but it has over 40 different sounds! You need to be familiar with each sound, and its proper pronunciation in order for you to speak natural English.

Some Definitions
The system of symbols is called International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA in short. Phonetic means "using special signs to represent the sounds of speech". It comes from the Greek word phone which means "sound". Vowel is a sound we make when the breath flows out through the mouth freely, without being blocked. The English letters a, e, i, o, u are called vowels, because they represent such sounds. It comes from the Latin word vox which means "voice". Diphthong is a vowel sound made by pronouncing two vowels quickly one after the other. For example, the vowel sound in "loud" is a diphthong. It comes from the Latin word diphthongus which means "two sounds". Consonant is a sound we make that is not a vowel. The breath is somehow blocked on its way out of the mouth. For example, the sound B is made when breath flow is stopped with the lips. All the English letters which are not vowels are called consonants. These are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

Word Stress and Syllables English Pronunciation, Lesson 02

Syllables
A syllable is a word, or part of a word, which contains a single vowel sound. It is a single unit of speech. Each word contains one syllable, or more.

1 Syllable
Here are examples of words with a single syllable: pen man

pig cup hat In English, a vowel sound can be made of more the one vowel letter. So the following words have a single syllable as well: feet moon cake have break bought All of these words contain only one vowel sound, and therefore a single syllable.

2 Syllables
garden: gar den hotel: ho tel consist: con sist object: ob ject focus: fo cus

3 Syllables
Examples of words with three syllables: September: sep tem ber department: de part ment telephone: te le phone camera: ca mer a Saturday: sa tur day hamburger: hum bur ger vitamin: vi ta min

4 Syllables
Examples of words with four syllables: kindergarten: kin der gar ten information: in for ma tion January: ja nu ar y American: A mer i can discovery: di sco ver y

Word Stress
When a word has more than one syllable, not all syllables are pronounced with the same degree of force. The syllable which is pronounced with greater force is called the stressed syllable. You can also call it the accented syllable. "Accent" in this case means "emphasis". Here are some examples of the word stress of some common words (the stress part is bold): water: wa ter people: peo ple television: tel e vi sion together: to geth er potato: po ta to before: be fore begin: be gin

Long E Sound i (meet, see) English Pronunciation, Lesson 03

The long E sound (IPA symbol: i) can be found in words such as: see, meet, heat, read, key. Say these words out loud (long E sound is bold): 1) see 2) meet 3) meat

4) heat 5) read 6) eat 7) key 8) free 9) leave 10) breathe 11) feet 12) please 13) sneeze 14) freeze 15) bleed 16) need 17) feel

Now say these sentences out loud (long E sound is bold): 1) I want to see my feet. 2) I need to sneeze. 3) Read my book, please. 4) Give me the key, please. 5) They feel good when they meet. 7) We need some heat. 8) He eats all the meat. 9) We need to be free. 10) Please don't leave. 11) When I freeze I start to sneeze.

Short I Sound I (sit, hit) English Pronunciation, Lesson 04

The short I sound (IPA symbol: I) can be found in words such as: in, sit, hit, city, click, trip, winter, busy, minute. Say these words out loud (short I sound is bold): 1) in 2) is 3) if 4) sit 5) hit 6) click 7) spin 8) ill 9) trip 10) busy 11) minute 12) will 13) with 14) sister 15) give 16) listen 17) miss

Now say these sentences out loud (short I sound is bold): 1) Come here and sit. 2) Kate is my sister. 3) If you stay I will stay too. 4) Try to hit that ball with your bat. 5) We will have a very nice trip. 7) I am really busy at this minute. 8) They will sit with you.

9) She will give us the bill. 10) Stay here and listen to me. 11) They miss the winter.

UH Sound (put, foot) English Pronunciation, Lesson 05

The UH sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in words such as: put, full, sugar, foot, good, should. Say these words out loud (UH sound is bold): 1) put 2) full 3) pull 4) sugar 5) bush 6) book 7) cook 8) foot 9) good 10) look 11) could 12) should 13) would 14) cookie 15) wool 16) bull 17) cookbook 18) push Now say these sentences out loud (UH sound is bold): 1) Put the book on your foot.

2) I want to read the full book. 3) He will pull the bull. 4) To cook with sugar is not healthy. 5) He could push his car. 7) He would eat a cookie if he could. 8) You should look at this cookbook. 9) They said they would buy some wool. 10) The bull pushed the bush.

OO Sound u (moon, blue) English Pronunciation, Lesson 06

The OO sound (IPA symbol: u:) can be found in words such as: moon, food, too, blue, shoe, igloo, balloon, kangaroo, mushroom.

Have you watched it? Good! Let's practice... Say these words out loud (OO sound is bold): 1) spoon 2) moon 3) food 4) too 5) blue 6) shoe 7) tool 8) igloo 9) who 10) mood 11) suit 12) balloon 13) noon

14) soon 15) clue 16) flu 17) rude 18) fool

Now say these sentences out loud (OO sound is bold): 1) I will eat some fruit. 2) The fool bought a new suit. 3) They eat food with a spoon. 4) There is no moon at noon. 5) My right shoe is blue, and my left shoe is blue, too. 7) We need more tools to finish the igloo. 8) Who is coming soon? 9) He is in a bad mood because of the flu, so I will bring him a balloon. 10) She is so rude only because she has no clue what to do.

Short E Sound e (pen, bed) English Pronunciation, Lesson 07

The short e sound (IPA symbol: e) can be found in English words such as: pen, bed, dead, said, spend, best, rest, again, ready. Say these words out loud (short E sound is bold): 1) bet 2) rest 3) bed 4) pen 5) said 6) spend 7) get

8) check 9) let 10) sweat 11) wet 12) yet 13) ten 14) again 15) ready 16) neck 17) head 18) when Now say these sentences out loud (short E sound is bold): 1) I bet you haven't slept yet. 2) Get some rest. 3) When will you be ready? 4) He spends ten dollars a day. 5) My head is on my neck. 7) The floor is wet again. 8) He said: "Could you check if you have a pen?" 9) Can you help? Sure, no sweat (=no problem)! 10) Let's pet the cat.

Schwa Sound (the, about) English Pronunciation, Lesson 08

The Schwa sound (IPA symbol: ) is a short and weak vowel sound. You can hardly hear it, actually. This sound can be found in English words such as: a, the, about, around, present, banana, father, system.

It is so common that it even got itself a name Schwa.

The word "schwa" comes from the Hebrew word Shewa, which means: "a mark indicating lack of a vowel sound". Say these words out loud (the Schwa sound is bold): 1) a 2) the 3) about 4) around 5) present 6) father 7) banana 8) carrot 9) atlas 10) illness 11) offend 12) answer 13) letter 14) alone 15) sofa 16) system 17) supply 18) circus

Now say these sentences out loud (the Schwa sound is bold): 1) I have a carrot and a banana. 2) The atlas contains a lot of maps. 3) He talked about his illness. 4) I will answer this letter. 5) Father went around the apartment. 7) The company will supply the telephones.

8) I was sitting alone on the sofa. 9) The performance in the circus was amazing. 10) He suggested a system.

UR Sound (turn, learn) English Pronunciation, Lesson 09

The UR sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in English words such as: turn, learn, were, word, person, church.

Say these words out loud (UR sound is bold): 1) were 2) word 3) work 4) turn 5) burn 6) earn 7) return 8) concern 9) occur 10) early 11) prefer 12) search 13) church 14) fur 15) sir 16) person 17) research 18) learn

Now say these sentences out loud (UR sound is bold):

1) They were at work early. 2) I prefer to use short words. 3) It's your turn to search for them. 4) They burned the house. 5) She has learned new methods and now she earns more money. 7) He prefers not to return. 8) I have some concerns regarding this person. 9) Sir, is this research complete? 10) I prefer not to wear fur.

OH Sound (four, store) English Pronunciation, Lesson 10

The OH sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in English words such as: store, four, sort, war, floor, or, court, north, short, sport, support. Say these words out loud (OH sound is bold): 1) or 2) door 3) war 4) four 5) shore 6) snore 7) floor 8) for 9) course 10) court 11) north 12) short 13) sport

14) support 15) sort 16) boring 17) warning 18) morning

Now say these sentences out loud (OH sound is bold): 1) Do you want to fix the door or the floor? 2) Can I have more of that warm soup? 3) They received four warnings. 4) It was boring to swim to the shore. 5) He sort of snores. 7) I am starting a short course on foreign languages. 8) He doesn't like any sort of horse sport. 9) I was born in a court. 10) We did not receive a formal order.

Short A Sound (cat, fat) English Pronunciation, Lesson 11

The short A sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in English words such as: fat, cat, dad, back, fast, animal. Say these words out loud (short A sound is bold): 1) fat 2) cat 3) rat 4) dad 5) add 6) mad 7) glad

8) exam 9) back 10) marriage 11) have 12) class 13) fast 14) after 15) am 16) animal 17) fast 18) last

Now say these sentences out loud (short A sound is bold): 1) The fat cat is chasing after the rat. 2) Dad is coming back after the party. 3) I am glad to finish this exam. 4) His first marriage made him mad. His second marriage were not so bad. 5) They have ten farm animals. 7) This class is progressing really fast. 8) The last hat I have left is black. 9) The cat and the rat are attacking a hat. 10) She has an orange bag.

UH Sound (cup, luck) English Pronunciation, Lesson 12

The UH sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in English words such as: cup, luck, mother, love, some, sun, up, cut, run, does. Say these words out loud (UH sound is bold): 1) us

2) up 3) sun 4) gun 5) run 6) ton 7) fun 8) love 9) above 10) some 11) gum 12) cut 13) done 14) none 15) stuck 16) duck 17) butter 18) does Now say these sentences out loud (UH sound is bold): 1) They love us very much. 2) The sun is up in the sky. 3) The ducks will start to run. 4) Does she have some gum? I have none. 5) He is cutting the butter now. 7) I love ducks. 8) He got stuck with his truck. 9) She poured some juice from the jug into the mug. 10) We are done!

Soft A Sound (arm, father) English Pronunciation, Lesson 13

The soft A sound (IPA symbol: ) can be found in English words such as: arm, father, part, start, dog, box, clock, on, a lot, not, body. Say these words out loud (the e sound is bold): 1) part 2) start 3) arm 4) on 5) father 6) box 7) clock 8) not 9) top 10) rock 11) body 12) bottom 13) bottle 14) follow 15) document 16) apartment 17) possible 18) mom Now say these sentences out loud (the e sound is bold): 1) He took a part of the rock. 2) Let's start from the top. 3) An arm is a part of the body. 4) The fox sits on the box.