International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

20 VOWEL SOUNDS (12 Pure and 8 Dipthongs)

PURE
No. symbol example words
1 ɪ fit /fɪt/ lip , pretty, women,
Leap, seep, heap,
2 iː feet /fiːt/
believe receive deceive
3 e men /men/ Bed, men, egg, meant,
4 æ man /mæn/ Bad, man, plan,
5 aː fast /faːst/ Pass, art, star, clerk
Rock, cot, odd, bought,
6 ɒ top /tɒp/
naught
Lord, court, cough,
7 ɔː fall /fɔːl/
board, door, more
8 ʊ book /bʊk/ Foot, pull, wool, could,
Food, pool, rude, clue,
9 uː boot /buːt/
do,
Nut, up, under,
10 ʌ mud /mʌd/
southern,
apart , modern, letter,
11 ə ago, /əgo/
coma,
12 ɜː girl /gɜːl/ bird , earth, worth,
DIPTHONGS (two vowels combine and run into each other)

May, name, date,

13 eɪ mail /meɪl/
paper, play
14 əʊ sold /səʊld/ low , no, so, sold, go
15 aɪ fly /flaɪ/ Buy, eye, high,
16 aʊ cow /kaʊ/ House, outer
17 ɔɪ boy /bɔɪ/ boil , oyster,
18 ɪə dear /dɪə/ beer, deer, fierce, ear
19 eə hair /heə/ rare , air, bare, bear
20 ʊə sure /ʃʊə/ pure /pjʊə/, poor
24 CONSONANT SOUNDS
Most of the consonant symbols are similar to the normal alphabet of written English. Just a
few are different.

No. symbol Example words

1 p pen/pen/ Peep, pat, speak dip

2 b big/bɪg/ Babe, bat, abode, rub
3 t ten /ten/ net , tap, attack, apt

4 d den /den/ Red, dog, adverb, add

5 k key /kiː/ Cake, scale, like, call

6 g get /get/ Leg, ago, rag, gap
7 tʃ check /tʃek/ watch , chip, attach,
8 dʒ jet /dʒet/ judge , jam, age
9 f fan /fæn/ laugh , phase, after,

10 v van /væn/ wave , leave, aviary

11 θ thin /θɪn/ thought , thin, youth,

That, this, father,
12 ð then /ðen/
bathe
Guess, sit, ask, rice,
13 s see /siː/
nice
14 z zoo /zuː/ buzz , razor, praise
15 ʃ shoe /ʃuː/ wish , nation crèche
16 ʒ measure /ˈmeʒə/ treasure , beige, leisure
17 h hen /hen/ hat , help, hard
18 m men /men/ name ,mat, amend,
19 n no /nəʊ/ Phone, night, pint, pin
20 ŋ ring /rɪŋ/ Sang, wrong, single,
21 l let /let/ tell , lamp, clean, kill
22 r rat /ræt/ read , rose, tray
23 j yes /jes/ You, yankee

24 w win /win/ wait , word, award,