Advice and help for serious English learners
Phonetic alphabets reference
The IPA column contains the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, as used in phonemic transcriptions in modern English dictionaries. The ASCII column shows the corresponding symbol in the Antimoon ASCII Phonetic Alphabet, which can be used to type the pronunciation of words on a computer without the use of special fonts. For a full description of the alphabets + audio recordings of the sounds, visit www.antimoon.com/ipa
vowels IPA U @9 æ ? d 29q H h9 P N9 T t9 `H `T nT/?T d?q dH H?q nH T?q
ASCII ^ a: @ .. e e:(r) i i: o o: u u: ai au Ou e..(r) ei i..(r) oi u..(r)
examples cup, luck arm, father cat, black away, cinema met, bed turn, learn hit, sitting see, heat hot, rock call, four put, could blue, food five, eye now, out go, home where, air say, eight near, here boy, join pure, tourist
consonants IPA ASCII b b d d f f g g h h j j k k l l m m n n M N p p r r s s R S t t sR tS S th C TH v v w w z z Y Z cY dZ
examples bad, lab did, lady find, if give, flag how, hello yes, yellow cat, back leg, little man, lemon no, ten sing, finger pet, map red, try sun, miss she, crash tea, getting check, church think, both this, mother voice, five wet, window zoo, lazy pleasure, vision just, large
special symbols IPA ASCII ! q ' (r) i(:) -k-m-
i
?
k
?
m
meaning ! is placed before the stressed syllable in a word. For example, the noun contract is pronounced .!jPmsqæjs., and the verb to contract is pronounced .j?m!sqæjs.. .j`9q. means .j`9q. in American English and .j`9. in British English. .h. means .h. or .H. or something in between. Examples: very .!udqh., ability .?!aHkHsh., previous .!oqh9uh?r.. ? . k. shows that the consonant .k. is pronounced as a syllable. This means that there is a short vowel (shorter than the .?. sound) before the consonant. ? ? Examples: little .!kHs k., uncle .!UMj k.. ? . m. shows that the consonant .m. is