3. Can a sound be presented with the help of different letters?
4. What can help us to read the English sounds?
5. Are letters and sounds written in the same way?
ENGLISH ALPHABET
A a B b C c D d E e F f G g H h I i J j K k L l M m N n O o P p Q q R r S s T t U u V v W w X x Y y Z z
Task 1. Spell your name:__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ and your surname: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Task 2. Spell your favourite English word: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Practice reading separate words
west, warm, lid, hint, hay, quick, fling, flight, site, sight, prey, ray, burn, lone, lord, cord, circle, line, their, note, write, wound, few, huge, tube, white, lesson, you, eight, man, men, woman, women, gate, let, parent, bell, left, west, cube, mouth, top, pot, there, where, low, see, good, book, boil, soil, first, firm, fur, form, large, car, tomb, loom, make, bow, mean, black, bag, we, they, north, because, our, Peter, Mary, text, south, sea, tea, right, east, know, knew, geology, book, tell, plan, hid, run, apple, this, that, word, where, mathematics, with, thick, thin, got, rot, god, study, end, England, Ukraine, night, live, leave, bridge, call, hand
In the tables below you will find the English sounds (phonemes). Each phoneme in the English language has its own symbol that is used in the phonetic transcription of the words. To know how to read any English word you should know how to read the phonetic transcription and where to find it. Our firth step is to learn English phonemes and the symbols that are given to each sound. Later we will dwell on the English dictionaries that contain phonetic transcription of the English words.
You probably know that we can divide the English sounds (phonemes) into two groups: vowels and consonants.
The article represents vowels and the symbols they denote. Bear in mind that each sound (phoneme) may be represented in various ways: one letter or letter combination. At the same time one letter or letter combination may have different sounds (phonemes).
(to find out more about English Phonemes click here)
/i:/ - ee: bee, fee, deem, beet, feet, keen, see
- ea: bean, read, leave, eat, seat, heat
-open syllable: be, me, pete, eve, peeve, mete, he
/ɪ/ - i /closed syllable/: bit, in, is, fit, kin, hit, sitting
y: study, lady
/e/ - e: met, men, hen, tent, tell, bend, ben, pen, fed, bet, let, led, net, bed
-ea (before d, th, lth, s): bread, health, pleasant, measure, health
/æ/ - a /closed syllable/: bad, pan, an, lad, hat, cat, black
/eɪ/ - a /open syllable/: bade, pane, lane, lake, hate
- ay: say
- ei: eight
/aɪ/ -i/y /open syllable/ : Mike, Nike, my
/ ə / - a, e, i /unstressed syllable/: teacher, doctor, speaker, Helen
/ Θ / - th: theme, thin, tenth, teeth
/ ð/ - th: them, than, this, that, then
/ ɒ / - o (closed syllable): on, pot, dog, log, nod,
/ əʊ/ - o /open syllable/: pole, note, mode, zone, home,
/ ʊ / - oo /before k,t,d/ : book, took, look, good, foot, cook, good
-u /closed syllable/: full, pull, bull, put, bully, push, could
/ u: / - oo /in other cases/: noon, moon, loom, tool, fool
- u (open syllable): blue
BUT / ʌ/ - oo (before k, t, d): flood, blood
- u (closed syllable): cup, luck
/ s / - c /before e, i, y/: cent, lace, ice, city
-s /at the beginning of a word/: soft, sock, set, sets,
-s /after voiceless/ beets, tips, tops
/ z / - z /at the beginning of a word/: zoo, zip, zipper
-s /after voiced/: begs, lads, yells, feeds, deeds, lens,
-s /after vowel/: music
/ k / - c /in other cases/: cat,cot, cake, cane, can
- ck: nock, lock, lick, clock
- ch (!): chemist, technical, scheme, school
/ dʒ / - g /before e, i, y/: gem, gin, page, age, gentle, gypsy
/ g/ - g /in other cases/: gate, leg, beg, bag, give (!), get (!),
/ ʌ / - u /closed syllable/: tub, nut, cut, bud, mud, under
-o: London, come
/ju:/ - u (open syllable): tube, cube, huge, mute, duty,
-u (at the beginning of a word): unit, unite, unify, uniform, union, united, USA
- ew: dew, new, ewer, mildew,
/j/ - y /at the beginning of a word/: young, youth, you, your, yes
/ ʃ/ - sh: sheep, ship, shop, shut, push, finish, fish
/ tʃ / - ch: such, chess, match, chin, China
-ture: lecture, literature, mixture
/ w / - w: we, weed, sweep, sweet, wed, wet, west, well, wit, will, wind, swift
-wh: white, when, while, why
/ v / - vast, very, violet, violin
/ ks / - x /before consonant, after a vowel/: box, next, ax, axle, extent
/ gz/ - /between two vowels/: exist, exact
/ kw / - qu: quick, quit, quite, queen, quiet
/ r / - r: red, bred, rock, room, green, try, rim, rib, trust
/ ɑ:/ - ar: car, bar, bar, scar, farm, bard, card
-a (before double consonant): ask, answer
/ ɔ:/ - or: port, sport, born, form, corn, orbit
-all: small, all, mall
- au/aw: shawl, fauna, awl, shaw, gauze
/ɜ:/ - er/ir/ur/ear (within a word, not at the very end!): her, term, herd, fir, firm, circle, fur, burn, thirst, turn, shirt, skirt,early,earn
/wɜ:/ - wor: word, world, worker, worse
/wɔ: / - war: war, ward, warm, swarm
- w+a+CC: wall, watch, wasp, want
/ h / - who: who, whose, whole
/ aʊ/ -ou/ow: now, brow, out, about, sow, row
/ oʊ/ -o (in the open syllable): go, pole, note
-ou/ow: low, crow, Moscow, slow, row, sow
-oa: coat, boat, loan, road, broach
/ ŋ / - ng/kg: thing, bang, sing, rang, think, bank, rank
/eɪ/ - ai/ay/ey/ei: paint, play, they, vein
/ ɔɪ/ - oi/oy/: point, toy, void, destroy
/ ʒə/-ure/sure: pleasure, treasure, measure,
/ʊə / - oor/ ure: poor, BUT : door, floor
/ ɪə / - ere/eer: engineer, here, fear BUT / eə /: where, there
/ eə/ - are/ere/air/ear/eir: air, rare, swear, their, Mary, wear
/f/ - f: fast, fox, feature, fell, feel
-ph: phone, photography, graph
Letters that are not pronounced
e – at the end of a word: bake, lake, snake, Nike, like, bike, nose, rose, ate
w – before r: write, wrote, wrist
k – before n: knee, know, knowledge, known, knife
gh – in the middle or at the end of a word: high, straight, weight
g – before n: gnaw
b – before t: debt
b – before m: bomb, lamb, climb
w – in who: who, whose, whole
h – wh: why, what, when, where, white