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a phonetics chart for British English is a supplementary document to how to teach a child to read using phonics.
how to teach a child to read using phonics a phonetics chart for british english reading and vocabulary tests, and related information			reality, laying the foundations for sound education
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	introduction to franchise discussion documents		The logic of ethics
	franchise by examination, education and intelligence		power, ownership and freedom

index introduction vowels (including diphthongs) consonants additional sounds, including those imported from other languages how to add phonetic symbols to a webpage bibliography endnotes		advertising disclaimer       advertising disclaimer       advertising disclaimer
The following tables contain the phonetic symbols [1] for the standard sounds used in English. There is one table for most vowels and one table for most consonants, as well as a third table for additional sounds. Along with each symbol, there are two example words, with the relevant sound highlighted. The first example is always a very simple word that most learners will already know. The second example is usually slightly more challenging. After each symbol, there is a link to an illustrative mp3. Each mp3 has the sound repeated three times on its own, followed by the two examples. Most browsers will play the mp3 automatically when you click the link. If you have problems, right click on the link and download the mp3. You can then listen to the example in a music player such as iTunes or WinAMP. All examples assume standard British English pronunciation - sometimes known as “Queen’s English”, “King’s English”, “Received Pronunciation” and “BBC English”. Strangely, now that regional accents have become fashionable, BBC English is one of the few accents you are unlikely to hear from a modern BBC presenter. Americans, and other ‘colonials’, may find some examples confusing - if unsure, please listen to the mp3 for that sound. Each file is approximately 30kB - about the same as a small image. Note that because consonant sounds are by definition whispered, it is extremely difficult to say those sounds clearly and loudly on their own. Thus, I have added an ‘-er’ or schwa sound [mp3 link] on the end of each consonant sound: I say [də] [2], not [d]. Obviously when saying a word yourself, you do not add that schwa sound after every consonant! [3] The sound associated with each phonetic symbol [like those in the table below] does not change from accent to accent, or language to language, instead different symbols are used to write the different pronunciations. For example, the word “fast” has a long vowel sound in Queen’s English, but a short vowel sound in American English (and Northern British English!). Thus for King’s English, the pronunciation of “fast” is written as [faːst]; and for American English, the pronunciation of “fast” is written as [fæst]. Therefore, while your pronunciation of the example words may well differ from ours - as demonstrated on the mp3s - your pronunciation of the phonetic symbols themselves should not differ significantly from ours! Once you can recognise the phonetic symbols, you should be able to look up and read the pronunciation of any word in any dictionary [you need to learn some extra sounds/symbols, not shown here, for many foreign languages]. [4] vowels (including diphthongs) ʌ up muck click for mp3 aː hard calm click for mp3 æ cat flagellate click for mp3 ə away dictator click for mp3 ɛ head emperor click for mp3 ɜː learn herbal click for mp3 ɪ six imp click for mp3 iː see evil click for mp3 ɒ hot oxymoron click for mp3 ɔː call awesome click for mp3 ʊ wood whoops! click for mp3 uː you moody click for mp3 aɪ I irate click for mp3 aʊ ow! spout click for mp3 oʊ əʊ go Mona Lisa click for mp3 eə air wary click for mp3 eɪ say alien click for mp3 ɪə ear happier click for mp3 ɔɪ oil spoilt brat click for mp3 ʊə tour demur click for mp3 consonants b baby bonanza click for mp3 d did dilettante click for mp3 f fish fife click for mp3 g gift glimmer click for mp3 h hello hell-raiser click for mp3 j yes younger click for mp3 k back capitulate click for mp3 l leg legerdemain click for mp3 m lemon manipulate click for mp3 n no notorious click for mp3 ŋ sing humdinger click for mp3 p pet peculiar click for mp3 r red resistance click for mp3 s sun sucker click for mp3 ∫ she splash click for mp3 t tea telemetry click for mp3 t∫ chess childish click for mp3 θ think theory click for mp3 ð mother themselves click for mp3 v voice vex click for mp3 w we sweltering click for mp3 z zoo sneeze click for mp3 ʒ pleasure measured click for mp3 dʒ gym jamboree click for mp3   additional sounds, including those imported from other languages [5] ɑ bâtiment [Fr.: building] pâte [Fr.: pastry] click for mp3 ɑː barn father click for mp3 a mari [Fr.: husband] patte [Fr.: foot, paw] click for mp3 (ə) beaten button click for mp3 [6] e pet bébé [Fr.: baby] click for mp3 ɜː yurt bird click for mp3 eː Schnee [Ger.: snow] click for mp3 ɛː Führe [Ger.: load] click for mp3 ɔ boeuf [Fr.: beef] leur [Fr.: their] click for mp3 oː Sohn [Ger.: son] click for mp3 øː Goethe [Ger.: a name] click for mp3 u douce [Fr: soft.] fou [Fr.: mad] click for mp3 ʏ book Müller [Ger.: a name] click for mp3 y du [Fr.: of the] pur [Fr.: pure] click for mp3 yː grün [Ger.: green] click for mp3 ɛ~ fin [Fr.: end] lin [Fr.: flax, linen] click for mp3 ɑ~ franc [Fr.: franc] clan [Fr.: clan] click for mp3 ɔ~ bon [Fr.: good] long [Fr.: long] click for mp3 œ~ un [Fr.: one] brun [Fr.: brown] click for mp3 ɛə pair hairy click for mp3 ɔə boar saw click for mp3 aɪə fiery beer click for mp3 aʊə sour bower click for mp3               (r) her fur click for mp3 hw when whine click for mp3 ŋɡ finger banger click for mp3 ʎ seraglio [It.: menagerie] click for mp3 ɲ cognac [Fr.: brandy] gnôle [Fr.: hooch] click for mp3 x ach [Ger: oh] loch click for mp3 ç ich [Ger.: I] click for mp3 ɣ sagen [North Ger.: to say] click for mp3 c baardmannetjie [Afrikans: scaley-feathered finch (Sporopipes squamifrons)] click for mp3 [7] ɥ huit [Fr.: eight] cuisine [Fr.: kitchen] click for mp3 [Note that phonetic symbols such as a or ʊ may be modernised to display as ɑ or u.] how to add phonetic symbols to a webpage Unlike with Microsoft Word, copying and pasting these symbols into the HTML source code for your website will probably not work. To add phonetic symbols to an HTML document, you must type special “HTML entities”. An HTML entity is something that starts with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;), which browsers translate to a special character rather than displaying directly. The following table contains the HTML codes (entities) for all the symbols used above that aren’t just standard alphabetic characters. For those with older setups having trouble seeing these characters, please see here. symbol name & description what to type ʌ carot: an upside-down ‘v’ ʌ ː extended sound mark ː æ aelig: a lowercase ‘a’ linked to a lowercase ‘e’ æ ə schwa : an ‘e’ rotated 180 degrees ə ɜ a back-to-front lowercase Greek epsilon ɜ ɪ a small capital ‘i’ ɪ ɒ an ‘a’ rotated 180 degrees ɒ ɔ an ‘o’ open on the left-hand side, or a back-to-front ‘c’ ɔ ʊ an upside-down Greek capital omega ʊ ŋ engma: an ‘n’ with a ‘j’ hook at bottom right ŋ ∫ esh: like the integral symbol used in mathematics ∫ θ theta: a lowercase Greek theta θ ð eth: a lowercase Greek delta with a bar through its tail ð ʒ ezh: like a stylised ‘3’ ʒ ɑ open a: script ‘a’ ɑ ø e -slash (front-rounded vowel): ‘o’ crossed by a diagonal line ø ʏ near-close near-front rounded vowel : small capital letter ‘Y’ ʏ œ o-e ligature: a lowercase ‘o’ linked to a lowercase ‘e’ œ ʎ palatal l: similar to a mirror-image lambda ʎ ɲ IPA palatal n: an ‘n’ with a ‘j’ hook at bottom left ɲ ç c cédilla: ‘c’ with a comma under the letter ç ɣ IPA gamma: similar to a lowercase Greek gamma with a looped foot ɣ ɥ front-round glide: an inverted, reversed lower-case ‘h’ ɥ (add comment) endnotes There doesn’t seem to be much of a serious difference between the terms ‘phonetics’ and ‘phonics’. However, for what it is worth: Phonics is a term from the 17th century. It is used to talk about the relationship between sound and spelling, especially when teaching English reading and spelling. Phonetics is a term from the mid-19th century. It is used to talk about the study of speech sounds.   Some users with older operating systems and browsers may have problems seeing the phonetic symbols properly. You may for example see a box or a question mark instead of the symbol. This problem should not occur on any post-2000 operating system, such as Mac OSX, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, etc. For those having this problem, here is one solution. Download and install the Mozilla Firefox browser. Firefox is free and is also by far the best browser available on the market today. We would recommend using Firefox even if you did not have this problem to solve. You will also need to install a font that contains the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) characters. Here for example is Lucida Sans Unicode in TTF (True-Type Font) format. Download that file and copy it to your Fonts Folder - usually C:\Windows\Fonts under older versions of Windows. Next open your Firefox Preferences. In the Fonts area, select "Lucida Sans Unicode" from the dropdown. You should now be able to see phonetic characters, and many others, without difficulty.   Note that is very important when teaching reading that you do not add the ‘-er’ or schwa sound onto the end of consonants, because it will tend to confuse and cause the words to be synthesised incorrectly. For example, if you teach your child to pronounce ‘c’ as [cə] and ‘t’ as [tə], then when they try to pronounce ‘cat’, it will become [cəætə], rather than [cæt]!   The pronunciation guides in dictionaries also have accent marks over the emphasised vowel sounds. The accent mark looks like an French acute accent, like in é. This page is not an explanation of the International Phonetic Alphabet [IPA]. The list of sounds used here is derived from that used by the Oxford English Dictionary, to be found in the OED help file, section 6.1.1 [.pdf, page 40 of 53 onwards]. Note that the IPA includes symbols for many languages, not just those for English. Sources for the html entities used are • The International Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode • Unicode Entity Codes for Phonetic Symbols, Penn State University Entities and pronounciations were verified from • The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet • UCLA course in phonetics - sounds: consonants, vowels (Macromedia Flash required to hear the sounds), as well as from personal and general knowledge. Some background to German prounciations. the symbol for the “syllabic n” can also be displayed as ən. This symbol indicates that the consonant n is pronounced as a separate syllable, it sounds like a vowel. Further examples are ‘written’ and ‘listen’. syllabic of a consonant - forming a syllable by itself, as the (n) in button [buht-n] or the (l) in bottle [bot-l] of a vowel - dominating the other sounds in a syllable; sonantal (a voiced sound). Many thanks to Limbic for providing this mp3 recording for the sound of this unusual syllable (and word).

Related links for further reading:
how to teach a child to read using phonics Reading and vocabulary tests, and related information			reality, laying the foundations for sound education
			aristotle’s logic - why aristotelian logic does not work
			citizenship curriculum
	introduction to franchise discussion documents		The logic of ethics
	franchise by examination, education and intelligence		power, ownership and freedom