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Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet as used for English.

The various regional accents of English speakers are distinguished from each other far more by vowels than by consonants. For this reason, the consonants of English will be discussed together, while the discussion of vowels will be divided into three parts: Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian.

The slashes around IPA symbols are not part of the IPA itself, but just serve to indicate that the contents of the brackets are not normal text, but a phonemic transcription. The distinction is important, as some IPA transcriptions can look like other words. For example, an IPA transcription for bean could be /bin/.

Contents 1 Consonants 2 Vowels 2.1 Received Pronunciation 2.1.1 Full vowels 2.1.2 Reduced vowels 2.2 General American 2.2.1 Full vowels 2.2.2 Reduced vowels 2.3 General Australian 2.3.1 Full vowels 2.3.2 Reduced vowels 3 Suprasegmentals 4 See also 5 External links

Consonants

For more details on this topic, see English phonology.

The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following table. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left is voiceless, the one to the right voiced.

	Bi­labial	Labio- dental	Labio- velar	Den­tal	Alveo­lar	Post- alveo­lar	Pala­tal	Velar	Glot­tal
Stop	p  b				t  d			k  g
Affricate						tʃ  dʒ
Nasal	m				n			ŋ
Fricative		f  v		θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ		(x)	h
Approximant			ʍ  w		ɹ		j
Lateral approximant					l

/p/: pit /b/: bit /t/: tin /d/: din /k/: cut /g/: gut /tʃ/: cheap /dʒ/: jeep /m/: map /n/: nap /ŋ/: bang /f/: fat /v/: vat

/θ/: thin /ð/: then /s/: sap /z/: zap /ʃ/: she /ʒ/: measure /x/: loch, Chanukah (some speakers of some English varieties only, often replaced by /h/ in onset position and /k/ in coda position) /h/: ham /ʍ/: whine (Also written /hw/, it occurs in only those English dialects that distinguish between pairs like whine/wine and which/witch.) /w/: we /ɹ/: run (Frequently written /r/ in broad transcription of English.) /j/: yes /l/: left

Vowels

This section discusses the symbols used for the vowel phonemes in three major English accents.

Received Pronunciation

Main article: Received Pronunciation

Full vowels

Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables.

Monophthongs	Short			Long
	Front	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ	ʊ		iː		uː
Mid	ɛ	ʌ			ɜː	ɔː
Open	æ	ɒ			ɑː

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /ɛ/: bed (sometimes transcribed /e/) /ʌ/: bud /æ/: bat (sometimes transcribed /a/) /ɒ/: pot

/iː/: bead /uː/: booed /ɜː/: bird (sometimes transcribed /əː/) /ɔː/: bought, board /ɑː/: father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to /ɪ/	to /ʊ/
Starting close				ɪə  ʊə
Starting mid	eɪ  ɔɪ	əʊ		ɛə
Starting open	aɪ	aʊ

/eɪ/: bay /ɔɪ/: boy /əʊ/: toe /aɪ/: buy (sometimes transcribed /ʌɪ/) /aʊ/: cow

/ɪə/: beer /ʊə/: boor (falling out of use in British English; often replaced by /ɔː/) /ɛə/: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛː/)

Reduced vowels

Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables.

• /ɪ/: roses
• /ə/: Rosa’s, runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

General American

Main article: General American

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Checked				Free
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central rhotacized	Back
Close	ɪ		ʊ		i		u
Close-mid					e		o
Open-mid	ɛ	ʌ				ɝ	ɔ
Open	æ						ɑ

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /ɛ/: bed /ʌ/: bud /æ/: bad

/i/: bead /u/: booed /e/: bayed /o/: bode /ɝ/: bird /ɔ/ or /ɑ/: bought /ɑ/: pod, father

Note: the vowels /e/ and /o/ are diphthongal for many American speakers, so the transcriptions /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are also often used.

Diphthongs	Closing			Rhotacized
	to /ɪ/	to /ʊ/
Starting close				ɪɹ  ʊɹ
Starting mid	ɔɪ			ɛɹ  ɔɹ
Starting open	aɪ	aʊ		ɑɹ

/ɔɪ/: boy /aɪ/: buy /aʊ/: cow

/ɪɹ/: beer /ʊɹ/: boor (often replaced by /ɝ/, sometimes by /ɔɹ/ in American English) /ɛɹ/: bear /ɔɹ/: bore (sometimes phonemicized /oɹ/) /ɑɹ/: bar

Reduced vowels

• /ɨ/: roses (for many Americans merged with /ə/)
• /ə/: Rosa’s
• /ɚ/: runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

General Australian

Main article: Australian English phonology

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Short				Long
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ		ʊ		iː	ʉː
Mid	e		ɔ		eː	ɜː	oː
Open	æ	a			æː	aː

/ɪ/: bid /ʊ/: good /e/: bed /ɔ/: pot /æ/: bat /a/: bud

/iː/: bead /ʉː/: booed /eː/: bared /ɜː/: bird /oː/: bought, board /æː/: bad /aː/: father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to unrounded	to rounded
Starting close				ɪə  ʊə
Starting mid	oɪ	əʉ
Starting open	æɪ  ɑe	æɔ

/oɪ/: boy /əʉ/: toe /æɪ/: bay /ɑe/: buy /æɔ/: cow

/ɪə/: beer /ʊə/: tour (falling out of use in Australian English; often replaced by disyllabic /ʉːə/ or monophthongal /oː/)

Reduced vowels

• /ə/: roses, Rosa’s, runner
• /l̩/: bottle
• /n̩/: button
• /m̩/: rhythm

Suprasegmentals

The suprasegmental symbols are called that because they apply to more than one segment (vowel or consonant). In English, the relevant suprasegmentals are the markings for primary and secondary stress.

• Primary stress: ˈ
• Secondary stress: ˌ

Primary stress is indicated by the symbol ˈ before the stressed syllable; secondary stress by the symbol ˌ before the syllable, for example battleship /ˈbætl̩ˌʃɪp/.

See also

• English phonology
• IPA chart for English
• SAMPA, X-SAMPA, and Kirshenbaum are methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII.
• List of phonetics topics
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)/IPA vs. other pronunciation symbols

External links

• LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English ONLINE uses IPA.