Learning English Sounds
Table of Content
ToggleEvery word in English is made up of 42 sounds called phonemes.
Most native English speakers do not need to learn these sounds as they can effortlessly discriminate spoken English words, syllables or phonemes without thinking, and can accurately pronounce these sounds when speaking.
A major problem with English is its erratic spelling: there are 42 sounds and 26 letters, so letters make more than one sound, there are erratic syllable breaks (baked and nak.ed), and changing the stress can change the meaning of a word (CONtract and conTRACT).
The erratic spelling of English impacts literacy. About 40% of native English speakers in most English speaking countries read at grade 5 level OR LESS.
Fonetic English helps everyone with literacy and with accurately hearing and pronouncing English words because Fonetic Enhlish adds all the information you need to accurately decode the sound of every English word. This is especially helpful for non native English speakers, because Fonetic English tells you
- what sounds to listen for, which makes accurately hearing the sounds of a word MUCH easier
- Precisely what sounds you need to make when you pronounce a word.
The two sounds of English letters
Every English letter has two sounds:
- The usual sound the letter makes when used in a word, which you need to know to decode the sounds of written words, and
- The name of the letter that you need to know to sound out abbreviations and to be able to spell words.
The usual sounds or phonemes of English letters
The phonemes of English are the usual sound an English letter makes in a word. All the 42 phonemes of English are listed out here, together with the Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish representations of each sound. Click on a cell to hear the sound. It is important that a student learns these sounds.
The names of English letters
The names and usual sounds of English letters are set out in a table here. Click on a cell to hear the sound. We have also spelled out the names of the English letters in Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish because each letter name is an English word made up of the English phonemes. It is important that a student learns these sounds.
The names of the Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish characters
Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has given each Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish letter a unique name: the English letter name says the English phoneme or sound. The sound for each Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish character is set out here. Click on a cell to hear the sound. These names may be useful for people, such as teachers or students, who want to be able to refer unambiguously to a Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish character, e.g. when spelling out a word in Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish. But many people may not need to refer to individual characters, so learn it only if it is useful to learn.
A faster way to learn English Sounds
Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has developed new teaching methods to help non native English speakers quickly master the foundations of good conversational English:
- to effortlessly discriminate without thinking when listening to English words, syllables or phonemes, and
- to accurately pronounce these sounds when speaking so that native English speakers can easily understand you, although you may have an accent
To make this as easy as possible, Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has analysed over 50 of the most widely spoken languages to find:
-
The sounds in your native language that are in English – for these sounds
Fonetic English will
- List those letters in your language have the same sounds as letters in English (assumes your language used the Roman alphabet), and you don’t need to learn to hear, say or spell these sounds
- List out and spell in your native language those sounds that are the same as English – you don’t need to learn to hear or say these sounds, but you do need to learn how these sounds are spelled in English
- Sounds in your language that are close to English sounds. You may need to learn to hear, say and spell these sounds, but this may not be so difficult as the sounds are close, and it is easier to improve a close sound than to learn a completely new sound
- Some English sounds are missing from your language. So Fonetic English will
- Try to find common borrowed word, technical terms, place names, brand names etc that use the sound, so you don’t have to learn the sounds in you know these words,
- Teach you syllables that contain the missing sound plus sounds you do know, so you can contrast this syllable against syllables where you know all the sounds, and/or
- Teach you how to pronounce the sound so you will hear the sound when you make the correct mouth movements.
- To develop mastery, you will need to develop new neural pathways hear and pronounce English words, syllables and sounds.
- This requires what the psychologist Anders Ericsson calls Deliberate Practice, practicing with the intension of getting better.
- Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has developed new tools to help you improve quickly, e.g. by helping you minimize the time between hearing a sound and clicking on the correct representation of the sound on a computer.
Here is the list of languages Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has analysed and/or edited. Please let us know if you want your language analyzed and edited, especially if you know someone bilingual who can help edit the phoneme comparison chart.
Learning the mouth movements to accurately pronounce English
- Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish teaches the mouth movements by providing the following information:
- Written instructions
- A cross section diagram showing the tongue, lips, teeth etc
- A diagram of the mouth looking at the face
- A video of the mouth looking at the face
- A video of the mouth from an angle, and
- And a practice tool where a student can record their pronunciation and compare it to a native speaker’s pronunciation.
- There are various groups of phonemes:
- Voiced and unvoiced or voiceless sounds. All phonemes are shown as voiced or unvoiced. The voice box is engaged for voiced phonemes. All and many vowels are voiced
- Single short vowels. A, e, i, o, u, ō+ù. We teach these sounds first because we need to use these sounds to teach compound sounds that are made up of other phonemes.
- Single continuous sounds. We teach these sounds first because we need to use these sounds to teach compound sounds that are made up of other phonemes. ê, ar, oo, or, ur.
- Soft sounds. These sounds are f, h, p, unvoiced th. The actual mouth movements are pretty simple. Some people have problems with these sounds because they are very soft. To hear them clearly, you need them followed by a vowel. So Fo√ne…tic √Ēng…lish has recorded the soft sounds followed by the following vowels: a, â, ar, e, ê, i, í, o, oo, or, õ, ō, u, ů, ù, ur so you can practice pronouncing these sounds.
- Voiced and unvoiced phoneme pairs. The phonemes “b” and “p” have exactly the same mouth movements, but the “b” is voiced and the “p’ is unvoiced. Other pairs: p/b, t/d, k/g, s/z.
- Nasal phonemes: m, n, ng
- Comound Sounds