Phonetic Symbols Table
How can a phonetic symbol table help?
The “phonemic chart” is a set of symbols that represent many of the sounds in spoken English. These charts can be helpful in learning English pronunciation, as the spelling of the word doesn’t always tell us what it will sound like. There are many different English accents worldwide (Scottish, South African, Australian), so these charts are a general guide. Using this method takes a bit of time and practice, but committed students find it very useful and decide to learn the related symbols and sounds.
The English Alphabet contains 26 characters but there are 44 sounds assorted with these letters for pronunciation.
Single Vowels Monophthongs
Diphthongs
They join two vowels sounds together into one syllable. You will need to change your mouth position two times as they are made up of two different vowel sounds. They are common in RP English and many of the diphthongs replace the letter R. The stress is always on the first vowel in a diphthong.
Unvoiced Consonants
Voiced Consonants