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Help:IPA/English

This page is about the pronunciation of words in English. For sounds not found in English, see Help:IPA. For a basic introduction to the IPA, see Help:IPA/Introduction. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

Throughout Wikipedia, the pronunciation of words is indicated by means of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The following tables list the IPA symbols used for English words and pronunciations. Please note that several of these symbols are used in ways that are specific to Wikipedia and differ from those used by dictionaries.

If the IPA symbols are not displayed properly by your browser, see the links below.

If you are adding a pronunciation using this key, such pronunciations should generally be formatted using the template {{IPAc-en}}. The template provides tooltips for each symbol in the pronunciation. See the template page for instructions.

Key

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If there is an IPA symbol you are looking for that you do not see here, see Help:IPA, which is a more complete list. For a table listing all spellings of the sounds on this page, see English orthography § Sound-to-spelling correspondences. For help converting spelling to pronunciation, see English orthography § Spelling-to-sound correspondences.

The words given as examples for two different symbols may sound the same to you. For example, you may pronounce cot and caught the same, do and dew, or marry and merry. This often happens because of dialect variation (see our articles English phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects). If this is the case, you will pronounce those symbols the same for other words as well.[1] Whether this is true for all words, or just when the sounds occur in the same context, depends on the merger.[2] The footnotes explain some of these cases.

Consonants
IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 buy, cab
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 dye, cad, ladder[3]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 dew[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 giant, badge
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 thy, breathe, father
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 find, leaf
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 guy, bag
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 high, ahead
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 whine[5]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI[6]
 yes, hallelujah
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 kind, sky, crack
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 lie, ply, gal[7]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 lute[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 my, smile, cam
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 nigh, snide, can
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 new[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 sang, sink, singer
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 pie, spy, cap
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI[8]
 rye, try, very
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 sigh, mass
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 consume[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 shy, cash, emotion
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 tie, sty, cat, latter[3]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 tune[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 China, catch
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 thigh, path
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 enthuse[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 vie, leave
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 wine, swine
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 zoo, has
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 Zeus[4]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 pleasure, beige[9]
 
Marginal segments
IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 loch, Chanukah[10]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 uh-oh
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 bon vivant[11]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 fin de siècle[11]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 Möbius (UK only)[12]
Vowels
Strong vowels ...followed by R[13]
IPA Examples IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 PALM, bra
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 START
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 LOT, blockade[14]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 moral[15]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 TRAP, tattoo, sang[16]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 marry[17]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 PRICE, pie[18]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 hire[19]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 MOUTH, how[18]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 flour[19]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 DRESS, prestige, length[20]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 merry[17]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 FACE
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 SQUARE, Mary[17][21]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 KIT, historic, sing[22]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 mirror, Sirius
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 FLEECE, pedigree, idea[23]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 NEAR, serious[21]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 GOAT[24][22]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 FORCE, hoarse[25]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 THOUGHT[26] NORTH, horse[25]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 CHOICE
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 coir[19]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 FOOT
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 courier
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 GOOSE, cruel[23]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 tour, CURE (
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI)[27][21]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 STRUT, untidy, trustee, sung[28][29]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 NURSE, blurry, urbane, foreword[30]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 hurry[31]
Weak vowels
IPA Examples IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 COMMA, abbot, bazaar
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 LETTER, forward, history[32]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 rabbit, bizarre, Latin[22][33]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 motto, retroactive, follower[22][34]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 HAPPY, mediocre[35]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 California[36]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 fruition[34][35]
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 influence[37]
Syllabic consonants[32]
IPA Examples IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 bottle (either
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI)
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 button (either
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI)
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 rhythm (either
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI)
 
Stress[38] Syllabification
IPA Examples IPA Examples
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
 intonation
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI hire,
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI higher[39]
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI taxpayer
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI

Notes

  • Words in SMALL CAPITALS are the standard lexical sets. Not all of the sets are used here. In particular, we excluded words in the lexical sets BATH and CLOTH, which may be given two transcriptions, the former either with
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, the latter with
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • The length mark ⟨ː⟩ does not mean that the vowels transcribed with it are always longer than those without it. When unstressed, followed by a voiceless consonant, or in a polysyllabic word, a vowel in the former group is frequently shorter than the latter in other environments (see Clipping (phonetics) § English).

Dialect variation

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Further information: English phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects

This key represents diaphonemes, abstractions of speech sounds that accommodate General American, Received Pronunciation (RP) and to a large extent also Australian, Canadian, Irish (including Ulster), New Zealand, Scottish, South African and Welsh pronunciations. Therefore, not all of the distinctions shown here are relevant to a particular dialect:

  • ⟨i⟩ does not represent a phoneme but a variation between
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in unstressed positions. Speakers of dialects with happy tensing (Australian English, General American, modern RP) should read it as an unstressed
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, whereas speakers of other dialects (e.g. some Northern England English) should treat it the same as
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In Scotland, this vowel can be considered the same as the short allophone of
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, as in take. Before
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI within the same word, another possible pronunciation is
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as in yet.
  • Many speakers of American and Canadian English pronounce cot
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and caught
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI the same.[j] You may simply ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, just as you ignore the distinction between the written vowels o and au when pronouncing them.
  • Speakers of some rhotic dialects, for instance in Ireland and Scotland, may not distinguish between the vowels of near
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, cure
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and square
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI on the one hand and freerunning
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, Q-rating
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and dayroom
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI on the other. If you speak such a dialect, read
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In Northern Ireland, Scotland and many North American dialects the distinction between
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as in courier and the aforementioned
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI does not exist. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • In Northern Ireland and Scotland this merger occurs in all environments, which means that foot
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and goose
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI also have the same vowel.[k][l] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in all contexts.
    • In North America, the
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI of courier and the
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI of cure may instead merge with
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as in north or
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as in nurse. No such merger is possible in the case of the sequence which we transcribe as
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as there is an implied morpheme boundary after the length mark.
    • In North American dialects that do not distinguish between
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI there is also no distinction between the
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI of mirror and the aforementioned
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • In many North American dialects there is also no distinction between the vowels in merry
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, Mary
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and marry
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Some speakers keep marry and/or merry separate from the rest, but in the General American accent all three vowels are the same and may not be distinct from
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as in dayroom
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • In rhotic North American English there is no distinction between the vowels in nurse
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and letter
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. If you speak such a dialect, read
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. The
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI of hurry often joins this neutralization; if you have it in your speech, read
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as
  9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • Some speakers from Northern England do not distinguish the vowel of square
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and nurse
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.[m] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In New Zealand English, the vowels of kit
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and focus
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI have the same schwa-like quality.[n][o] If you are from New Zealand, ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In contemporary New Zealand English and some other dialects, the vowels of near
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and square
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are not distinguished.[p] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In Northern England English and some varieties of Irish and Welsh English, the vowels of foot
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and strut
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are not distinguished.[q] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In Welsh English and some other dialects, the vowels of unorthodoxy
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and an orthodoxy
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are not distinguished.[r] If you speak such a dialect, ignore the difference between the symbols
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • Depending on the dialect, vowels can be subject to various mergers before
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, so that e.g. fill
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and feel
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or pull
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and pool
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI may not be distinguished. L-vocalization may trigger even more mergers, so that e.g. cord
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and called
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI may be homophonous as
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in non-rhotic dialects of South East England. See English-language vowel changes before historic /l/ for more information.
  • In many dialects,
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI occurs only before a vowel; if you speak such a dialect, simply ignore
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it, as in cart
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • In other dialects,
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI (yes) cannot occur after
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, etc., within the same syllable; if you speak such a dialect, then ignore the
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in transcriptions such as new
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. For example, New York is transcribed
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. For most people from England and for some New Yorkers, the
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not pronounced; for most people from the United States, including some New Yorkers, the
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in
  9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not pronounced and may be ignored. (See yod-dropping.)

On the other hand, there are some distinctions which you might make but which this key does not encode, as they are seldom reflected in the dictionaries used as sources for Wikipedia articles:

  • The vowels of kit and bit, distinguished in South Africa.[s] Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in stressed syllables and as
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in unstressed syllables.
  • The difference between the vowels of fir, fur and fern, maintained in some Scottish and Irish English but lost elsewhere.[t] All of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • The vowels of north and force, distinguished in Scottish English, Irish English and by a minority of American speakers.[t] Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • The vowels of pause and paws, distinguished in Cockney and by some Estuary English speakers.[u] Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI when the spelling does not contain ⟨r⟩ and
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI (depending on the word) when it does.
  • The vowels of manning and Manning, distinguished in some parts of the United States (see [[:/æ/ raising|
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI raising]]). Both of them are transcribed as
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • The difference between the vowels of pain and pane found in some English, Welsh, and Newfoundland dialects. Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  • The difference between the vowels of holy and wholly found in Cockney and many Estuary English speakers.[v] Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • The vowels of spider and spied her, distinguished in many parts of Scotland,[w] plus many parts of North America. Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • The vowels of rider and writer, distinguished in most parts of Canada and many parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • The vowels of powder and pouter distinguished in most parts of Canada and some parts of the United States. Both of them are transcribed as
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI vs. knives
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Phonemic vowel length, which exists in some dialects and involves pairs such as
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI vs.
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI vs.
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is also not marked explicitly.
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI do not represent phonemes; see above.
    • Flapping in words such as better, which we write
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, rather than
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • Glottalization in words such as jetlag and, in some accents, daughter, which we write
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, rather than
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In this system,
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is used only for paralanguage or in loanwords where it occurs phonemically in the original language.
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, rather than
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    • The difference between allophones of
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in balance ([ə]) vs. the ones in about and Russia (and, in non-rhotic dialects, better), both of which may be closer to
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in dialects with the foot-strut split (that is, [ɐ]) vs. the one in button (the syllabicity of the following consonant). All are transcribed as
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in our system.
    • The difference between the phonetic realization of English sounds (mostly vowels) in various dialects. Let's pick some grapes for Betty should be transcribed
  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI regardless of the variety of English and everyone should interpret that transcription according to their own dialect. Thus, a person from South East England will read it as something like
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, a Scot as
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, whereas someone from New Zealand will interpret that transcription as
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Because we are transcribing diaphonemes rather than phones (actual sounds), it is irrelevant that, for example, the vowel in let's as pronounced by someone from New Zealand overlaps with how people with England and Scotland typically pronounce the first vowel in pick, or that the Scottish realization of
  5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI after
  6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI overlaps with the New Zealand realization of
  7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI between vowels. In other words, the symbol ⟨ɛ⟩ does not stand specifically for the open-mid front unrounded vowel in our system but any vowel that can be identified as the vowel in let's, depending on the accent. This is also why we use the simple symbol ⟨r⟩ for the second sound in grapes.

Other words may have different vowels depending on the speaker.

The pronunciation of the

  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI vowel in most dialects of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England and Wales has always been closer to [a]. Received Pronunciation has moved away from the traditional near-open front realization [æ] towards almost fully open front realization [a], and both the Oxford English Dictionary and the 2014 edition of Gimson's Pronunciation of English transcribe the vowel in lad, bad, cat, trap with
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.[x]

For more extensive information on dialect variations, you may wish to see the IPA chart for English dialects.

Note that place names are not generally exempted from being transcribed in this abstracted system, so rules such as the above must be applied in order to recover the local pronunciation. Examples include place names in much of England ending -‍ford, which although locally pronounced

  1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are transcribed
  2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. This is best practice for editors. However, readers should be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if
  3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is encountered for such a place name, it should not be interpreted as a claim that the
  4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI would be absent even in a rhotic dialect.

Other transcriptions

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If you feel it is necessary to add a pronunciation respelling using another convention, then please use the conventions of Wikipedia's pronunciation respelling key.

  • To compare the following IPA symbols with non-IPA American dictionary conventions that may be more familiar, see Pronunciation respelling for English, which lists the pronunciation guides of fourteen English dictionaries published in the United States.
  • To compare the following IPA symbols with other IPA conventions that may be more familiar, see Help:IPA/Conventions for English, which lists the conventions of eight English dictionaries published in Britain, Australia, and the United States.

See also

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Notes

edit
  1. ^ This rule is generally employed in the pronunciation guide of our articles, even for local terms such as place names. However, be aware that not all editors may have followed this consistently, so for example if a pronunciation of an English town ending in ‑ford reads /‑fəd/, it doesn't mean that the /r/ would be absent in a rhotic dialect.
  2. ^ For example, if you have the marry–merry merger, you probably only merge
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI before
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. You would still distinguish man and men.
  3. ^ a b In varieties with flapping,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and sometimes also
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI between a vowel and a weak or word-initial vowel may be pronounced with a voiced tap [ɾ], making latter sound similar or identical to ladder. Some dictionaries transcribe
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI subject to this process as ⟨d⟩ or ⟨t̬⟩, but they are not distinguished in this transcription system. In those varieties, the sequence
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in the same environment may also be realized as a nasalized tap [ɾ̃], making winter sound similar or identical to winner. This is also not distinguished in this system.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g In dialects with yod dropping,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not pronounced after coronal consonants (
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    10. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, and
    11. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI) in the same syllable, so that dew
    12. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is pronounced the same as do
    13. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In dialects with yod coalescence,
    14. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    15. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI mostly merge with
    16. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    17. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, so that the first syllable in Tuesday is pronounced the same as choose. In some dialects
    18. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    19. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are also affected and frequently merge with
    20. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    21. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Where
    22. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in
    23. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    24. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or
    25. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI following a coronal is still pronounced in yod-dropping accents, place a syllable break before it: menu
    26. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  5. ^ The phoneme
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in the many dialects with the wine–whine merger, such as RP and most varieties of General American. For more information on this sound, see voiceless labialized velar approximant.
  6. ^ The IPA value of the letter ⟨j⟩ may be counterintuitive to English speakers, but the spelling is found even in some common English words like hallelujah and fjord.
  7. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in the syllable coda, as in the words all, cold, or bottle, is pronounced as [o], [u], [w] or a similar sound in many dialects through L-vocalization.
  8. ^ In most varieties of English,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is pronounced as an approximant
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Although the IPA symbol ⟨r⟩ represents the alveolar trill, ⟨r⟩ is widely used instead of ⟨ɹ⟩ in broad transcriptions of English.
  9. ^ A number of English words, such as genre and garage, may be pronounced with either
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  10. ^ In most dialects,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI can also be replaced by
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in most words, including loch. It is also replaced with
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in some words, particularly of Yiddish origin, such as Chanukah.
  11. ^ a b
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI are only found in French loanwords and often replaced by another vowel and a nasal consonant: bon vivant
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, ensemble
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, etc.[a]
  12. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is only found in loanwords and represents a situation where such an r-less vowel is used only in British or Southern Hemisphere accents, and therefore a transcription that includes it must always be prefaced with a label indicating the variety of English. It is to be used only when a reliable source shows that General American has a different vowel in the same position. If r-ful NURSE is used even in GA, even if spelled without ⟨r⟩, as in Goethe and hors d'oeuvre, use
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is also not the same as ⟨œ⟩ seen in some American dictionaries. ⟨œ⟩ in those dictionaries is merely a notational convention and does not correspond to any vowel in any accent of English, so a transcription containing ⟨œ⟩ cannot be converted to one that uses this key.
  13. ^ In non-rhotic accents like RP,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel.
  14. ^ In dialects with the father–bother merger such as General American,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  15. ^ In most of the United States,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is merged with
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, except for a handful of words such as borrow, tomorrow and sorry, which instead have
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In some parts of the Southern and Northeastern US, it is always merged with
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In Canada, it is always merged with
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  16. ^ In North America,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is often pronounced like a diphthong
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI before nasal consonants and, in some particular regional dialects, other environments. See [[:/æ/ raising|
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI raising]].
  17. ^ a b c Many North American accents have the Mary–marry–merry merger and therefore don't distinguish between the corresponding sounds
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, and
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Some speakers merge only two of the sounds (most typically
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI with one of the short vowels), and less than a fifth of speakers of American English make a full three-way distinction like in RP and similar accents.[b]
  18. ^ a b In much of North America,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI may have a slightly different quality when it precedes a voiceless consonant, as in price or mouth, from that in ride/pie or loud/how, a phenomenon known as Canadian raising. Since this occurs in a predictable fashion, it is not distinguished in this transcription system.
  19. ^ a b c Some speakers pronounce higher, flower and coyer ("more coy") with two syllables, and hire, flour and coir with one. Most pronounce them the same. For the former group of words, make use of syllable breaks, as in
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, to differentiate from the latter. Before vowels, the distinction between
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not always clear; choose the former if the second element may be omitted (as in
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI diary).
  20. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is transcribed with ⟨e⟩ in many dictionaries. However,
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is also sometimes transcribed with ⟨e⟩, especially in North American literature, so ⟨ɛ⟩ is chosen here.
  21. ^ a b c
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI may be separated from
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI only when a stress follows it. The IPAc-en template supports
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, and
    10. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as distinct diaphonemes for such occasions.
  22. ^ a b c d ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨oʊ⟩ represent strong vowels in some words and weak vowels in others. It will not always be clear which they are.[c][d]
  23. ^ a b Words like idea, real, and theatre may be pronounced with
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and cruel with
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in non-rhotic accents such as Received Pronunciation, and some dictionaries transcribe them with
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,[e] but since they are not pronounced with
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in rhotic accents, they are transcribed with
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, not with
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, in this transcription system.
  24. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is often transcribed with ⟨əʊ⟩, particularly in British literature, based on its modern realization in Received Pronunciation. It is also transcribed with ⟨o⟩, particularly in North American literature.
  25. ^ a b Some conservative dialects make a distinction between the vowels in horse and hoarse, but the number of speakers who make this distinction any longer is very small and many dictionaries do not differentiate between them (horse–hoarse merger).
  26. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in dialects with the cot–caught merger such as Scottish English, Canadian English and many varieties of General American. In North America, the two vowels most often fall together with
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  27. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in dialects with the cure–force merger, including many younger speakers. In England, the merger may not be fully consistent and may only apply to more common words. In conservative RP and Northern England English
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is much more commonly preserved than in modern RP and Southern England English. In Australia and New Zealand,
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI does not exist as a separate phoneme and is replaced either by the sequence
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI (
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI before vowels within the same word, save for some compounds) or the monophthong
    7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  28. ^ Some, particularly North American, dictionaries notate
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI with the same symbol as
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, which is found only in unstressed syllables, and distinguish it from
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI by marking the syllable as stressed. Also note that although ⟨ʌ⟩, the IPA symbol for the open-mid back vowel, is used, the typical modern pronunciation is rather close to the near-open central vowel
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in some dialects, including Received Pronunciation.
  29. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not used in the dialects of the northern half of England, some bordering parts of Wales, and some broad eastern Ireland accents. These words would take the
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI vowel: there is no foot–strut split.
  30. ^ In Received Pronunciation,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is pronounced as a lengthened schwa,
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. In General American, it is phonetically identical to
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. Some dictionaries therefore use ⟨əː, ər⟩ instead of the conventional notations ⟨ɜː, ɜr⟩. When ⟨ər⟩ is used for
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, it is distinguished from
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI by marking the syllable as stressed.
  31. ^
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in dialects with the hurry–furry merger such as General American.
  32. ^ a b In a number of contexts,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is often omitted, resulting in a syllable with no vowel. Some dictionaries show
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in those contexts in parentheses, superscript, or italics to indicate this possibility, or simply omit
    7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. When followed by a weak vowel, the syllable may be lost altogether, with the consonant moving to the next syllable, so that doubling
    8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI may alternatively be pronounced as
    9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, and Edinburgh
    10. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI as
    11. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.[i] When not followed by a vowel,
    12. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI merges with
    13. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in non-rhotic accents.
  33. ^ ⟨ɪ⟩ represents a strong vowel in some contexts and a weak vowel in others. In accents with the weak vowel merger such as most Australian and American accents, weak
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI is not distinguished from schwa
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, making rabbit and abbot rhyme and Lenin and Lennon homophonous. (Pairs like roses and Rosa's are kept distinct in American accents because of the difference in morphological structure,[f] but may be homophonous in Australian.[g]) In these accents, weak
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI merge with
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, so that the second vowel in Latin may be lost and cabinet may be disyllabic (see the previous note).
  34. ^ a b
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in unstressed, prevocalic positions are transcribed as
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI by Merriam-Webster, but no other dictionary uniformly follows this practice.[h] Hence the difference between
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in Merriam-Webster and
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in another source is most likely one in notation, not in pronunciation, so
    7. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in such cases may be better replaced with
    8. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    9. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI accordingly, to minimize confusion:
    10. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI →
    11. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI,
    12. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI →
    13. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI.
  35. ^ a b ⟨i⟩ represents variation between
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in unstressed prevocalic or morpheme-final positions. It is realized with a quality closer to
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in accents with happy tensing, such as Australian English, General American, and modern RP, and to
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in others. ⟨u⟩ likewise represents variation between
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI and
    6. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI in unstressed prevocalic positions.
  36. ^ The sequence ⟨iə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or as one,
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the NEAR vowel (
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI).[e] This transcription system uses ⟨iə⟩, not ⟨i.ə⟩, ⟨ɪə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
  37. ^ The sequence ⟨uə⟩ may be pronounced as two syllables,
    1. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    2. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI, or as one,
    3. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI or
    4. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI. When pronounced as one syllable in a non-rhotic accent, it may be indistinguishable from, and identified as, the CURE vowel (
    5. REDIRECCIÓN Plantilla:AFI).[e] This transcription system uses ⟨uə⟩, not ⟨u.ə⟩, ⟨ʊə⟩, etc., to cover all these possibilities.
  38. ^ The IPA stress mark ⟨ˈ⟩ comes before the syllable that has the stress, in contrast to stress marking in pronunciation keys of some dictionaries published in the United States.
  39. ^ Syllable divisions are not usually marked, but the IPA dot ⟨.⟩ may be used when it is wished to make explicit where a division between syllables is (or may be) made.

References

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  1. ^ Jones (2011).
  2. ^ Vaux, Bert; Golder, Scott (2003). "How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?". Harvard Dialect Survey. Harvard University Linguistics Department.
  3. ^ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 91–2.
  4. ^ Wells, John (25 March 2011). "strong and weak". John Wells's phonetic blog.
  5. ^ a b c Wells (1982), p. 240.
  6. ^ Flemming & Johnson (2007), pp. 94–5.
  7. ^ Wells (1982), p. 601.
  8. ^ Windsor Lewis, Jack (10 April 2009). "The Elephant in the Room". PhonetiBlog.
  9. ^ Wells (2008), pp. 173, 799.
  10. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 473–6, 493, 499.
  11. ^ Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 58.
  12. ^ Corrigan (2010), pp. 33–5.
  13. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 361, 372.
  14. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 605–7.
  15. ^ Bauer et al. (2007), pp. 98–9.
  16. ^ Bauer et al. (2007), p. 98.
  17. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 351–3, 363–4.
  18. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 380–1.
  19. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 612–3.
  20. ^ a b Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 56.
  21. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 310–1.
  22. ^ Wells (1982), pp. 304, 312–3.
  23. ^ Stuart-Smith (2004), p. 57.
  24. ^ Cruttenden (2014), pp. 119–20.

Bibliography

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