English Pronunciation & Intonationa

American Phonics

First of all, you need to know what the consonants and vowels are.

English Vowels: a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y, w

When "y" appears at the beginning of a word, it is NOT a vowel

English Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z, (and sometimes y)

Now, you need to know the vowel sounds:

American English Vowel Sounds

APA = American Phonetic Alphabet

IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet

Short Vowel	IPA	Listen	Long Vowel	IPA	Listen
a	ae		a	ei
e	e		e	i:
i,y	I		i,y	ai
o			o	ou
u			u	j u:

Irregular Vowel Sounds

a (IPA: /a/)

Examples: ah, car, father, ma ma, pa pa, cha cha

I know what you are thinking; You are thinking, "That sounds the same as short o." And, you would be correct. In American English, the sounds are the same!

u (IPA: /u:/)

Examples: flute, rule, dude, rude, nude, true, blue,

(schwa sound: any vowel can have the schwa sound)

Examples: ago, agent, pencil, poison, focus

NOTE: The "schwa" sound only appears in unstressed syllables

I know what you are thinking; You are thinking, "That sounds the same as short u." And you would be correct. In American English, the sounds are the same. The only difference is schwa is in UNSTRESSED syllables.

Rule Number One: CVC rule. [CVC = Consonant-Vowel-Consonant]

Example: rat, hen, sit, not, cut

In those cases the vowels are "short".

Rule Number Two: CVC + silent “e” rule.

Example: rate, here, site, note, cute

In those cases the vowels are "long" and the final "e" is silent.

Rule Number Three: hard “c” / soft “c” rule
Explanation:
c + a,o,u is /k/ sound (hard “c”)
Examples: cat, con, cub
c + e,i,y is /s/ sound (soft “c”)
Examples: city, center, cycle

Rule Number Four: “k” instead of “c” rule
Explanation:
k + e,i,y is /k/ sound (like hard “c”)
Examples: kettle, kitten, kite, Kyle
k + a,o,u is used for foreign words
Examples: kangaroo (Australian Aboriginal word)
Korea (Korean word)
kung fu (Chinese word)

Rule Number Five: hard “g” / soft “g” rule
Explanation:
g + e,i,y is /j/ sound (hard “g”)
Examples: gel, ginseng, gypsy
g + a,o,u is /g/ sound (soft “g”)
Examples: gag, got, gun
Exceptions: give, gill, get, geyser

Rule Number Six: double consonant rule
Explanation: the vowel before a double consonant is always short(100%).

Examples	Non-examples
planner	planer
dinner	diner
hopping	hoping
supper	super

In the "Examples" column, the first vowel is short, because of the following double consonant.

In the "Non-Examples" column, the first vowel is long, because of the single consonant.

NOTE: there are many exceptions to this rule, but the exceptions are far less than the rule.

Rule Number Seven: CV rule
Explanation: the vowel in a two-letter word is long, if it is the last letter
Examples: he, me, we, hi, go, no, so
Exceptions: to, do (and any two-letter words ending in "a", such as "fa" (from the musical notes: do re mi fa...))

Rule Number Eight: final “a” rule - schwa sound ()
Examples:
Linda
pizza
Zebra
Korea
India
America

Part 2: Digraphs

The symbols that we use for English today are from the Roman language. Yet English contains words from Old English, Middle English, German, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Italian, and French. This makes English pronunciation quite complicated. Of course, all of Europe uses Roman symbols, but the Romanization of each language is quite different from one country to another. Sometimes digraphs were invented to represent consonant sounds, which don’t exist in Latin. For example, Latin doesn’t have the /

/ sound. In English, we represent this sound with the digraph “Sh.” In French, the same sound is represented with the digraph “Ch.” Sometimes digraphs were invented to distinguish the origin of the word. For example, the Greek letter /x/ (spelled: ‘chi’, pronounced, /kai/) is transliterated as the digraph “Ch,” but it sounds like /k/. Why did they do this? I don’t know. It really makes things confusing. So in English, the digraph “Ch” has three sounds, depending on the origin of the word. See table below.

1. “Ch” Rule

Original English words, which begin with "ch" are pronounced like ""

Greek-English words, which begin with "ch" are pronounced like a "k".

French-English words, which begin with "ch" are pronounced like ""

Examples:

Pure-English Words	Greek-English Words	French-English Words
"ch" = //	"ch" = /k/	"ch" = //
change	-	chauffeur
chap	-	champagne
check	chemistry	cherry
chip	chiropractor	chic
chop	chorus	Chopin
-	chrome	-
-	chronicle	-

NOTE: there are some exceptions, like the English word "channel" is from French, but it has the pure-English pronunciation.

2. “Th” Rule

There are TWO "th" sounds: / / & / /.

Notice that the latter symbol looks much like a "d". That's because it sounds much like a "d", and many non-native English speakers (or Pidgin/Creole speakers), will substitute the "d" sound for the sound. The former symbol looks unlike any other alphabetical letter in English (or Roman), and that's because it is unlike any other sound in English (or Roman). Since the symbol is a Greek symbol, many words with that sound are from Greek (but not all).

Look at the diagrams (below) of the articulations of , , and d...

In the first diagram, we see that the tongue is clenched tightly between the teeth, blocking all air from going in or out. Then, the tongue is drawn in very quickly, and by the laws of physics, air must go out, but also combined the intercostal muscles in the chest contracting, a very strong, almost plosive wind comes out of the mouth. (some say it is a fricative, but I firmly believe it to be a plosive).

In the second diagram, the tongue is pressed up against the back of the upper teeth and alveolar ridge. Like the , the initial articulation blocks the would-be hole between the open teeth, not allowing any air to go in or out. BUT, unlike the , the movement forces the tongue out of the mouth between the teeth (slowly), and then slowly the tongue goes back in and down. Because of the slow movement of the tongue, it is labeled a fricative.

In the third diagram, we see that the "d" movement is almost identical to the movement, except that the tongue doesn't actually leave the mouth. The initial articulations are different as well, but not far apart, which would account for the similarity in sound.

In fact, many native speakers will use the "d" sound in place of the sound, when trying to be funny.

Example: "De Bears!" (Chicago Bears are a football team, and Chicagoans will often call them "de Bears!").

Also, many non-native English speaker, which speak a Creole of English, like in Jamaica, will use the "d" sound in place of the ; AND, they will use the "t" sound in place of the sound. This works well, because both "d" and are fricatives, and both "t" and are plosives.

Digraph (Vowel team) "oo" has two regular sounds...
and two irregular sounds.

Now remember...
APA stands for American Phonetic Alphabet
IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet

REGULAR SOUNDS of "OO"
Short oo {APA // & IPA /u/ }		Long oo {APA // & IPA /u:/}

Examples	Listen	Examples	Listen
good		Google
hood		hoot
cook		cool
book		boot
look		loot
wood		woo
wool		Wooster