Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA in short, will help you learn how to
pronounce correctly each and every word in English! But first, you need
to learn what it is, and how to use it. Read the
following explanation, and watch the videos. Answer the
questions in the end to
test your understanding.
There is a special system that uses a group of symbols to represent
Follow our tutorial to learn what sound
and how to pronounce thatsound correctly.
That way, you will learn and practice the actual sounds of English!
Here is the place to mention that this tutorial covers American
The system of symbols is called International
Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA
"using special signs to represent the sounds of speech".
It comes from the Greek word phone which means
Vowel is a sound we
make when the breath flows out through the mouth freely,
without being blocked. The English letters a, e, i, o, u are called
because they represent such sounds.
It comes from the Latin word vox
which means "voice".
is a vowel sound made
by pronouncing two vowels quickly one after the other. For example, the
vowel sound in "loud" is a diphthong.
It comes from the Latin word diphthongus
which means "two sounds".
is a sound we make that is not a vowel. The breath is somehow blocked
its way out of the mouth. For example, the sound B
is made when breath flow is stopped with the lips. All
letters which are not vowels are called consonants. These are: b, c, d,
f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.
the following video to learn how to use the International Phonetic
Alphabet. It also gives a quick review of the sounds we will learn
Have you read the explanations and
watched the videos? Great!
You are almost ready to move on to the next lesson, but before that,
make sure you know the answers to the following questions:
How many sounds (more or less) are there in the
What is the IPA?
How can the IPA help YOU?
What is a vowel?
What is a diphthong?
What is a consonant?
Have you answered the questions? Awesome!
Well done! You have completed the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)