ᱣᱤᱠᱤᱯᱤᱰᱤᱭᱟ:IPA for English

The pronunciation of English words in Wikipedia is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using the following transcription, which is not specific to any one dialect. For a more complete key to the IPA, see ᱣᱤᱠᱤᱯᱤᱰᱤᱭᱟ:IPA, which includes sounds that do not occur in English. If the IPA symbols do not display properly on your browser, see the links at the bottom of this page.

Understanding the key   This key accommodates standard General American, Received Pronunciation, Canadian English, South African English, Australian English, and New Zealand English pronunciations. Therefore, not all of the distinctions shown here will be relevant to your dialect. If, for example, you pronounce cot /ˈkɒt/ and caught /ˈkɔːt/ the same, you can simply ignore the difference between the symbols /ɒ/ and /ɔː/, just as you ignore the distinction between the written vowels o and au when pronouncing them. In many dialects /r/ occurs only before a vowel; if you speak such a dialect, simply ignore /r/ in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it, as in cart /ˈkɑrt/. In other dialects, /j/ (a y sound) cannot occur after /t/, /d/, /n/ etc. in the same syllable; if you speak such a dialect, ignore the /j/ in transcriptions such as new /njuː/. For example, New York is transcribed /njuː ˈjɔrk/. For most people from England, and for some New Yorkers, the /r/ in /ˈjɔrk/ is not pronounced and can be ignored; for most people from the US, including some New Yorkers, the /j/ in /njuː/ is not pronounced and can be ignored. 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. Examples include the difference between the vowels of fir, fur and fern in Scottish and Irish English, the vowels of bad and had in many parts of Australia and the Eastern United States, and the vowels of spider and spied her in some parts of Scotland and North America. Other words may have different vowels depending on the speaker. Bath, for example, originally had the /æ/ vowel of cat, but for many speakers it now has the /ɑː/ vowel of father. Such words are transcribed twice, once for each pronunciation: /ˈbæθ, ˈbɑːθ/. 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.

Key

right(Words in SMALL CAPITALS are the standard lexical sets. Words in the lexical sets BATH and CLOTH are given two transcriptions, respectively one with /ɑː/ and one with /æ/, and with /ɒ/ and /ɔː/).

Consonants IPA Examples b buy, cab d die, cad ð thy, breathe, father dʒ giant, badge, jam f phi, caff, fan ɡ (ɡ) guy, bag h high, ahead j yes, yacht k sky, crack l lie, sly, gal m my, smile, cam n nigh, snide, can ŋ sang, sink, singer ŋɡ finger, anger θ thigh, math p pie, spy, cap r rye, try, very s sigh, mass ʃ shy, cash, emotion t tie, sty, cat, atom tʃ China, catch v vie, have w wye, swine hw why z xi, zoo, has ʒ pleasure, vision, beige Marginal consonants x ugh, loch, Chanukah ʔ uh-oh /ˈʌʔoʊ/

Vowels IPA Full vowels ... followed by R ɑː PALM, baht, father, bra ɑr START, bard, barn, snarl, star (also /ɑːr./) ɒ LOT, pod, song, doll ɒr moral, forage æ TRAP, pad, shall, ban ær barrow, marry aɪ PRICE, ride, file, fine, pie aɪər fire (/aɪr./) aʊ MOUTH, loud, foul, down, how aʊər hour (/aʊr./) ɛ DRESS, bed, fell, men ɛr error, merry eɪ FACE, made, fail, vein, pay ɛər SQUARE, scared, scarce, cairn, Mary (/eɪr./) ɪ KIT, lid, fill, bin ɪr mirror, Sirius iː FLEECE, seed, feel, mean, sea ɪər NEAR, beard, fierce, serious (/iːr./) ɔː THOUGHT, Maud, dawn, fall, straw ɔr NORTH, born, for, aural (/ɔːr./) ɔɪ CHOICE, void, foil, coin, boy ɔɪər loir, coir (/ɔɪr./) oʊ GOAT, code, foal, bone, go ɔər FORCE, boar, more, oral (/oʊr./) ʊ FOOT, good, full, woman ʊr courier uː GOOSE, food, fool, soon, chew ʊər boor, moor, tourist (/uːr./) juː cued, cute, mule, tune, queue jʊər CURE ʌ STRUT, mud, dull, gun ʌr borough, hurry ɜr NURSE, word, girl, fern, furry (/ɝː/) Reduced vowels ə Rosa’s, a mission, COMMA ər LETTER, perform (also /ɚ/) ɨ roses, emission (either ɪ or ə) ən button ɵ omission (either oʊ or ə) əm rhythm ʉ beautiful, curriculum ([jʉ]) (either ʊ or ə) əl bottle i HAPPY, serious (either ɪ or iː) ᵊ, ⁱ (vowel is frequently dropped: nasturtium)   Stress Syllabification IPA Examples IPA Examples ˈ intonation /ˌɪntɵˈneɪʃən/, battleship /ˈbætəlʃɪp/ . shellfish /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/, selfish /ˈsɛlf.ɨʃ/ nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/, night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/ hire /ˈhaɪər/, higher /ˈhaɪ.ər/ moai /ˈmoʊ.aɪ/, Windhoek /ˈvɪnt.hʊk/ Vancouveria /væn.kuːˈvɪəriə/ ˌ

See also

• To compare these symbols with dictionary IPA conventions you may be more familiar with, see ᱥᱚᱦᱚᱫ:IPA conventions for English, which lists the conventions of eight English dictionaries published in Britain, Australia, and the US.
• To compare these symbols with non-IPA American dictionary conventions you may be more familiar with, see pronunciation respelling for English, which lists the pronunciation guides of fourteen English dictionaries published in the US.
• For differences among national dialects of English, see the IPA chart for English dialects, which compares the vowels of Received Pronunciation, General American, Australian English, New Zealand English, and Scottish English, among others.
• For use of the IPA in other languages, see ᱣᱤᱠᱤᱯᱤᱰᱤᱭᱟ:IPA for a quick overview, or the more detailed main International Phonetic Alphabet article.
• If your browser does not display IPA symbols, you probably need to install a font that includes the IPA. Good free IPA fonts include Gentium (prettier) and Charis SIL (more complete); download links can be found on those pages.
• For a guide to adding pronunciations to Wikipedia articles, see the documentation for the IPA template.
• For help on getting the screen reader JAWS to read IPA symbols, see Getting JAWS 6.1 to recognize "exotic" Unicode symbols.