VOWEL SYMBOLS
/a/
/æ/
/Ɛ/
/e/
/ɪ/
/i/
/ο/
/ɔ/
/U/
/u/
DIPTHONGS - /aU/
/aI/
/ɔI/
SCHWA SOUNDS AND SYMBOLS
/^/ - ACCENTED SCHWA
/Ə/- UNACCENTED SCHWA
English has 24 consonant sounds. Some consonants have
voice from the voicebox and some don't.
These consonants are voiced and voiceless pairs
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
/g/
/f/
/v/
/s/
/z/
/θ/
/ð/
/ŋ/
/ʃ/
/ʒ/
/ʈʃ/
/dʒ/
These consonants are voiced
/h/, /w/, /n/, /m/, /r/, /j/, /ŋ/, /l/
Consonant Charts
A consonant chart lists all of the consonant sounds for a given language while
neatly organizing them by place of articulation, manner of articulation and
phonation.
Below you will find a consonant chart of English containing all of the
phonemes we discussed. While reviewing the IPA symbols, take note of the
following:

The columns are labeled by place or articulation.

The rows are labeled by manner of articulation.

When two consonants are next to each other in the same cell (i.e. they
share the same place and manner of articulation), the consonant on
the left is voiceless and the consonant on the right is voiced.
So the best way to call a consonant is to list its three features.
The convention for naming a consonant sound is as follows:
[phonation] [place of articulation] [manner of articulation]
So for example:

The /f/ sound is called – voiceless labiodental fricative.

The /ʒ/ sound (from vision) is called – voiced post-alveolar fricative

The /p/ sound is called – voiceless bilabial stop
These big phonetic terms aren’t so scary once you break them down. The
IPA symbols are pretty simple to learn too once you isolate the ones that are
different from English writing:




/θ/ – voiceless dental fricative – “th” sound from “theater” and “thick”
/ð/ – voiced dental fricative – “th” sound from “then” and “rather”
/ʃ/ – voiceless post-alveolar fricative – “sh” sound from “ship” and “ash”
/ʒ/ – voiced post-alveolar fricative – “s” sound from “measure” and
“vision”

/tʃ/ – voiceless post-alveolar affricate – “ch” sound from “child” and
“pouch”

/dʒ/ – voiced post-alveolar affricate – “j” sound from “john” and “g”
sound from “vintage”

/ŋ/ – velar nasal (voiced is redundant because all nasal sounds are
voiced, otherwise you’re just blowing snot-rockets out your nose). – “n”
sound from “going” and “flunk”.

/?/ – glottal stop – dropped consonant sound from phrases like “wha(t)
time is it”