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The phonetics of the letter
It's not the toys that are noisy - It's the boys!
What we might say is important. How we should say it is very important
as well.
The speech is a song. Between speeches, there's only talk of the practice.
The phonetic is the study of human being language's sounds.
The spoken language requires many features:
Pronunciation, stress, liking, rhythm and intonation.
The pronunciation refers to the voice and sound.
The stress emphasizes a syllable in a word or a word in a sentence.
Linking refers to connect words in the sentence soundly.
Rhythm is related to keeping the same time between stresses along
the sentence.
Intonation gives a tone to a speech like a surprise, happiness,
interrogation, etc.
This item is divided into:
. The phonetics of the letter and
. The phonetics of the word.
1. The phonetic of the letter:
The English alphabet contains 5 vowels and 21 consonants.
But the spoken English distinguishes 46 different sounds. 22 vowels
and 24 consonants.
To indicate the pronunciation with much precision, we have got to use
a special alphabet, which has a sign for each sound.
This is the most used in English:
1.1- Consonants:
13 consonants with a normal sound:
b d f g h k l m n p r t v
Examples:
Blue - door - floor - got - hospital - keep - light
- more - noun - put - regards - tea - voice
11 consonants with a particular sound:
| Vowel | Examples |
| / θ/ | think |
| /ð/ | then |
| /s/ | see |
| /z/ | zoo, please |
| /w/ | wait, why |
| /j/ | young |
| /ŋ / | song, rang, bank |
| /ʤ/ | just, edge |
| /ʧ/ | child |
| / ʒ/ | vision, pleasure, measure |
| /ʃ/ | ship, sugar |
1.2- vowels:
Short vowels:
We have 7:
| Vowel | Examples |
| /ɪ/ | bit, sit, fill |
| /e/ | bed, less, head, any, guess, friend |
| /æ/ | cat, apple, sat, sank, land, catch |
| /ɒ/ | dog, stop, fond, wash, cough, watch, gone |
| /ʊ/ | book, put, full, soot, could |
| /ʌ/ | bus, mother, cup, fun, come, touch, blood |
| /ə/ | an, until, condition, above |
Long vowels:
We have 5:
| Vowel | Examples |
| /iː/ | see, eat, feel, seize, deceive, these, people |
| /ɑː/ | father, calm, class, laugh, heart, art |
| /ɔː/ | born, talk, saw, law, ball, fall, warn, salt, taught, bore, door |
| /uː/ | moon, shoes, soup, fool, use, move, fruit, new, true, beauty, who, two |
| |
| /ɜː/ | bird, girl, work, turn, heard, term, stern |
| |
Two vowels:(diphthongs)
We have 8:
| Vowel | Examples |
| /eɪ/ | take, rain, way, grey, weigh, great, break |
| /aɪ/ | fly, fine, light, buy, lie, high, bye, eye, find |
| /ɔɪ/ | coin, boy, voice |
| /əʊ/ | coat, rose, throw, no, ago, sold, though, own, sew, both, most, owe |
| /aʊ/ | now, house, sound, town, drought |
| /ɪə/ | here, near, real, deer. dear, fierce |
| /ɛə/or /eə/ | chair, where, care, fair, tare, wear, their |
| /ʊə/ | tourist, poor, cure, fewer, cruel, sure |
Three vowels:
We have 2:
| Vowel | Examples |
| /aʊə / | flower, hour |
| /aɪə/ | fire, quiet |
Keep in mind: j a c q
- "j" is the sign of y (e. g. young, ... ),
- "a" is not used alone,
- "c"and "q" are not written as signs. They are related to the letter k.
Practice:
1- consonants:
/ʃ/
The sound [ʃ] is found in words with:
sh - ti - ci - ssi - si - sci - ss - s - ch - ce - xi .
Examples:
Machine- sheets - shine - shell - sugar - sure - social - ancient -
pension - issue - shrimp - anxious - conscious -
delicious - ocean - discussion - luxurious - equation - appreciate -
...
sh is always pronounced /ʃ/.
ch is almost always pronounced /ʧ/. Except:
Chicago and chef with the sound /ʃ/
Chemist, ache, stomach, character with the sound /k/
/s /
Examples:
Lease - price - process - advice - loose - choice - promise - ...
/z /
Examples:
Advise - lose - rise - poss[z]ess[s] - cousin - husband - those - scissors -
exam - example - exit - amazing - says - choose - chose - ...
/ʒ/
Examples:
Television - treasure - casual - Asia - unusual - collision - measure -
pleasure - occasion - invasion - leisurely - beige -
seizure - division - decision - explosion - visual- ...
/ʤ/
Examples:
procedure - just - edge - knowledge - adjective - adjust
Education - individual - soldier - schedule - January - subject - injure -
Bridge- - agency - general - passenger - engine - biology - gym -
village - orange - language -dangerous - ...
/ʧ/
Examples:
U: picture - century - actual
TI: suggestion
C: cello, concerto
2- Vowels:
2-1: Short vowels
/æ/ sound with "a"
Examples:
Apple - hat - family - bank - catch - that - man - cash -
happened - grabbed - Saturday - manager - absolutely - exactly -pants -
afternoon - plastic - bag - cat - sat - ...
/ʌ/ with "u and o"
Examples:
Cup - love - much - lunch - understand - unhappy - uninteresting - nothing
- cousin - honey - sunny - fun - shut - dumb - just - month - company -
wonderful - does - flood - couple - touch - something - cut - mother -
enough - bus - ...
/ɪ/ with "i"
Examples:
Is - its - isnt - kid - bill - with - film - interesting - minute -
six - fifty - begin - quick - bit - sit - ...
/e/ with "e"
Examples:
Yes - Fred - left - spend - friend - shelf- help - yourself - jealous - ten -
cents - any - ten - bed - everybody - everything - expensive - ...
/ʊ/ with "o"
Examples:
Put - look - book - foot- took - cook - full - good - woods -
football - cushions - could - should - room - sugar - woman -
wool - stood - pull - full - soot - ...
2-2: Long vowels:
/ɔː/ with "a"
Examples:
All - ball - bald - jaw - law - saw - raw - thought - fault - morning -
airport - reporter - awful - audience - walk - fall - always - toward - small
- warm - wall - hall - call - floor - also - draw - bought - water - talk - ...
/ɑː/ with "o"
Examples:
Job - hot - not - socks - shop - modern - popular - bottle - horrible - wash
- want - boss - cough - dog - ...
/uː/ with "ou, o, oo, oe, ue, u, "
Examples:
You - do - too - soon - shoes - blue - Peru - move - who - moon, soup, fool, ...
Examples:
/juː/ with "u"
Tuesday - student - introduce - music - beauty - university
- argue - cute - use - newspaper- ...
/ɜː/ with "ir, ur, or, ear, er, or"
Examples:
Bird, turn, shirt, fur, word, work, burn, hurt, heard,
Burn, girl - her, concern, thirsty, occur, third, were,
Thursday, dirty, journey, herb, early, service, perfect,
search, worse, nurse, stir, ....
2-3: Two vowels:
/ɔɪ/ with "oi and oy"
Examples:
Boy - enjoy - choice - noise - voice - annoyed - enjoy - spoil - destroy -
toy - choice - avoid - employer - ...
/aʊ/ with "ow and ou"
Examples:
How - now - brown - found - around - down - loudly -
shouting - out - mouse - house - couch - town - hour - scout -
thousand - noun - our - ...
But not in bowl,
/eɪ/ with "ay - ey - ai - an - CaC- aCe(C:
consonant & e: silent)"
Examples:
Say - hey - rain - change - late - paper - they - today - away -
mistake - made - afraid - pain - paint - train - wait - straight -
main - may - station - ages - April - eight - break - great
When a word ends in a silent e, the previous vowel is long.
Bite [ay] - date [ey] - joke [ow] - lute [uw] - mete [iy]
/aɪ/ with iCe (C: consonant, e: silent),
i, igh, y, ie, yCe, ye:
Others sounds
iCe - Bike - kite - strike - vine - hide - like -
time - drive - smile - ride - ice - nine - crime - write - fine - hike
i- Hi - idea - Friday - exciting - final -
bicycle - library
child - find - climb - pint - mind - ninth - blind - silence
behind - spider - island - isle - Ill -
igh - high - light - night - right - bright - might
y - cry - my - sky - fly - July - reply - psychologist - typist
ie- die - pie - lie - tie - variety - diet
yCe : type - rhyme - style - byte
ye - eye - dye - bye
Others:
uy: buy - guy
ei: height
ai: aisle - Hawaii
/əʊ/ with "o"
No - ago - over - window - hello- throw - snow - open - dont - close -
ok - joke - woke - coat - October - know - bowl - hole - soap - though -
cold - older - rose
Bird sound /ɜː/
Bird, turn, shirt, fur, word, work, burn, hurt, heard,
Burn, girl her, concern, thirsty, occur, third, were,
Thursday, dirty, journey, herb, early, service, perfect,
search, worse, nurse stir,
3- Some particular cases:
3-1 The consonant C + vowels:
Pronounce [s] in words that begin in C + e or i:
Examples:
Century, celebrity, circle, ...
Pronounce [k] if the letter C is followed by a, o, or u:
Examples:
Career - cool - curtain, ...
3-2 The letter G + vowels:
Pronounce [j] if the letter g is followed by e or i:
Examples:
Gerund, giraffe, garbage,
Except: give, girl and gift (we pronounce [g]).
If the letter g is followed by a, o, or u, we pronounce also [g].
Examples:
Garage, goal, ...
Next: The phonetics of the word
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