Correct pronunciation of English letters and sounds. English transcription: pronunciation of letters and sounds in English

We continue our lessons for learning to read in English. On the plate on the left, green arrows indicate the sounds that we have already passed. Since we have studied almost all consonants, in this lesson we will repeat 8 studied vowel sounds to consolidate their pronunciation. Of the consonant sounds, only 4 remained. Sounds [ r] And [ w] we go through in this lesson, and the sounds [j] and [ŋ] in the next. So, let's begin!

From Lesson 14 you will learn:

• how to read english consonants Rr And www;
• how to read letters wr, wh, rh, er/or,

Let's start with the pronunciation of sounds, and then move on to reading letter combinations.

So the letter www denotes a sound [w]. Letter Rr denotes a sound [r]. Both sounds are quite complex, because there are no similar sounds in Russian.

mouth exercise, which will help you learn how to pronounce the English sound [w]: pull your lips into a tube, as if you want to blow out a candle, and then sharply push the corners of your mouth to the sides, as if in a smile. And so many times: a tube - a smile, a tube - a smile, a tube - a smile ...

Pronunciation of the English sound [w]. Now that your mouth is prepared, let's start pronouncing the sound. For a moment, pull your lips into a tube, as if you want to make the sound "y", and when you start to say "y", immediately smile sharply. You get a sound, a bit like "v".

Actually the sound [w] very often the letters "u" and "v" are transmitted in Russian. Even in official sources, the name William is sometimes spelled William, sometimes William. Because there is NO such sound in Russian.

If you still do not quite understand how to pronounce the English sound [w] correctly, then pronounce it like a short "y", but in no case, like "v".

Once again, note that when you pronounce "y" your lips are rounded and do NOT touch the teeth, the same position of the lips must be observed when pronouncing the sound [w].

When pronouncing the sound "v", the upper teeth touch the lower lip. This should not be!

How to pronounce the English sound [r] correctly?

Let me tell you, this is a very complex sound. At least it was for me.

What you need to do to pronounce an English sound [r] right and How does English [r] differ from Russian "r"?

• When making a sound [r] can come from the sound [ʒ], which you already know how to pronounce. Only the tip of the tongue needs to be bent even further back ringlet.
• Tip of the tongue when making a sound [r] located in the back of the upper palate, the tongue does not shake. It looks like a burry "r" sound.
• When pronouncing the Russian sound “r”, the tongue shakes at the upper teeth: “pppp-pp-p ...”

Hear how sounds [w] and [r] are pronounced correctly —

Reading letter combinations with sound R: wr, rh, er / or

2. Letter combinations er, or at the end of the word are read as [ə] : sister, doctor, etc.

3. wr, rh reads like [r]: wr ist - wrist, rh ythm [‘rɪð(ə)m], as well as in such common words that we still cannot read: wr ite (write), wr ong (wrong)

Reading letter combinations with the sound W: wh

1. wh reads like [w]: wh at - What, as well as in such common words that we still cannot read: wh y (why), wh ite (white), wh ile (while).

Exception. wh before o reads like [h]: wh o (who), wh ose (whose)

2. At the end of a word w unreadable: slo w

Phonetic exercises for practicing sounds [w] and [r] with audio recording (closed content)

Paid content is hidden. The right to view paid content is reserved for registered users who have paid for access.

Title: Learning to read in English. Subscription code 19

Description: Access to a course of lessons on learning to read in English and pronunciation at the same time. 50% discount until 01/01/2020. Author T.V. Nabeeva

Phrases with sounds [w] and [r] for working out during the week:

1. What? - What?
2. When? - When?
3. Very well. - Very good.
4. The weather is terrible. — The weather is terrible.
5. We will see. - We will think about it.
6. What did she see? What did she see?
7. He is sorry. - He's sorry.
8. We are ready. - We are ready.
9. Get well! - Get better!
10. Keep in touch. - We'll be in touch.

An important aspect of learning any language is pronunciation. Often, when hearing Russian speech from the mouth of a foreigner, we hardly understand what they want to say to us, and vice versa, when trying to say something to a foreigner in his native language, we find that they do not understand us. Therefore, when learning English, it is important to master its pronunciation.

English pronunciation has certain difficulties. Unlike the Russian language, in which the word is both heard and written, in English everything is different. The way an English word is pronounced almost always doesn't match how it looks in writing. Some English words have the same spelling but are pronounced differently depending on the context, and some words can be pronounced the same but have completely different meanings and are spelled differently. Therefore, in dictionaries, each English word corresponds to a transcription, and every student of English must first figure out how transcription signs are read. Without this, he will not be able to move forward in learning the language.

Still, there are rules for reading English letters and pronouncing English sounds that you need to know and this, of course, is an important help when reading, although, unfortunately, there are a huge number of exceptions.

These rules are reflected in the table.

Consonants.

English letters		Phonetic transcription	Examples
b	"b" bank	[b]	b oy
c	"to" to from "s" with hell	[k]- before vowels e, i, y and "dumb" e [s]- before vowels e, i and "dumb" e [ʃ] - after vowels before unstressed e, i.	at cellar ocean
d	"d" d om	[d]	d esk
f	"f" football	[f]	Fine
g (before a, o, u ) (before e, i)	"g" year "j" jeans		g-ame
h (pronounced softly)	"x" x aos	[h]	home
j	"j" jin	[ʤ]	jacket
k (before n )	"k" to ino (not pronounced)		k eep k now
l	"l" l imon	[l]	ife
m	"m" little	[m]	m onth
n	"n" never	[n]	ever
p	"p" stop	[p]	stop
qu	the average between "kv" and "ku"		q uick
r	"r" hand	[r]	r un
s (in the first and last syllable) (between vowels) (before -ure )	"s" with hell "h" roses "u" uuka		s-ame ris e s ure
t (at the beginning or end of a word) (before -ion ) (before -ure )	"t" typ "sh" tire "h" often		respect direct ion nature
v	"in" in silts	[v]	very
w	average between "in" and "y"	[w]	w elcome
y (in the first syllable before a vowel)	"th"	[j]	ear
x	"ks"		nex t
z	"z" sub	[z]	z.oo

combination of consonants.

English letters	Approximate matches in Russian	Phonetic transcription	Examples
ch	"h" often	[ʧ]	check-ck
dge	"j"	[ʤ]	knowledge
gh (in the last syllable) (at the beginning of a word)	"f" form (not pronounced) "g" year		laugh eigh-t gh ost
ll	"l" boat	[l]	cellar
ph	"f" phone	[f]	teleph one
sh	"sh" duck	[ʃ]	sh op
th (in verbs, nouns,..) (in articles, adverbs,..)	interdental "ts" interdental "z"		th anks th e
wh (before O) (before o, i, e)	"x" x huligan "y" Will (name)		whose wh ere

Vowels.

In English, there are only six letters A, E, I, O, U, Y, which represent vowel sounds, but there are many more variants of their pronunciation. The letter Y can represent not only vowels, but also the consonant "y" (see above).

English letters	Approximate matches in Russian	Phonetic transcription	Examples
a before consonant+ e at the end	"hey" le th "uh" uh ho		car la te tha nks
e at the end of a single syllable before w at the end of a word	"e" gen "and" ki t not pronounced		le t he fe w fine
i in the last syllable	"s" we sh "ay" la th		si ster hi
o between consonants after d, t at the end of a word	"ooh" in the word "bowling" "au" in Laura		ho t to fro zen ho w
u before consonant+ e at the end	short "a" in the word "ra k" muffled "yu"		excu se but t Attitu de
y (at the end of a word after a consonant)	"ah" bark		by

Vowel combinations.

English letters	Approximate matches in Russian	Phonetic transcription	Examples
ai between consonants	"hey" Jane		rai n
ea	shorter "and"		ea ch great
au	middle sound between "o" and "o" ro	[ɑ]	cau se
ee after a consonant	long "and"		bee
ei	"ouch" Ayzek		ei ther ei ght
ie	"and" blade		fie ld pie
oo	long "y" middle between "u" and "u"		foo d goo d
ou	middle between "u" and "u" "au" rau nd short "a" cha s		you round enou gh

“I don’t understand transcription”, “How is it written in Russian letters?”, “Why do I need these sounds?”... If you start learning English with such moods, then I will have to disappoint you: it is unlikely that you will achieve significant success in English.

Without mastering the transcription, it will be difficult for you to understand the structure of English pronunciation, you will constantly make mistakes, experience difficulties in learning new words and using dictionaries.

Since school, the attitude of many to transcription is frankly negative. In fact, there is nothing complicated in transcribing English. If you do not understand it, then you have not explained this topic properly. In this article, we will try to fix this.

To understand the essence of transcription, you must clearly understand the difference between letters and sounds. Letters is what we write, and sounds- what we hear. Transcription marks are the sounds represented in writing. For musicians, this role is performed by notes, and for you and me, transcription. In Russian, transcription does not play a big role in you, as in English. Here are vowels that are read differently, and combinations that need to be remembered, and letters that are not pronounced. The number of letters and sounds in a word does not always match.

For example, the word daughter has 8 letters, and four sounds ["dɔːtə]. If the final [r] is pronounced, as in American English, then there are five sounds. The combination of vowels au gives the sound [ɔː], gh is not read at all, er can be read as [ə] or [ər], depending on the variant of English.

There are a huge number of similar examples. It is difficult to understand how to read a word and how many sounds are pronounced in it if you do not know the basic rules of transcription.

Where can you find transcription? First of all, in dictionaries. When you find a new word in the dictionary, there must be information nearby about how the word is pronounced, that is, transcription. In addition, in textbooks, the lexical part always contains transcription. Knowledge of the sound structure of the language will not allow you to remember the incorrect pronunciation of words, because you will always identify the word not only with its literal representation, but also with its sound.

In domestic publications, transcription is usually placed in square brackets, and in dictionaries and manuals of foreign publishers, transcription is presented in slash brackets / /. Many teachers use slash brackets when they write the transcription of words on the board.

Now more about the sounds of the English language.

There are 44 sounds in the English language, which are divided into vowels(vowels ["vauəlz]), consonants(consonants "kɔn(t)s(ə)nənts]). Vowels and consonants can form combinations including diphthongs(diphthongs ["dɪfθɔŋz]). Vowels in English differ in longitude by brief(short vovels) and long(long vowels), and consonants can be divided into deaf(voicels consonants ), voiced(voiced consonants). There are also those consonants that are difficult to classify as deaf or voiced. We will not delve into phonetics, since at the initial stage this information is quite enough. Consider the English sound table:

Let's start with vowels. Two dots near the symbol indicate that the sound is pronounced for a long time, if there are no dots, then the sound should be pronounced briefly. Let's see how the vowels are pronounced:

- long sound I: tree, free

[ɪ ] - short sound And: big, lip

[ʊ] - short sound U: book, look

- long sound U: root , boot

[e] - sound E. Pronounced the same as in Russian: hen, pen

[ə] - neutral sound E. It sounds when the vowel is not stressed or at the end of the word: mother ["mʌðə], computer

[ɜː] - a sound similar to the sound Yo in the word honey: bird, turn

[ɔː] - long sound O: door, more

[æ] - sound E. Pronounced widely: cat, lamp

[ʌ] - short sound A: cup, but

- long sound A: car , mark

[ɒ] - short sound O: box, dog

diphthongs- these are combinations of sounds consisting of two vowels, always pronounced together. Consider the pronunciation of diphthongs:

[ɪə] - IE: here, near

- uh: fair, bear

[əʊ] - EU (OU): go, no

- AU: how, now

[ʊə] - UE: sure [ʃauə], tourist ["tuerrest]

- HEY: make, day

- AI: my bike

[ɔɪ] - OH: : boy, toy

Consider consonants sounds. Voiceless and voiced consonants are easy to remember, since each of them has a pair:

Voiceless consonants:	Voiced consonants:
[ p ] - sound P: pen, pet	[ b ] - sound B: big, boot
[f] - sound Ф: flag, fat	[ v ] - sound B: vet, van
[ t ] - sound T: tree, toy	[d] - sound D: day, dog
[ θ ] - interdental sound, which is often confused with C, but when pronounced, the tip of the tongue is between the lower and upper front teeth: thick [θɪk], think [θɪŋk]	[ð] - interdental sound, which is often confused with З, but when pronouncing, the tip of the tongue is between the lower and upper front teeth: this [ðɪs], that [ðæt]
[ tʃ ] - sound Ch: chin [ʧɪn], chat [ʧæt]	[dʒ] - sound J: jam [ʤæm], page
[ s ] - sound C: sit, sun	[z] - sound З:
[ʃ] - sound Ш: shelf [ʃelf], brush	[ ʒ ] - sound Zh: vision ["vɪʒ(ə)n], decision
[ k ] - sound K: kite, cat	[ g ] - sound Г: get, go

Other consonants:

[h] - sound X: hat, home
[m] - sound M: make, meet
[n] - English sound H: nose, net
[ŋ] - a sound reminiscent of H, but pronounced through the nose: song , long - a sound reminiscent of P: run , rest
[l] - English sound L: leg, lip
[w] - a sound reminiscent of B, but pronounced with rounded lips: , west
[j] - sound Y: you, music ["mjuːzɪk]

Those who want to learn more about the phonetic structure of the English language can look for resources on the Internet, where they will tell you what sonorants, stops, fricatives and other consonants are.

If you just want to understand the pronunciation of English consonants and learn how to read transcription without unnecessary theory, then we recommend that you share everything consonants sounds into the following groups:

• The sounds that are pronounced almost the same as in Russian : this is the majority of consonants.
• The sounds that similar to those in Russian but are pronounced differently. There are only four of them.
• The sounds that not in Russian . There are only five of them and it is a mistake to pronounce them the same way as in Russian.

Pronunciation of sounds marked yellow, practically does not differ from Russian, only sounds [p, k, h] are pronounced with "aspiration".

green sounds- these are the sounds that need to be pronounced in the English manner, they are the cause of the accent. The sounds are alviolar (for sure, you heard this word from your school teacher), to pronounce them, you need to raise your tongue to the alviols, then you will sound "in English".

Sounds tagged red, are absent in Russian at all (although it seems to someone that this is not the case), so you should pay attention to their pronunciation. Do not confuse [θ] and [s], [ð] and [z], [w] and [v], [ŋ] and [n]. The [ r ] sound is less of a problem.

Another aspect of transcription is stress, which is marked with an apostrophe in transcription. If the word has more than two syllables, then the stress is always present:

Hotel -
police-
interesting - ["ɪntrəstɪŋ]

When a word is long, polysyllabic, then it may contain two accents, with one upper (main), and the second - lower. The lower stress is indicated by a comma-like sign and is pronounced weaker than the upper one:

disadvantaged - [ˌdɪsəd"vɑːntɪʤ]

When reading the transcription, you may notice that some sounds are presented in parentheses (). This means that the sound can be read in the word, but you can not pronounce it. Usually in brackets you can find a neutral sound [ə], sound [r] at the end of a word, and some others:

Information - [ˌɪnfə" meɪʃ (ə) n]
teacher - ["tiːʧə(r)]

Some words have two pronunciations:

Forehead ["fɔrɪd] or ["fɔːhed]
Monday ["mʌndeɪ] or ["mʌndɪ]

In this case, choose the option that you prefer, but remember that this word can be pronounced differently.

Many words in the English language have two variants of pronunciation (and, accordingly, transcription): in British English and in American English. In this situation, learn the pronunciation that corresponds to the variant of the language you are studying, try not to mix words from British English and American English in your speech:

Schedule - ["ʃedjuːl] (BrE) / ["skeʤuːl] (AmE)
neither - ["naɪðə] (BrE) / [ˈniːðə] (AmE)

Even if before that you couldn’t stand transcription, after reading this article you saw that reading and transcribing is not at all difficult! After all, you were able to read all the words recorded in the transcription, right? Apply this knowledge, use dictionaries and be sure to pay attention to transcription if you have a new word in front of you, in order to memorize the correct pronunciation from the very beginning and not relearn later!

Stay up to date with all the updates on our website, subscribe to our newsletter, join us V

Starting to learn English, many neglect the study of transcription, considering it a waste of time. However, correct pronunciation is one of the main goals in learning a foreign language.

Where to start?

Pronunciation of individual sounds. Words in English are read differently than they are written, so studying transcription will be the most effective approach to learning the language. In order to learn English sounds independently, it is recommended to go through the study of each sound of the English language separately.

All sounds of English

Reasons to learn the sounds of English

1. When studying transcription - you learn the rules of reading. Having analyzed only about a hundred words, you can build logical chains, determine the main patterns of pronunciation of sounds. Over time, you will be able to pronounce words correctly without much effort. Learning the rules does not eliminate the need to listen to English speech. It is important to develop both auditory and visual memory.
2. By reading aloud you improve your pronunciation skills. The lack of correct pronunciation will become an obstacle in overcoming the language barrier, and subsequently will cause the development of the complex during communication. Incorrect pronunciation can change the meaning of a word or sentence.

Intonation. In working on intonation, it is important to listen to foreign speech. Regularly use audio lessons in teaching, repeat after the speaker, try to feel the intonation. Memorize short poems and dialogues. In order to hear yourself from the outside, use a voice recorder, and then work on your mistakes.

Phonetics is the branch that studies sounds. Its main goal is to teach you how to pronounce English sounds and words correctly, as well as to develop your ability to perceive the speech of native speakers. Therefore, in order to learn how to speak and read English competently, you need to know the English alphabet and learn the pronunciation of individual phonemes and the words in which they are used. English phonetics The English language is built on the Latin alphabet, has only 26 letters (instead of the usual 33), but almost twice as many sounds are superimposed on these familiar letters, namely 46 different phonemes. English sounds are very important for learners of this language, so you need to understand how they are used in speech and for what.

As mentioned above, a distinctive feature of the English language is a huge number of sounds that do not correspond to the number of letters available. That is, one letter can convey several phonemes, depending on the letters that are nearby. Based on this, it is necessary to speak very carefully and accurately. Incorrect use of this or that sound leads to misunderstanding.

For example, the word "bed" (bed) and the word "bad" (bad) They are pronounced and spelled almost the same, so it's easy to get confused. At this stage of learning English, many begin to transcribe the pronunciation in Russian in order to facilitate the memorization process.

However, this "relief" is very misleading, as it often leads to even more confusion between words with similar pronunciations. After all, both words "bed" and "bad" in Russian can be transcribed exclusively as "bad", without displaying the duality of sound. Therefore, it is better to learn sounds separately.

Learning the phonetics of the English language will undoubtedly bring some clarity to the pronunciation and development of all the phrases and words that will come your way during training.

First of all, you should have a dictionary in which you will designate all sounds in traditional transcription, and after that, next to them, their sound in your native language.
It is also worth pointing out special cases of pronunciation, indicating that this word needs to be pronounced somehow in a special way or written down, that it is impossible to give an analogy to the Russian sound. London - London For convenience, phonemes are best divided into groups. For example, consonants, vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs. You also need to constantly practice and perform exercises of this type:

The main city of Great Britain is London. London- 6 letters, 6 sounds. Let's find it on the map of England. Where is it? Then, let's check with our friend: How do you write it? How do you spell it? Now spell this name - Spell this name for us:

- London - [Landen]

Thus, you will not only practice the pronunciation of sounds, but also learn useful words and phrases in a foreign language.

Now let's move on to their spelling and pronunciation.

Sounds of English

Let's get acquainted with a brief description of all sounds using this table.

Sound
Vowels
[ı]	short [and], as in "outside And»
[e]	similar to [e] - "w e st"
[ɒ]	short [o] - "in O T"
[ʊ]	short, close to [y]
[ʌ]	similar to Russian [a]
[ə]	unstressed, close to [e]
	looks like a long [and]
[ɑ:]	deep and long [a] - “g A lka"
[ə:] = [ɜ:]	long [ё] in "sv yo cla"
	long [y], like "b at lka"
[ᴐ:]	deep and long [o] - "d O lgo"
[æ]	Russian [e]
Diphtogi (two tones)
	[hey] - same
[ʊə]	[ue] - poor
[əʊ]	[oh] - tone
[ᴐı]	[oops] - join
	[ah] - kite
	[ea] - hair
[ıə]	[ie] - fear
Tripthongs (three tones)
	[aue] - power
	[yue] - European
	[ae] - fire
Consonants
[b]	Russian [b]
[v]	analogue [c]
[j]	weak Russian [th]
[d]	like [d]
[w]	short [y]
[k]	[k] breathy
[ɡ]	like [r]
[z]	like [h]
[ʤ]	[d] and [g] together
[ʒ]	how [f]
[l]	soft [l]
[m]	as M]
[n]	like [n]
[ŋ]	[n] "on the nose"
[p]	[p] aspirated
[r]	weak [r]
[t]	[t] aspirated
[f]	like [f]
[h]	just exhale
[ʧ]	like [h]
[ʃ]	middle between [w] and [w]
[s]	like [c]
[ð]	voiced [θ] with voice
[θ]	tip of tongue between upper and lower teeth, no voice

Notes:

• Double vowels are read as one sound: moon - - [mun] or bitter - ["bitǝ] - [bit]
• Voiced consonants in English, unlike Russian, do not become voiceless: in a word good [gud] sound [d] is pronounced clearly, just like [g] in dog [dog] etc.

The meaning of correct pronunciation

As I have already said, it is very important and absolutely necessary to improve English pronunciation, because a large number of words in this language differ by only one or two sounds. But sometimes, even such a small difference is critical for correct and accurate contact with primary native speakers. Pronunciation I repeat once again that some words that have approximately the same sound must be written down, their spelling memorized and their pronunciation taught. For better mastering and facilitating learning, you can create phrases and sentences with them, constantly pronounce them.