Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet as used for English.

The various regional accents of English speakers are distinguished from each other far more by vowels than by consonants. For this reason, the consonants of English will be discussed together, while the discussion of vowels will be divided into three parts: Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian.

The slashes around IPA symbols are not part of the IPA itself, but just serve to indicate that the contents of the slashes are not normal text, but a phonemic transcription. The distinction is important, as some IPA transcriptions can look like other words. For example, an IPA transcription for bean could be .

Consonants

---

The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following table. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left is voiceless, the one to the right voiced.

	Bi­labial	Labio- dental	Labio- velar	Den­tal	Alveo­lar	Post- alveo­lar	Pala­tal	Velar	Glot­tal
Stop
Affricate
Nasal
Fricative
Approximant
Lateral approximant

• : pit
• : bit
• : tin
• : din
• : cut
• : gut
• : cheap
• : jeep
• : map
• : nap
• : bang
• : fat
• : vat

• : thin
• : then
• : sap
• : zap
• : she
• : measure
• : loch, Chanukah (often replaced by and )
• : ham
• : whine (also written )
• : we
• : run (often written in broad transcription)
• : yes
• : left

Vowels

---

This section discusses the symbols used for the vowel phonemes in three major English accents.

Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation is the prestige British accent, sometimes referred to as BBC English.

Full vowels

Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables.

Monophthongs	Short			Long
	Front	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close
Mid
Open

• : bid
• : good
• : bed (sometimes transcribed )
• : bud
• : bat (sometimes transcribed )
• : pot

• : bead
• : booed
• : bird (sometimes transcribed )
• : bought, board
• : father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to	to
Starting close
Starting mid
Starting open

• : bay
• : boy
• : toe
• : buy (sometimes transcribed )
• : cow

• : beer
• : boor (falling out of use in British English; often replaced by )
• : bear (sometimes transcribed )

Reduced vowels

Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables.

• : roses
• : Rosa’s, runner
• : bottle
• : button
• : rhythm

General American

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Checked				Free
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central rhotacized	Back
Close
Close-mid
Open-mid
Open

• : bid
• : good
• : bed
• : bud
• : bad

• : bead
• : booed
• : bayed
• : bode
• : bird
• or : bought
• : body, pod, father

Note: the vowels and are diphthongal for many American speakers, so the transcriptions and are also often used.

Diphthongs	Closing			Rhotacized
	to	to
Starting close
Starting mid
Starting open

• : boy
• : buy, thigh
• : bout, cow

• : beer, h'ere
• : boor, manure (often replaced by , sometimes by in American English)
• : bear, air
• : bore (sometimes phonemicized )
• : bar

Reduced vowels

• : roses (for many Americans merged with )
• : Rosa’s
• : runner
• : bottle
• : button
• : rhythm

General Australian

Full vowels

Monophthongs	Short				Long
	Front	Central	Back		Front	Central	Back
Close
Mid
Open

• : bid
• : good
• : bed
• : pot
• : bat
• : bud

• : bead
• : booed
• : bared
• : bird
• : bought, board
• : bad
• : father, bard

Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
	to unrounded	to rounded
Starting close
Starting mid
Starting open

• : boy
• : toe
• : bay
• : buy
• : cow

• : beer
• : tour (falling out of use in Australian English; often replaced by disyllabic or monophthongal )

Reduced vowels

• : roses, Rosa’s, runner
• : bottle
• : button
• : rhythm

Suprasegmentals

---

The suprasegmental symbols are called that because they apply to more than one segment (vowel or consonant). In English, the relevant suprasegmentals are the markings for primary and secondary stress.

• Primary stress:
• Secondary stress:

Primary stress is indicated by the symbol before the stressed syllable; secondary stress by the symbol before the syllable, for example battleship .

See also

---

• English phonology
• IPA chart for English
• SAMPA, X-SAMPA, and Kirshenbaum are methods of mapping IPA designations into ASCII.
• List of phonetics topics
• Pronunciation respelling for English

External links

---

• LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English ONLINE uses IPA.
• Online IPA editor for English
• Roman Phonetic Transcription of English
• IPA transcription systems for English — discussion by John C. Wells of RP transcriptions

English phonology | Pages containing IPA | Phonetic alphabets

英語IPA