International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) | English Pronunciation

This lesson explains the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and how it can help with English pronunciation.

I start the lesson by defining the International Phonetic Alphabet and showing why it is so useful. The letters of a word don't help us in knowing how to pronounce it because the same letter can have lots of different sounds in different words. For example, the letter "c" has a very different sound in the word "car" compared to the letter "c" in the word "dice". Also the same phonetic sound can be produced by lots of different combinations of letters.

The IPA is a system for representing each phonetic sound with a symbol and we use use these symbols to transcribe the correct pronunciation of a word. In the English language, there are 44 phonetic symbols and sounds made up of vowels (short and long), dipthongs and consonant sounds. In this video, I pronounce all of the 44 sounds (actually called phonemes) and show you the corresponding symbol. On top of these standard 44 sounds, American English has a few other specific sounds which I also pronounce and briefly explain.

Among the consonant sounds, there is a set of 8 pairs of consonants - In each pair, there is a voiceless consonant (example "p") and its equivalent voiced consonant (example "b"). Each pair's sound (example both the "p" and "b" sound) is produced by exactly the same mouth and tongue position. The only difference is that the voiceless consonant sound (example "p") is produced only by the mouth whereas the voiced consonant sound (example "b") is produced by the vibrations of the vocal cords in the throat.

I also present some IPA special characters which are used to represent the start and end of a phonetic transcription, the stressed syllable and the start of a new syllable.

The accent in the video is a British English accent but I do try to pronounce the 3-4 American English sounds with an American accent :)

IPA RESOURCES:

Here is the link to the PDF reference file with all the IPA symbols and example words:

Here are the playlists of my English lessons:

Andrew,
Crown Academy of English

Photo credits:

[CrownAcademyEnglish]

Please tell other English students about my channel and give them the link below:

Andrew
Crown Academy of English

[peterpeter]

Vowels(long)
iː 09:54 uː10:04
ɑː 10:12 ɔː 10:21 ɜː 10:29
vowels(short)
ɪ 12:31 ʊ 12:40 ʌ 12:47 ɒ 12:54 ə 13:01 e 13:09 æ 13:30 ər (US) 13:46 ɜː (US) 13:59
Diphthongs
ɪər 14:26 ʊər 14:37 aɪ 14:45 ɔɪ 14:53 əʊ 15:02 eər 15:11 aʊ 15:27 eɪ 15:36 oʊ (US) 15:51
voiceless voiced
p 18:52 b 19:00
t 19:09 d 19:18
tʃ 19:27 dʒ 19:37
k 19:47 g 19:56
f 20:05 v 20:16
θ 20:28 ð 20:41
s 20:49 z 21:00
ʃ 21:10 ʒ 21:21
other consonants
m 21:42 n 21:53 ŋ 22:03 h 22:15 l 22:26 r 22:37 w 22:47 j 22:57

[SantiYounger]

2:00 Symbols and sounds
3:39 'c' vs 'k'
4:40 British vs American
5:40: Online Dictionaries
6:40 Special symbols
9:30 Vowels (long)
12:24 Vowels (short)
14:11 Diphthongs
16:37 Consonants
21:34 Other consonants
23:12 Reference File

[CrownAcademyEnglish]

Here is the link to the PDF reference file with all the IPA symbols and example words:

Please share this file with people who are learning English :)

[Kensingtonhawk]

I went to australia when i was 18. I knew english as i studied in a private school back in my country but even though it was it was compulsory to speak english in school, 99% students didnt and just used our own mother tongue. So i was fluent in writing and understanding english.

My main issue was stuttering. I had to communicate in english in Australia but i had a hard time as i stuttered a lot cause of lack of speaking english and had a thick asian accent lol

I then came across phonetic charts and started a daily routine of repeating the phonetics sounds 30 mins x twice a day (morning and afternoon) and in 2 months i sound more american/aussie when i speak and i am more fluent with minimal stutters. I also do the imitation technique when watching tv shows or movies to improve my pronunciation.

People often assume i was australian born asian cause of my accent now and i am so proud. Its not 100% aussie sounding but as said ealier a mix between american/ aussie.

Definitely forgot how to pronounce water or any words ending in R like butter, car, flower, hater etc now i say it wotah, buttah, kah, flawah, hatah lmao saying water is so hard for me now lol

So for anyone who is watching this. Do not give up and keep practicing the phonetics sound daily. Its worth it.

[calvinkrist]

As a native English speaker I find it very strange they never taught us IPA in school (at least where I live in the States). This was very helpful. Thank you very much!

[RicardoMartinez-jylo]

I had a conversation with someone who, like me, has studied English as a Second Language for a lifetime; it takes a lot of patience because English has borrowed words from several languages. In other languages there are fixed rules, you follow the rules and know how to pronounce every word you come across. But not in English. Thanks for the video anyhow.

[nhiennguyen]

Spending whole life in school to study English hasn't got any improvement, but after watching this video, I have an epiphany. Thank you very much Crown Academy of English and Andrew.

[xelllll]

Since this Covid-19, our university makes (online study), then i thought it would be help, and the true is we cant learn as well as we in the university to much course that we cant understand cuz we do not get the materials or books...

Our lecture wants us to download books but we cant find the same book like our lecture, ..

Thats why i came here for learn by myself.. and this is really help me...

Thanks a lot🙏

[stoiclady]

Definitely one of the most clarifying and didactic teaching videos I have ever watched. After years learning English I could never fancy grasping the IPA that easy. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

[nureinherz]

I appreciate that you do this without rushing through the lessons. Great video!

[hamidzakaria]

i'm an english student .. the video really helped me to improve my knowledge about ipa symbols .. and i would like to say thank you for this great job i will see all your other videos hopefully it could resolve my problems in english.

[kaushalraj]

I'm from India thanks sir for this wonderful class it's help me allot

[Learning]

Best Explanation of IPA on Youtube, explained in a short video. Thank you

[qlepregunta]

I'd thought it was all complicate and too much extended/long for my poor old brain but you do it really easy to follow. Thank you very much, Andrew for doing this lesson so simple and crystal clear.

[georgekurien]

The sound in English language is clearly described and it certainly deserves commendation .

[MrYnotJunior]

I have a phonetic exam tomorrow. I found this very helpfull! Thank you!

[nyballcossta]

the best one. I am now teaching high school teachers in my country and this helps me a lot. Thank you very much!

[sreejarajendran]

thankyou so much . I had a spelling bee contest today and i got 2nd prize and won an ipad and an iphone and a macbook and an apple watch i am so happy like butterflies thankyou so so so so so so muchhhh i love you.

[shaalomhossen]

Hi, I'm Dylan, from Bangladesh, student of Bangladesh National University, Department of English, I couldn't deliver or understand any speech especially like an english, I don't find any good teacher like you, really, enjoyable. thanks.