English reading types. English letters and their transcription. Plus running combinations of English letters. Understandable and accessible

Transcription and reading rules in English language- two closely related concepts. Reading rules explain how letters and letter combinations are pronounced in different cases, and with the help of transcription, we record and read speech sounds.

Reading rules can confuse a beginner. There are many, they are confusing, and there are more exceptions than the rules themselves. In fact, these rules are so terrible only if you deeply understand them and try to learn by heart along with exceptions. In fact, everything is much simpler: reading rules do not need to be memorized.

Studying English, you will constantly be something, and soon you will learn to correlate letter designations and sounds without thinking, automatically. Don't worry about exceptions either. Usually, the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning of a word are remembered as one whole - you just know that such and such a word is pronounced that way.

Feature of English phonetics: we write "Manchester" - we read "Liverpool"

The phonetics of the English language has notable feature: words are often read differently than they are written, that is, it is not always possible to guess from the spelling of a word how it is pronounced. As linguists joke: “We write Manchester, but we read Liverpool.”

In the history of many languages, the following pattern can be traced: the phonetic structure becomes more complicated, while the letters and spelling remain the same or change with great delay. English is no exception. At the dawn of its development, words were read and pronounced more or less similarly, but over time this discrepancy became more and more, the situation was aggravated by the variety of dialects, and now we are already in words though, thought and through read a combination of letters - ough completely different, although the words themselves differ by one letter.

No one is in a hurry to reform English spelling, there are many reasons for this. For example, the English language no longer has a single “control center”. Reforms initiated in London may be coolly received in Sydney and rejected in Washington. And in general, spelling reform is always a painful process, meeting resistance among a significant part of native speakers. Much easier to leave as is.

What is transcription and why is it needed?

Transcription in English is the recording of speech sounds using special characters. It should not be feared or avoided, because it is a very good assistant in learning the language, which will be great to save time and help avoid mistakes. One glance at the transcription of an English word is enough for you to understand how it is read correctly.

When you memorize or write out a new word that comes across in the text, you must definitely look at its transcription and / or listen to the pronunciation (for example, in), otherwise you may remember it incorrectly, and then you will not be understood.

Is it possible to write English words in Russian letters?

Sometimes on websites or even in books you can see “ English transcription in Russian” or “pronunciation of English words in Russian letters” - that is, the recording of English words in Russian letters. Like, why learn tricky badges if can convey sounds in Russian letters? Then what it is forbidden. The phonetics of the Russian language differs from English phonetics so much that the sound can only be conveyed very, very approximately. We simply do not have some sounds of English speech, as well as vice versa.

Transcription and pronunciation of all sounds of the English language separately (video)

With the help of this interesting video table, you can listen to the sound of all sounds separately and see how they are recorded using transcription. Click on play and wait for the video to fully load, then click on the desired sound.

Please note that in transcription, in addition to the symbols themselves, denoting sounds, the following are used:

• Square brackets– traditionally transcription is always written in [ square brackets]. For example: [z].
• Vowel length icon- in English, vowels can be long and short, longitude is indicated by a colon after the vowel. For instance: .
• accent icon- if a word is transcribed, in which there is more than one syllable, stress must be indicated with an apostrophe (a comma at the top). It is placed before the stressed syllable. For example: – decision.

In total, 44 sounds are distinguished in English, which, like in Russian, are divided into consonants and vowels. Among them there are both sounds similar to Russian, for example: [b] - [b], [n] - [n], and sounds that have no analogues in Russian: [ ð ], [θ ].

In English phonetics, there are no such concepts as softness / hardness of consonants, but there is a longitude of vowels (not characteristic of the Russian language) - vowels can be short [a] and long. It should also be noted that vowel sounds in English can be:

• single (monophthongs): [ i: ], [ e ],
• consisting of two sounds (diphthogni): [ ai ], [ ɔi ],
• consisting of three sounds (triphthongs): [ aiə ].

Diphthongs and triphthongs are read and perceived as whole sounds.

Table of English sounds with examples and cards

Having studied how English sounds are pronounced separately, be sure to listen to how they are read whole words. It is often easier for students to understand and hear the pronunciation of English sounds when they sound as part of a word, and not separately.

In the tables below, all sounds are given with example words. With the help of electronic cards, you can listen to the pronunciation.

Consonants in English
[ f] fox	[ d] date	[ v] vase	[ k] cat
[ θ ]think	[ g] go	[ ð ] father	[ tʃ] change
[ s] say	[ dʒ] age	[ z]zoo	[ m] mom
[ ʃ ] ship	[ n] nose	[ ʒ ]pleasure	[ ŋ ]sing
[ h]hound	[ l]lazy	[ p]pen	[ r] red
[ b]bro	[ j] yes	[ t]today	[ w]wine

Vowel sounds in English
[ i:] he, she	[ ei] name	[ i] his, it	[ ai] line
[ e]ten	[ au]town	[ æ ]hat	[ ɔi] toy
[ a:] car	[ ou] go home	[ ɔ ]not	[ iə]here
[ ʌ ]nut	[ ɛə ] dare	[ u] good	[ uə]poor
[ u:] food	[ juə]Europe	[ ju:] tune	[ aiə] fire
[ ɜ: ] turn	[ auə]our	[ ə ] paper	[ ɔ: ] all

How to learn to pronounce English sounds?

There are two approaches:

1. Theoretical- Textbooks usually have detailed description how to press the tongue against the palate to form a certain sound. With an illustration showing a cross section of a human head. The method is scientifically correct, but it is difficult to use it on your own: not everyone will understand what it means to “slide the upper teeth on the lower lip” and be able to perform this action.
2. Practical- listen, watch and repeat. I think it's much easier that way. You simply repeat after the speaker, trying to imitate the sound as closely as possible. Pay attention to articulation, try to repeat all the movements of the lips and tongue. Ideally, of course, someone should control, but you can just record yourself on a webcam and watch from the side.

If you want to repeat after the speaker, imitating his speech, I recommend using the materials on Puzzle English, namely the Video Puzzle exercises, which are aimed at developing listening comprehension. In video puzzles, you can slow down speech and, as in Lingvaleo, watch the translation of words by clicking on them directly in the subtitles.

In video puzzles, you first need to watch the video, and then collect sentences from words.

Detailed overview of this service:

In addition, for practical exercises different kind people There are many videos available on YouTube. For example, in these two videos, the sounds of English speech in American and British versions are analyzed in detail:

British pronunciation

American pronunciation

You should not, having started studying English, strive to achieve a “perfect” pronunciation. Firstly, there are a lot of varieties of pronunciation (the above are, as it were, “generalized” British and American variants), and secondly, even native speakers who speak professionally (for example, actors) often take lessons from special trainers in order to master the features of or another version of pronunciation - practicing speech is not an easy task.

Just try to speak in such a way that 1) it is clear, 2) it does not hurt your hearing too much.

Reading rules in English: table and cards

Reading rules in English are, rather, not even rules, but generalized recommendations that are not particularly accurate. Not only can, say, the letter “o” in different combinations and types of syllable be read in nine different ways, but there are also exceptions. For example, in the words food, too, it is read as, and in the words good, look - as [u]. There is no pattern here, you just need to remember it.

If you look in different books, it turns out that the rules of reading, and indeed phonetics, by different authors can be told in different ways with varying degrees diving into the details. I think that it makes no sense to delve into the wilds of phonetic science (you can dive there indefinitely), but the easiest way is to take as a basis the most simplified version of the reading rules, that is English reading rules for children.

For this article, I took as a basis the rules given in the textbook “English. 1 - 4 classes in diagrams and tables "N. Vakulenko. Believe me, this is more than enough for both children and adults!

What is open and closed syllable?

In English, an open syllable and a closed one are distinguished, it also matters whether it ends with the letter “r” and whether it is stressed.

A syllable is called open if:

• a syllable ends in a vowel and is the last in a word,
• a vowel is followed by another vowel
• a vowel is followed by a consonant followed by one or more vowels.

The syllable is closed if:

• it is the last in the word, while ending in a consonant,
• after a vowel there are two or more consonants.

In these cards and the table below you can see how to pronounce different letters in different combinations and types of syllable.

Reading Rules
Reading the letter "A"
A - in open syllable	name, face, cake
A [æ] - in a closed syllable	hat, cat, man
A - in a closed syllable on r	far, car, park
A [εə] - at the end of the word vowel + re	dare, care, stare
A [ɔ:] - combinations all, au	all, wall, fall, autumn
Reading the letter "O"
O [əu] - in an open syllable	no, go, home
O [ɒ] - in a closed stressed syllable	not, box, hot
O [ɜ:] - in some words with “wor”	world, word
O [ɔ:] - in a closed syllable on r	form, fork, horse, door, floor
O - in combination "oo"	too, food
O [u] - in combination “oo”	book, look, good
O - in combination "ow"	town, down
O [ɔɪ] - in combination “oy”	toy boy enjoy
O [ʊə] - in combination “oo”	poor
Reading the letter "U"
U, - in an open syllable	pupil, blue, student
U [ʌ] - in a closed syllable	nut, bus, cup
U [u] - in a closed syllable	put, full
U [ɜ:] - in combination “ur”	turn, hurt, burn
Reading the letter "E"
E - in an open syllable, a combination of "ee", "ea"	he, she, see, street, meat, sea
E [e] - in a closed syllable, combination “ea”	hen, ten, bed, head, bread
E [ɜ:] - in combinations “er”, “ear”	her, heard
E [ɪə] - in combinations “ear”	hear, near
Reading the letter "I"
i - in an open syllable	five, line, night, light
i [ɪ] - in a closed syllable	his, it, pig
i [ɜ:] – combined with “ir”	first, girl, bird
i – combined with “ire”	fire, tired
Reading the letter "Y"
Y - at the end of a word	try, my, cry
Y [ɪ] - at the end of a word	family, happy, lucky
Y [j] - at the beginning or middle of a word	yes, year, yellow
Reading the letter "C"
C [s] - before i, e, y	pencil, bicycle
C [k] - except for combinations ch, tch and not before i, e, y	cat, come
C - in combinations ch, tch	chair, change, match, catch
Reading the letter "S"
S [s] - except: at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	say, books, six
S [z] - at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	days, beds
S [ʃ] - combined with sh	shop, ship
Reading the letter "T"
T [t] - except for combinations of th	ten, teacher, today
T [ð] - in combination th	then, mother, there
T [θ] - in combination th	thin, sixth, thick
Reading the letter "P"
P [p] - except for the combination ph	pen, penalty, powder
P [f] - in combination ph	photo
Reading the letter "G"
G [g] - except for combinations ng, not before e, i, y	go, big, dog
G - before e, i, y	age, engineer
G [ŋ] - in combination ng at the end of the word	sing, bring, king
G [ŋg] - combined ng in the middle of a word	strongest

The most important reading rules

The table above looks very busy, intimidating even. Among them are some of the most important rules, which have almost no exceptions.

Basic rules for reading consonants

• The combination ph reads like [f]: photo, Morpheus.
• The combination th reads like [ð] or [θ]: think there. These sounds are not in Russian, their pronunciation requires some training. Do not confuse them with the sounds [s], [z].
• The combination ng at the end of the word reads like [ŋ] - this is a nasal (that is, pronounced as if in the nose) version of the sound [n]. A common mistake is to read it as . There is no “g” in this sound. Examples: strong, King Kong, wrong.
• The sh combination reads like [ʃ]: ship, show, shop.
• The letter “c” before i, e, y reads like [s]: celebrity, cent, pencil.
• The letter “g” before i, e, y reads: age, magic, gym.
• The combination ch reads like: match, catch.

Basic rules for reading vowels

• In an open stressed syllable, vowels are usually read as in: no, go, name, face, pupil, he, five. It can be monophthongs and diphthongs.
• In a closed syllable, vowels are read as short monophthongs: nut, got, ten.

How to remember the rules of reading?

Most people who are fluent in English as a foreign language will not be able to immediately name even a few basic reading rules. Rules readings do not need to be memorized, they need to be able to use. But how can you use what you do not know? How else can you! Through frequent practice, knowledge turns into skills and actions begin to be performed automatically, unconsciously.

In order for the reading rules to quickly reach the automatic stage, I recommend:

• To study the rules themselves - read, comprehend, speak out loud the examples.
• Practice reading aloud - will help develop pronunciation skills, at the same time, the rules of reading will be fixed. Take text with audio, video with subtitles, so that you have something to compare.
• Do small written work - writing practice is good for development vocabulary, to consolidate knowledge of grammar and, of course, to improve spelling.

At the initial stage of learning English, you inevitably have to deal with differences between your native language and a foreign one. Reading in English for beginners, children and adults, is usually one of the first steps in learning. And the first such differences between Russian and English are revealed as soon as you start learning to read in English. You are faced with transcription and rules for reading English. These two concepts are interconnected, since with the help of transcription we can write down and read the sounds that convey vowels and consonants in various combinations. But the rules of reading just explain how letters are pronounced in different environments.

There are a lot of reading rules in English, and they concern both vowels and consonants. Moreover, great amount words are not read according to the rules, that is, they are exceptions. Therefore, it begins to seem that it is extremely difficult to learn all this. In fact, the rules of reading need to be learned, but there is no need to memorize them. After doing a few exercises on the rules of reading, you will already know how exactly the same type of words are read. In the learning process, when you read and listen to a variety of educational materials, spelling, pronunciation and meaning of new words will be remembered as a whole.

Features of English pronunciation

Reading in English for beginners at first presents some difficulties due to the peculiarities of pronunciation - words very often are not pronounced the way they are written. Linguists even have such a saying - "We write - Manchester, we pronounce - Liverpool." This situation is due to the fact that historically in the English language there were, and still are, many dialects in which the same letters and combinations of letters were read differently, which eventually became fixed in official English. An example is the letter combination ough. The words though , through , thought differ in only one letter, and the letter combination ough is read differently in all words.

The role of transcription in teaching English to read

So, as we have already said, in addition to the numerous rules for reading in English, difficulties arise in mastering the transcription of the English language. Transcription is the recording of speech sounds using special characters. You should not avoid her, as she is the most the best assistant in learning a language, which, firstly, will save you time when learning new words, and secondly, will help you avoid mistakes in pronunciation. After all, when you write out or memorize new words, you definitely need to know how they are read correctly. There are two options for how to do this. The first is to listen to it in some online resource, and the second is to look at the transcription.

Now in some tutorials, as well as on training sites, you can find "English transcription in Russian." It is believed that writing an English word in Russian letters is much easier than learning some strange phonetic signs. Actually, this is a delusion. English phonetics differs from Russian so much that Russian letters can only approximately convey the pronunciation of English words, and mostly the simplest ones, the reading of which is not difficult even without this kind of “transcription”. Some English sounds in Russian simply do not exist, and correct pronunciation English and Russian sounds that are similar at first glance may have certain differences.

Thus, we recommend that you take the time to learn the transcription icons and read the sounds. This is one of basic knowledge when mastering the rules of reading English for beginners. Transcription knowledge will serve you faithfully at all stages of your learning.

We analyze the rules of reading English

There are different classifications of rules for reading consonants and vowels in English. For vowels, as a rule, 4 types of syllables are distinguished. These are the 4 types of environments that a vowel can be in and that affect its pronunciation. Some textbooks consider only the first two types of syllable - open and closed, but take into account whether the letter r is involved in these types of syllable - since it affects the reading of vowels. Consonants in different combinations can also be read differently. I must say that the number of exceptions and reading options for the same letter combinations in different words give reason to consider reading rules rather as generalized recommendations that should be studied before you start reading.

To familiarize yourself with the rules of reading in English, we suggest that you take as a basis the table with the options for reading letters, which are given in your textbook for children “English. Grades 1-4 in diagrams and tables” N. Vakulenko. These English reading rules for children cover almost all possible readings of vowels and consonants in English. But before we go directly to the tables, let's deal with two more concepts that you will definitely meet when you get acquainted with the rules of reading. This open and closed syllable.

The syllable is called open, when

• ends in a vowel and is the last word
• a vowel followed by a consonant and then a vowel again
• the vowel is followed by another vowel

Examples of words with open type syllable (you can listen with sound):

age, blue, bye, fly, go

The syllable is called closed, when

• ends in a consonant and is the last word
• several consonants follow a vowel

Examples of words with a closed syllable type:

bed, big, box, hungry, stand

So, let's formulate the rules for reading English for beginners: tables for reading vowels and consonants.

Vowel reading tables

Consonant Reading Tables

Intonation in English

Even if a student learns all the basic grammar rules and 10-12 thousand lexemes, this will not make him close to the native speaker, because. he needs to delve into the phonemic structure of the language, in particular, to learn in which cases to use which type of intonation.

There are two main types - ascending and descending.

The first is used in sentences-requests, when referring to a person, when announcing the list (in this case, the intonation goes up on each of the words except the last one), after adverbs and introductory words at the beginning of a phrase, at the beginning alternative question, in a disjunctive question.

The second type of intonation, lowering the tone, is relevant in statements, when giving orders. It can be found in exclamations, in special questions.

How to train this skill?

• Listen to how native speakers speak, how a particular word, sound, phrase is read in audio books.
• Watch videos on this topic. Moreover, English should be the first and main language of the narrator.
• Use the learning materials and apply the acquired knowledge in practice. Read aloud in English, after listening to the recording, talk at least a few times a week.
• Record your speech and do comparative analysis with native language.

stress in english

With an incorrect accent in certain letter combinations, it will be difficult for a native English speaker to understand you. However, it is pointless to memorize stress for each word, since there is a certain systemic nature in this aspect.

Most words are stressed on the first syllable. But there are those who obey a different rule. For example, the suffix formations -tion, -cian and -cial require an accent in front of them (inform A option, opt i cian). The suffixes -(g)nomy and -logy (ge O logy, ec O nomy).

With prefixes it is still easier - they are skipped and remain unstressed. This works with prefixes in-, en-, con-, com-, re-, de-, ex-, etc.: exch A nge, enc O mpass.

Negative prefixes (non-, un-, in-, ir-, not-) also fall under this rule: un U irr E levant.

There are a number of words that change the stressed type of a syllable in English to unstressed depending on the meaning:

• to object - object; O object - object;
• to press E nt - give; pr E sent - a gift, a present.

Having learned the basic provisions that regulate stress, and with a little practice, you can easily reach a high language bar.

How to learn the rules of reading. Online exercises

As we have said before, there is no need to memorize the rules of reading by heart. You just need to use them. To begin with, go through several exercises on the rules of reading, reading aloud the same type of words in a row. This will help to consolidate the rules of reading and develop pronunciation skills. For additional control, you can take exercises with audio accompaniment. In fact, the reading rules are worked out automatically by themselves, since by regularly studying English, you listen, read, write - that is, practice to work out the reading rules is quite enough.

Choose words that have similar vowel sounds

Choose the words that have the same consonants

Make an English tongue twister from words

You can apply the rules of reading in practice on our website. By taking unique exercises using the Lim English method, you will be able to master not only reading, but also writing English words, as well as learn basic grammar rules and continue learning further.

The sounds of English letters are 44 English phonemes, which are divided into two categories: consonants and vowels. Since sounds cannot be written down, graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) are used to convey sounds in writing.

English alphabet

There are 26 letters in English. The standard English alphabet starts with a and ends with z.

When classifying alphabetic characters, they distinguish:

• 5 pure vowels: a, e, i, o, u;
• 19 pure consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z;
• 2 semivowels: y, w.

Learning the English alphabet requires knowledge of both the symbol representing each letter and phonetic sounds associated with that letter. Learning English phonetics is difficult. Only a small number of letters have no exceptions in the main sound.

In most cases, each letter has several phonemes. The letter B sometimes sounds like bat (bet) or does not sound, for example, in the words crumb (krum), dumb (dam). The letter C sounds like "k" for cat (ket) or "c" for ceiling (si:ling), or "tch" for church (tche:tch). And the list of exceptions is endless.

Vowel sounds

Vowels represent the main category of phonemes in English speech. There are 20 vowels in spoken English. This discrepancy (in relation to alphabetic characters) underlies the complexity of writing in English.

Short	Long	diphthongs
a [æ]	A(ā)
e [ɛ]	E (ē)
i [ɪ]	I (ī)	[ɔɪ]
o [ɒ]	O(ō)	[ɪə]
u [ʌ]	U (ū)
		[ʊə]
		[əʊ]

For short and long vowels, additional vowels are used. For sounds a and e - when the vowel accompanies the sound r. For o, the options are varied.

Consonants

Deaf	voiced	Other
p	b	c
t	d	h
k	g	j
f	v	l
s	z	m
		n
		q
		r
		w
		x
		y

alphabet order

Transcription and stress

Phonetic transcriptions tell about the pronunciation of words. V English dictionaries it necessary condition, because the spelling doesn't say how the word is pronounced.

Phonetic transcriptions are written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each English sound assigned its own character. For example, the IPA-based phonetic transcription of the word home is /hoʊm/, the transcription of come is /kʌm/, despite the fact that the spelling of the words is similar (both end in –ome), but are transcribed with differences.

Vowels	Consonants
ʌ	b
ɑ:	d
æ	f
e	g
ə	h
ɜ:ʳ	j
ɪ	k
i:	l
ɒ	m
ɔ:	n
ʊ	ŋ
u:	p
aɪ	r
aʊ	s
eɪ	ʃ
oʊ	t
ɔɪ	tʃ
eəʳ	θ
ɪəʳ	ð
ʊəʳ	v
	w
	z
	ʒ
	dʒ

The rules do not fully cover aspects of stress in English words. The language is characterized by the presence of exceptions, and the English themselves make mistakes, especially in polysyllabic words.

But obviously some ground rules still apply:

Prefixes in two-syllable words are not stressed, except in some nouns or adjectives. Two-syllable nouns beginning with a prefix are studied individually.

English consonants

consonants in English alphabet less than consonants. Therefore, to expand the alphabet, digraphs of the type "ch", "sh", "th" and "zh", and some letters and digraphs represent more than just one consonant. For example, the sound written "th" in this is transcribed as /ð/, and "th" in thin is /θ/.

English consonants are classified according to their combination of functions:

In addition, there is a function "silent alveolar stop", /t/ when the airflow mechanism is down.

According to the method of formation, consonants are divided into:

1. Approximants: j, w, r.
2. Nine fricative consonants: f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ,ʒ,h.
3. Lateral approximant: l.
4. Two affricative sounds: tʃ and dʒ.
5. Six explosive sounds: p, b, t, d, k, g.
6. Nasal consonants: m, n, ŋ.

The sound - [x] - a voiceless fricative - is non-standard for the English language. Although in some original words, like ugh (ugh!), is an additional marker of irritation. V writing the fricative is represented as "gh".

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Features of English consonants

A consonant combination is a set of two or three consonant letters that retain their original sound when pronounced. Such sets occur either at the beginning or at the end of a word. For example, the word brave, in which both "b" and "r" are pronounced, is the initial combination. In the word bank "-nk" is the final combination.

Classification:

1. Initial combinations are classified into sets with "l", "r", and "s". In "l" the combination ends with "l". An example would be the letters "bl" in the word blind. Similarly, the final sound in "r" in combination with "r" when "br" and "cr", for example, in the words bridge, crane. On the contrary, in "s" it starts with s, "st" and "sn" - stap, snail.
2. The final combinations are grouped into sets with "s", "l" and "n": -st, -sk, -ld, -nd, -nk. Examples, first, desk, gold, sand, sink.

Digraphs

Consonant digraphs refer to a set of consonants that form one sound. Some digraphs are both at the beginning and at the end of the word - "sh", "ch" and "th". There are also strict initial and final digraphs - "kn-" and "-ck".

Examples of digraphs:

Ch-	-ch
Kn-	— ck
Ph-	-sh
Sh-	-ss
Th-	-th
wh-	-tch
Wr-

Features of digraphs:

Table of pronunciation of English consonants

b	b	bag, band, cab	bag, band, cab
d	d	dad, did, lady, odd [ɒd]	dead, did, lady, od
f	f, ph, sometimes gh	fable , fact , if [ɪf], off [ɒf], photo , glyph	fable, fact, if, of, foutow, glyph
g	g	give , flag	givew, flag
h	h	hold, ham	hold, ham
j	usually represented by y, but sometimes by other vowels	yellow, yes, young, neuron, cube	Yelow, ies, yang, n (b) yueron, k (b) yu: b - the sound j is similar to the vowel sound i:.
k	k, c, q, que, ck, sometimes ch	cat, kill, queen, skin, thick [θɪk], chaos	kat, kil, qui:n, sik, keyos
l	l	lane, clip, bell, milk, sould	lane, clip, bel, milk, sould - has two sound options: pure /l/ before a vowel, “darkened” /ɫ/ before a consonant or at the end of a word
m	m	man, them [ðem], moon	man, zem, mu:n
n	n	nest, sun	nest, san
ŋ	ng	ring, sing, finger [ŋ] is sometimes followed by the sound [g]. [ŋ] if "ng" is at the end of a word or a related word (sing, singer, thing), to "-ing", which translates verbs into participles or gerunds. [ŋg] if "ng" is not at the end of a word or in related words, also in comparative degrees(longer, longest).	/ring/, /sing/, /finge/
p	p	pen, spin, tip, happy	pen, spin, type, happy
r	r	rat, reply, rainbow,	rat, ripple, rainbow - movement of the tongue close to the alveolar ridge, but without touching it
s	s, sometimes c	see, city, pass, lesson	si:, pa: s, forest
ʃ	sh, si, ti, sometimes s	she [ʃi:], crash , sheep [ʃi:p], sure [ʃʊə], session , emotion [ɪməʊʃn], leash	shi:, crash, shi:p, shue, session, imashn, li:sh
t	t	taste, sting	test, sting
tʃ	ch, sometimes t	chair [ʧɛə], nature teach beach	t che e, ney t che, ti: t h, bi: t h
θ	th	thing [θɪŋ], teeth, Athens [æθɪnz[	t sing, ti: t s, et sinz - voiceless fricative
ð	th	this [ðɪs], mother	d sis, ma d ze - voiced fricative
v	v, sometimes f	voice, five, of [ɔv]	voice, five, ov
w	w, sometimes u	wet, window, queen	y in em, y in indeu, ku in i: n - [w] is similar to
z	z	zoo, lazy	zu: lazy
ʒ	g, si, z, sometimes s	genre [ʒɑːŋr], pleasure, beige, seizure, vision	genre e, plezhe, beizh, b:zhe, vision
dʒ	j, sometimes g, dg, d	gin [ʤɪn], joy [ʤɔɪ], edge	gin, joy, edge

English vowels

Each English vowel is pronounced in three ways:

1. like a long sound;
2. like a short sound;
3. as a neutral vowel (schwa).

In the English alphabet, there are 5 vowels, but sometimes y becomes a vowel and is pronounced like i, and w replaces u, for example, in the digraph ow.

Rules for reading vowels

Short vowels, which are characterized by a "short" sound, appear when there is one vowel in a word, either at the beginning of a word or between two consonants. For example, if, elk, hop, fan. A typical short vowel pattern is consonant+vowel+consonant (CHS).

Words are taught as families that represent groups of words with a common pattern, such as in the pattern "-ag" - bag, wag, tag or "-at" - cat, bat, hat.

Sound	Letter	Examples
[æ]	a	rag, sag, ram, jam, gap, sap mat
[ɛ]	e	hen, pen, wet, bet, let
[ɪ]	i	pig, wig, dig, pin, win, tin, tin, bit
[ɒ]	o	hop, pop, top, hot, pot, lot
[ʌ]	u	bug, lug, tug, hut, but, cut

Features of reading vowels:

Sound	Writing	Examples
A	ai, ay, a+consonant+e	name, mail, gray, ace
E	e, ee, ea, y, ie ,ei, i+consonant+e	he, deep, beast, dandy, thief, receive, elite
I	i, i+gn, igh, y, i+ld, i+nd	mine, sign, high, sky, wild, kind
O	o+consonant +e, oa, ow, o+ll, ld	tone, road, note, know, roll, bold
U	ew, ue, u+consonant+e	few, due, tune

The vowel sound in unstressed syllables is expressed by the abbreviated neutral sound ("schwa"), the phonemic symbol /ə/, especially if syllabic consonants are not used.

For instance:

• a in about, around, approve, above [ə bʌv];
• e in accident, mother, taken, camera ;
• i c, family, lentil, officer pencil ;
• o in memory, common, freedom, purpose, London;
• u in supply, industry, suggest, difficult, succeed, minimum ;
• and even y in sibyl;
• schwa appears in function words: to, from, are.

Features of vowel sounds in English

Vowels are divided into monophthongs, diphthongs or triphthongs. A monophthong is when there is one vowel in a syllable, a diphthong is when there are two vowels in a syllable.

Let's take a closer look:

1. Monophthongs are pure and stable vowels., the acoustic characteristic (timbre) of which does not change during the time that they are pronounced.
2. A diphthong is a sound formed by the combination of two adjacent vowels in the same syllable. Technically, the tongue (or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves when a vowel is pronounced - the first position is stronger than the second. In the transcription of a diphthong, the first character is the starting point of the body of the language, the second character is the direction of movement. For example, you should know that in /aj/ the body of the tongue is in the lower center position represented by /a/ and immediately starts moving up and forward to the position for /i/.
3. Diphthongs are often formed when separate vowels work together in rapid conversation.. Usually (in the speaker's speech) the body of the tongue does not have time to get to the position /i/. Therefore, the diphthong often ends closer to /ɪ/ or even to /e/. In the diphthong /aw/, the body of the tongue moves from the lower center position /a/, then moves up and back to the position /u/. Although single diphthongs are also distinguished, which are heard as separate vowel sounds (phonemes).
4. English also has triphthongs.(combinations of three adjacent vowels), including three sound types, for example, fire /fʌɪə/, flower /flaʊər/. But in any case, all diphthongs and triphthongs are formed from monophthongs.

Table of pronunciation of simple English vowels

All vowels are formed from only 12 monophthongs. Every word in English, regardless of spelling, is pronounced using some combination of these sounds.

The table shows examples of simple English vowels with Russian pronunciation:

[ɪ]	pit, kiss, busy	pete, kitty, beezy
[e]	egg, let, red	eg, years, red
[æ]	apple, travel, mad	apple, travel, mead
[ɒ]	not, rock, copy	music, rock, copy
[ʌ]	cup, son, money	cap, san, mani
[ʊ]	look, foot, could	bow, foot, cool
[ə]	away, away	hey, hey
	be, meet, read	bi:, mi:t, ri:d
[ɑ:]	arm, car, father	a:m, ka:, fa:dze
[ɔ:]	door, saw, pause	to:, from:, to: from
[ɜ:]	turn, girl, learn	cho:n, gyo:l, le:n
	blue, food, too	blu:, foo:d, tu:

Diphthong pronunciation table

	day, pain, rein	dei, pein, rein
	cow, know	kou, know
	wise, island	visa, island
	now, trout	naw, trout
[ɔɪ]	noise, coins	noiz, coin
[ɪə]	near, hear	nee, hie
[ɛə]	where, air	uh uh uh
[ʊə]	pure, tourist	p (b) yue, tu e rist

Learn the transcription of English words

Consider some features of English transcription:

There are a large number of videos online on the Internet to listen to the pronunciation of sounds, and you can also practice using exercises.

Reading rules in English: table

Reading rules in English are, rather, not even rules, but generalized recommendations that are not particularly accurate. Not only can, say, the letter “o” in different combinations and types of syllable be read in nine different ways, there are also exceptions. For example, in the words food, too, it is read as, and in the words good, look - as [u]. There is no pattern here, you just need to remember it.

If you look in different books, it turns out that the rules of reading, and indeed phonetics, by different authors can be told in different ways with varying degrees of immersion in details. I think that it makes no sense to delve into the wilds of phonetic science (you can dive there indefinitely), but the easiest way is to take as a basis the most simplified version of the reading rules, that isEnglish reading rules for children.

For this article, I based the rules given in the textbook"English language. 1 - 4 classes in diagrams and tables "N. Vakulenko . Believe me, this is more than enough for both children and adults!

What is open and closed syllable?

In English, an open syllable and a closed one are distinguished, it also matters whether it ends with the letter “r” and whether it is stressed.

A syllable is called open if:

• a syllable ends in a vowel and is the last in a word,
• a vowel is followed by another vowel
• a vowel is followed by a consonant, followed by one or more vowels.

The syllable is closed if:

• it is the last in the word, while ending in a consonant,
• after a vowel there are two or more consonants.

Reading Rules
Reading the letter "A"
A - in an open syllable	name, face, cake
A [æ] - in a closed syllable	hat, cat, man
A - in a closed syllable on r	far, car, park
A [εə] - at the end of the word vowel + re	dare, care, stare
A [ɔ:] - combinations all, au	all, wall, fall, autumn
Reading the letter "O"
O [əu] - in an open syllable	no, go, home
O [ɒ] - in a closed stressed syllable	not, box, hot
O [ɜ:] - in some words with "wor"	world, word
O [ɔ:] - in a closed syllable on r	form, fork, horse, door, floor
O - combined "oo"	too, food
O [u] - combined "oo"	book, look, good
O - in combination "ow"	town, down
O [ɔɪ] - in combination "oy"	toy boy enjoy
O [ʊə] - in combination "oo"	poor
Reading the letter "U"
U, - in an open syllable	pupil, blue, student
U [ʌ] - in a closed syllable	nut, bus, cup
U [u] - in a closed syllable	put, full
U [ɜ:] - in combination "ur"	turn, hurt, burn
Reading the letter "E"
E - in an open syllable, a combination of "ee", "ea"	he, she, see, street, meat, sea
E [e] - in a closed syllable, combination "ea"	hen, ten, bed, head, bread
E [ɜ:] - in combinations "er", "ear"	her, heard
E [ɪə] - in combinations "ear"	hear, near
Reading the letter "I"
i - in an open syllable	five, line, night, light
i [ɪ] - in a closed syllable	his, it, pig
i [ɜ:] - in combination "ir"	first, girl, bird
i - in combination "ire"	fire, tired
Reading the letter "Y"
Y - at the end of a word	try, my, cry
Y [ɪ] - at the end of a word	family, happy, lucky
Y [j] - at the beginning or middle of a word	yes, year, yellow
Reading the letter "C"
C [s] - before i, e, y	pencil, bicycle
C [k] - except for combinations ch, tch and not before i, e, y	cat, come
C - in combinations ch, tch	chair, change, match, catch
Reading the letter "S"
S [s] - except: at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	say, books, six
S [z] - at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	days, beds
S [ʃ] - combined with sh	shop, ship
Reading the letter "T"
T [t] - except for th combinations	ten, teacher, today
T [ð] - combined th	then, mother, there
T [θ] - combined th	thin, sixth, thick
Reading the letter "P"
P [p] - except for the combination ph	pen, penalty, powder
P [f] - combined ph	photo
Reading the letter "G"
G [g] - except for combinations ng, not before e, i, y	go, big, dog
G - before e, i, y	age, engineer
G [ŋ] - combined with ng at the end of a word	sing, bring, king
G [ŋg] - combined ng in the middle of a word	strongest

The most important reading rules

The table above looks very busy, intimidating even. Several of the most important rules can be distinguished from it, which have almost no exceptions.

Basic rules for reading consonants

• The combination ph reads like [f]: photo, Morpheus.
• The combination th reads like [ð] or [θ]: think there. These sounds are not in Russian, their pronunciation requires some training. Do not confuse them with the sounds [s], [z].
• The combination ng at the end of the word reads like [ŋ] - this is a nasal (that is, pronounced as if in the nose) version of the sound [n]. A common mistake is to read it as . There is no "g" in this sound. Examples: strong, King Kong, wrong.
• The sh combination reads like [ʃ]: ship, show, shop.
• The letter "c" before i, e, y is read as [s]: celebrity, cent, pencil.
• The letter "g" before i, e, y is read as: age, magic, gym.
• The combination ch reads like: match, catch.

Basic rules for reading vowels

• In an open stressed syllable, vowels are usually read as inalphabet : no, go, name, face, pupil, he, five. It can be monophthongs and diphthongs.
• In a closed syllable, vowels are read as short monophthongs: nut, got, ten.

Reading rules do not need to be memorized, they need to be able to use.