Pronunciation of English words

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

## Overview

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Pronunciation of English words in Wikipedia is most often given in the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA. The goal is that interpretation should not depend on the reader's dialect, and therefore a broad transcription is generally used.

For a more complete key to the IPA, which covers sounds that do not occur in English, see Help:IPA.

Since this key covers standard American, British, and Australian pronunciations, not all of the distinctions shown here will be relevant to your dialect. If, for example, you pronounce cot and caught the same, you can ignore the difference between the symbols Template:IPA and Template:IPA. Again, in many dialects Template:IPA only occurs before a vowel; if you do this, simply ignore Template:IPA in the pronunciation guides where you would not pronounce it. It is not necessary to give multiple transcriptions for such variation.

For a more precise use of the IPA to illustrate differences between English dialects, to transcribe languages other than English, or if the IPA symbols are not displayed on your browser, see the links at the bottom of this page.

## Key

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| Consonants

IPA | Examples
Template:IPA | pen, spin, tip
Template:IPA | but, web
Template:IPA | two, sting, bet
Template:IPA | do, odd
Template:IPA | chair, nature, teach
Template:IPA | gin, joy, edge
Template:IPA | cat, kill, skin, queen, thick
Template:IPA | go, get, beg
Template:IPA | fool, enough, leaf
Template:IPA | voice, have
Template:IPA | thing, teeth
Template:IPA | this, breathe, father
Template:IPA | see, city, pass
Template:IPA | zoo, rose
Template:IPA | she, sure, emotion, leash
Template:IPA | pleasure, beige
Template:IPA | ham, ahead
Template:IPA | man, ham
Template:IPA | no, tin
Template:IPA | ringer, sing, sink
Template:IPA | finger
Template:IPA | left, bell
Template:IPA | run, very[1]
Template:IPA | yes
Template:IPA | we
Template:IPA | what[2]
Marginal consonants
Template:IPA | loch, Chanukkah[3]
Template:IPA | uh-oh (/ʌʔoʊ/), Hawai‘i[4]
Stress
Template:IPA | intonation
(/ˌɪntəˈneɪʃən/)[5]
Template:IPA
| Vowels

IPA | Examples
Template:IPA | bid, pit[6]
Template:IPA | bead, peat[6]
Template:IPA | bed, pet
Template:IPA | bad, pat
Template:IPA | balm, father, pa
Template:IPA | bod, pot, cot
Template:IPA | bawd, paw, caught
Template:IPA | good, foot, put
Template:IPA | booed, food
Template:IPA | bud, putt
Diphthongs
Template:IPA | bay, hey, fate
Template:IPA | buy, high, ride, write
Template:IPA | bough, how, pout
Template:IPA | boy, hoy
Template:IPA | beau, hoe, poke[7]
Template:IPA | beauty, hue, pew, new[8]
R-colored vowels[9]
Template:IPA | mirror
Template:IPA | beer, mere
Template:IPA | berry, merry
Template:IPA | bear, mare, Mary
Template:IPA | barrow, marry
Template:IPA | bar, mar
Template:IPA | moral, forage
Template:IPA | born, for
Template:IPA | boar, four, more
Template:IPA | hurry, Murray
Template:IPA | boor, moor
Template:IPA (ɝ) | bird, myrrh, furry
Reduced vowels
Template:IPA | roses, business (/ˈbɪznɨs/)[10]
Template:IPA | Rosa’s, cuppa (/ˈkʌpə/)
Template:IPA (ɚ) | runner,[11] mercer (/ˈmɜrsər/)

## Notes

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1. ↑ Although the IPA symbol Template:IPA represents a trill, Template:IPA is widely used instead of Template:IPA in broad transcriptions of English.
2. ↑ Template:IPA is found in some dialects, such as Scottish and Southern American English; elsewhere it's pronounced the same as Template:IPA.
3. ↑ In most dialects, Template:IPA is pronounced as Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively, in these two words.
4. ↑ Most people pronounce Hawai‘i without the Template:IPA sound.
5. ↑ It is arguable that English does not distinguish primary from secondary stress, but it is conventional to notate them as here. Likewise, it is debatable whether a word like Glennallen is Template:IPA or Template:IPA; for clarity, the former is used.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 American convention is to write Template:IPA when unstressed, as in wiki Template:IPA and serious Template:IPA; British convention is Template:IPA and Template:IPA, though the OED recently converted to Template:IPA.
7. ↑ Commonly transcribed as Template:IPA or Template:IPA.
8. ↑ In many dialects, dew Template:IPA is pronounced the same as do Template:IPA. This is automatic, and therefore only Template:IPA need be shown in a pronunciation guide.
9. ↑ In many dialects, Template:IPA only occur before vowels. Note that due to American influence, the schwas have been left out in many Wikipedia articles. That is, Template:IPA etc. are not always distinguished from Template:IPA etc. When they are, the distinction may be transcribed Template:IPA etc. by analogy with vowels not followed by Template:IPA.
10. ↑ Few British dictionaries distinguish this from Template:IPA, though the OED uses pseudo-IPA symbol Template:IPA.
11. ↑ Similarly Template:IPA for bottle, button, rhythm,

## See also

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* To compare these symbols with dictionary conventions you may be more familiar with, see Pronunciation respelling for English, which lists the pronunciation guides of fourteen English dictionaries.
* For differences between the national dialects of English, see International Phonetic Alphabet for English, which compares the vowels of Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian.
* For use of the IPA in other languages, see Help:IPA for a quick overview, or the detailed IPA article.
* If your browser does not display these symbols, you probably need to install a font that includes the IPA. A good free IPA font is Gentium; download links can be found on that page.

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