English phonology

English has many ways to pronounce words. Pronunciation changes over history and between the many dialects (local ways of speaking). Even so, the basic phonology (sound system) is similar in many places. Dialects often differ in syllables (units of sound with one vowel sound), in where they place stress (the strong part of the word). Some consonant sounds, such as stop consonants (sounds like p, t, k made by stopping air), affricates (sounds like ch, j made by stop + release), and fricatives (sounds like f, v, s made by friction) can also be different across dialects.

There is research on prestige speech (more formal) and standard speech (more common). In practice, these often mean Received Pronunciation (England), General American (United States), and General Australian (Australia).

Many dialects grow on their own, so they slowly become different from one another.

 Phonetic notation and representation of sounds 
The IPA writes sounds with special symbols. Each symbol is one sound.

  = "ch" as in chip  
  = "j" as in jam  
  = "sh" as in sheep  
  = "zh" as in measure  
  = "kh" in German Bach or Scottish loch.  
  = "z" in zoo  
  = short "a" in cat  
  (RP) = short "o" in British hot  
  = "ow" in now  
  (RP) = "oo-uh" in British tour  

 Sound system overview 
English has many vowel sounds and about two dozen consonant sounds. The exact set changes by dialect. For example, the vowel in the  set is  in Received Pronunciation (RP) but  in General American (GA).

 Consonants 
Most dialects use the 24 consonant sounds below. The sound  is less common in English.

 Sound  Example  Sound  Example   pen    bed   ten    dog   cat    go   chip    jam   fan    van   thin    this   sit    zip   she    measure   hat    loch (Scottish/German)   man    no   sing    leg  (r)  red   (y)  yes   wet   

 Consonant examples 
 Sound  Key word  Sound  Key word   chip    jam   ship    measure   thin    this   sing    loch

 Vowels 
 Wells lexical sets (RP and GA) 
John C. Wells made a list of vowel sets that show the pronunciation in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA). A vowel can be a monophthong (one clear sound, like /i/ in bit), a diphthong (a glide between two sounds, like /aɪ/ in my), or a triphthong (a glide between three sounds, like /aʊə/ in hour). English uses all three types, and different accents may show them in different ways. In the table, a set means a group of words that share the same main vowel sound across many words, for example the  set includes words like bit, ship, milk. The RP and GA columns give simple word examples. The IPA column shows the sound symbol, and the last column shows how to say it in plain words.

 Set  RP (example)  GA (example)  IPA  Pronunciation   bit  bit    short i as in bit   bed  bed    short e (somewhere between e in bed and eh)   cat  cat    flat a as in cat   cut  cut    mid uh as in cut   hot  hot (often )    RP rounded o in hot vs. GA ah in father   put  put    short oo as in put   see  see    long ee as in see   two  two    long oo as in two   day  day    ay as in day   go  go    oh as in go (RP starts more central)   my  my    eye   boy  boy    oy as in boy   now  now    ow as in now   bird  bird    RP long ir as in bird / GA er   final a in sofa  same    weak uh (schwa) as in sofa

 Vowel phonemes in three accents 
The next three tables show the vowel phonemes (basic sound units) in Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian. In the RP and Australian tables, short means the vowel is said more quickly, and long means it is held a little longer. In the GA table, lax means the tongue and lips are more relaxed, and tense means they are tighter and the sound is usually a bit longer. These tables show how vowel sounds differ across accents by using different example words.

 Received Pronunciation
 Short  Long i (bit)  ii (beet) e (bet)  a (cat)  aa (cart) o (cot)  oo (caught) u (pull)  uu (pool) ə (collect)  əə (curl)

 General American
 Lax  Tense i (bit)  ii (beet) e (bet)  ei (bait) a (cat)  aa (father) ʌ (cup)  ɑ (lot) o (thought)  ou (boat) u (put)  uu (boot)

 General Australian
 Short  Long i (bit)  ii (beet) e (bet)  ee (bear) a (cat)  aa (cart) o (cot)  oo (caught) u (pull)  uu (pool) ə (comma)  əə (bird)

 Stress, rhythm, and intonation 
 Stress: One part of a word is strong. In a sentence, new or important ideas are stressed.  
 Rhythm: A pattern of strong and weak beats.  
 Intonation: The rise and fall of voice. Yes/no questions rise at the end. Wh- questions and statements fall at the end.

 Speaking grammar 
 Passive voice 
The passive voice is used when the focus is on the object of the action (the thing acted on), not the agent (the doer). Form: be + past participle.  
 A lot of trash is left in summer.  
 The road was closed.  
 The problem is not going to be solved soon.

 Essential adjective (relative) clauses 
Adjective clauses (also called relative clauses) give information about a noun. They begin with pronouns such as who, that, which.  
 The bird that sings is a wren.  
 The man who wrote the book is here.  
 The family whose house burned moved.

 Gerund phrases 
A gerund is a verb + -ing used as a noun. A gerund phrase is a group starting with a gerund.  
 Reading books helps learning.  
 He enjoys swimming in the pool.

 Modals of past possibility 
Modals are helping verbs like may, might, could. For the past, use may have / might have / could have + past participle.  
 They might have left.  
 He could have been wrong.  
 She may not have known.

 Pronunciation conventions 
 Linking with final  
 Before a vowel, the sound  can become a quick : what about → wha-dabout.
 Before a consonant, hold the tongue for  but do not release: right now → right‿now.
 Before you/your,  becomes soft like  (ch): what you → wha-chu.

 Final -s endings 
 After voiced consonants (for example b, d, g, v, z), say  (z): dogs, bees.
 After voiceless consonants (for example p, t, k, f, s), say  (s): cats, books.
 After words ending in s, sh, ch, x, z, or ge, add  (iz): wishes, boxes.

 Linking with you/your after , ,  
  →  (ch): what you → wha-chu.
  →  (j): did you → didju.
  →  (zh): how’s your → how-zhur.

 Related pages 
 General American  
 Received Pronunciation  

 References 

 Further reading 














 Other websites 

 University of Glasgow Dynamic Dialects Accent Map

Phonology
Category:Pronunciation