recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Pronunciation exercises: \dʒ\ vs \ʒ\

**/dʒ/** is an affricate consonant; it can't last long. **/ʒ/** is a fricative consonant; this means it is possible to make it sound for a long time: /ʒʒʒ/. However, in normal speech /ʒ/ has a length similar to other consonants.

## /ʒ/

If a word begins or ends with /ʒ/ then it must be a loanword or a foreign word. Also, most words that have /ʒ/ are enclosed in vowels.

Examples:

* equation - usually
* ending in "sion": conclusion - confusion - decision - division - occasion - provision - television - vision
* ending in "sual": usual - visual
* ending in "sure": exposure - measure - pleasure

Words derived from French: beige, genre, lingerie

## /dʒ/

Since /ʒ/ normally doesn't appear at the beginning or end of the word, we will concentrate on the sound in mid position.

At the beginning of the word: just, general

At the end of the word: change, edge

In the middle of the word:

Between vowels: agent, budget, imagine, intelligence, manager, major, original, project, region, register, religious, reject
Other cases: arrangement, dangerous, engineer, largely, management, passenger
## /dʒ/ vs /ʒ/

There are very few minimal pairs /dʒ/ vs /ʒ/.

* pledger *(someone who pledges)* - pleasure; legion - lesion;

Only in Received Pronunciation

* ledger /ˈledʒər/ - leisure /ˈleʒər,*BrE* ˈliːʒər*AmE*/

Only in American English

* jock - Jacques
* virgin /ˈvɜːrdʒɪn, ˈvɜːrdʒən/ - version /ˈvɜːrʒən,*AmE* ˈvɜːrʃən*BrE*/

## Variant pronunciations

Some words of French origin can be pronounced with /dʒ/ in addition to the original /ʒ/.

* garage

* BrE: /ˈɡærɑːʒ, ˈɡærɑːdʒ/ *also* /ˈɡærɪdʒ/
* AmE: /ɡəˈrɑːʒ, ɡəˈrɑːdʒ/

## See also

* Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /tʃ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /ʃ/ vs /tʃ/
Куксония

**Куксония** — род вымерших сосудистых растений, близких к отделу Риниофиты.

 Росли во время силурийского — девонского периодов практически на всех континентах. Куксонии были по сравнению с другими представителями флоры того времени очень развитыми организмами. Они представляли собой ветвящиеся зелёные стебли с одиночными спорангиями луковичной формы на верхушке, высотой не более 5 см.
I before E except after C

**IPA consonants**

I before E except after C
This rule of thumb is not always true. However if we interpret it correctly it can be useful.

If the pronunciation of a vowel is stressed /iː/ and you are not sure if you should spell "ie" or "ei" then go for "ie" except in /siː/ which is "cei".
A shorter form is

I before E except after C if the vowel-sound rhymes with bee.

## Examples

You are not sure if it's "chief" or "cheif". The rule helps you to spell "chief".

You are not sure if /siːlɪŋ/ is "seiling", "sieling", "ceiling", or "cieling". The rule tells you it's "ceiling" (or maybe \*"sieling").

You are not sure if /ˈsiːʒər/ is "seizure", "siezure", "ceizure" or "ciezure". The rule misleads you into thinking it's \*"ceizure", or maybe \*"siezure".

You don't know how to spell /ˈfriːkwənt/. The rule tells you it is not "freiquent" and it might be "friequent". However, the actual spelling is "frequent".

## Common words

* achieve, belief, believe, brief, chief, field, grief, niece, piece, relief, shield, skied, thief, yield

* After C: ceiling, conceive, deceit, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive

## Unstressed /iː/

The rule doesn't apply

* caffeine, protein, species

## Unstressed /iː/ or /ɪ/

The rule doesn't apply

* Plurals of nouns ending in "cy": agencies, currencies, democracies, emergencies, frequencies, policies, pregnancies, tendencies
* Third person singular and past tense of verbs ending in "cy": buries - buried; fancies - fancied;

The rule is valid even if it doesn't apply

* Plurals: babies, cities, companies, countries, families, stories, parties
* Verbal forms: carries, copies, marries, studies, worries

## Exceptions

* either - leisure*AmE* - neither - seizure

## When the rule doesn't apply

In the following example in most words the rule is not applicable, because "ie" or "ei" don't sound /iː/.

* I before E except when your foreign neighbor Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters. Weird.

In this example the only case where "ei" sounds /iː/ is in Keith, and the rule suggests \*Kieth.

## References

1. ↑ Greg Brooks, *Dictionary of the British English Spelling System,* page 221, 2015.
2. ↑ Daily Mail, 'We've been lied to': Witty coffee mug revealing why the spelling rule 'I before E' doesn't ALWAYS work causes a storm on social media, 30 May 2018.

## See also

* Decoding exercises: "ei"
* Decoding exercises: "ie"
Decoding exercises: "ir"

The letter combination **"ir"** has several different pronunciations, mainly /ɜːr/ and /aɪər/ when stressed. This article sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of the differences.

For "irr" see Decoding exercises: "irr".

## Stressed

* /ɜːr/: bird - birth - circumstance - circle - confirm - firm - first - girl - Shirley - shirt - sir - Virginia
* /aɪr/: environment - virus
* /aɪər/: Ireland - iron

* with magic e: acquire - desire - entire - fire - hire - require - retire

* /ɪr/: Iraq - spirit

## Unstressed

* /ər/: confirmation - expiration - giraffe - inspiration - perspiration - respiration - Virginia
* /ɪr/: miraculous - mirage

## See also

* Decoding written words
* Decoding the letter I
* Decoding the letter R
* Decoding exercises: "irr"
* Decoding exercises: "irV", "yrV", "irrV" and "yrrV"
Variant pronunciations

* Different accents pronounce different phonemes differently.

British and American /əʊ/ sound differently. For example "goat" is [goʊt]*AmE* and [gəʊt].*BrE* Australian "goat" is [gəʉt].
In Received Pronunciation /r/ is omited at the end of the word or before a consonant. "Start" is [stɑːrt]*AmE* and [stɑːt].*BrE* See Rhotic and non-rhotic accent.
* Different accents pronounce some words with different phonemes

"Laugh" is /læf/*AmE* and /lɑːf/*BrE*
"Hurry" and "furry" are /ˈhɜːriː/*AmE* and /ˈfɜːriː/*AmE*; /ˈhʌriː/*BrE* and /ˈfɜːriː/.*BrE*
* Different dialects have pronunciation differences that don't obey a general rule

"Clerk" is /klɑːrk/*BrE* and /klɜːrk/.*AmE* See American pronunciation vs. British pronunciation - Specific.
* Some variant pronunciations exist in one dialect and other dialects have only one pronunciation.

The word "perhaps" is pronounced /pərˈhæps/ both in British and American English. The variant /præps/ exists ony in British English.
The word "process" is pronounced /ˈprɒses/*AmE* and /ˈprəʊses/.*BrE* However in American English the variant /ˈprəʊses/ is also heard.
* Some variant pronunciations exists across several dialects

applicable /əˈplɪkəbl, ˈæplɪkəbl/
different /ˈdɪfərənt, ˈdɪfrənt/. See Varisyllabic words.
direct /dəˈrekt, dɪˈrekt, daɪˈrekt/
economic /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪk, ˌekəˈnɒmɪk/
either /ˈaɪðər, ˈiːðər/
envelope /ˈenvələʊp, ˈɒnvələʊp/
greasy /ˈɡriːsiː, ˈɡriːziː/
IPA phoneme \ʊ\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/ʊ/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "foot", "put", "pull" and "could".

## Common words

This phoneme is very uncommon. Below there is a list that includes all common words with /ʊ/ (it excludes derivative words such as *football* or *wolves).*

* with "**oo**": book - cook - foot - good - hood - hook - look - shook - stood - took - wood - wool - whoops!
* with "**o**": wolf - woman
* with "**ou**": could - would - should
* with "**u**": bull - bullet - bully - bush - butcher - cushion - full - pudding - pull - push - put - sugar
* homophones: wood - would.

## Less common words

* with "**oo**": brook - crook - rook - soot
* with "**o**": bosom
* with "**u**": bushel - bulletin -  chutzpah - cuckoo - fulfil*BrE* - fulfill*AmE* - pulpit

## These words don't rhyme

* foot - boot; full - null; would - mould;*BrE* wolf - golf; woman - Roman;

## /ʊ/ followed by /r/

Both in Received Pronunciation and in General American when /ʊ/ is followed by /r/ in the same syllable, a diphthong is pronounced: [IPA phoneme /ʊə/. *Cure* is [kjʊər].

In Received Pronunciation but not in General American there is a difference between /ʊər/ and /ʊr/ when these sequences are followed by a vowel: *mural* is [ˈmjʊərəl]*BrE* and *guru* is [ˈgʊruː].*BrE* In General American there is no difference: some people pronounce [ˈmjʊərəl] and [ˈgʊəruː] and others [ˈmjʊrəl] and [ˈgʊruː]. Since the difference between [ʊər]*AmE* and [ʊr]*AmE* is predictable, phoneticians say that in American English there is no phoneme /ʊə/, only phoneme /ʊ/.

See also: Decoding exercises: "urV" and "urrV"

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

See Pronunciation exercises: /uː/ vs /ʊ/ § Spanish.

## See also

* Decoding exercises: "oo"
* IPA phoneme /uː/
* Pronunciation exercises: /uː/ vs /ʊ/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation
Decoding difficulties

*This article is about difficulties trying to say a word while reading it. For difficulties to repeat a word see Possible pronunciation difficulties*

**IPA consonants**

**Decoding difficulties** are the difficulties students may encounter with the idiosyncracies of English spelling. In other words, students with decoding difficulties have problems when **sounding out** some words, either because the don't know the rule (e.g. pronouncing "authorize" as \*/ˈaʊθəraɪz/) or because they don't know the exception (e.g. pronouncing "knowledge" as \*/ˈnəʊlɪdʒ/).

### Magic **"e"**

The exceptions to the so-called "magic e", as in *pin* vs *pine*, give rise to numerous mispronunciations, including words like *determine* being pronounced as if they ended in /maɪn/.

See also Silent e#Misleading final e.

### Schwa

Special time should be spent practising the schwa sound. The natural tendency of many foreign language students is to pronounce unstressed vowels with their so-called “short” sound, such as "accept" as \*/ækˈsept/ instead of /əkˈsept/ or "lesson" as \*/ˈlesɒn/ instead of /ˈlesən/.

## See also

* Category:Decoding written words
* Digraph, Trigraph
* Homophone
* Heteronym
* Past tense pronunciation
* Silent letter
Decoding the letter M

The letter **M**, lowercase **m** (pronounced /em/) normally represents IPA phoneme /m/. For examples see IPA phoneme /m/.

Exception

* Silent m: mnemonic

## Assimilation

Before /f/ or /v/, /m/ and /n/ may be neutralized and pronounced [ɱ], a labiodental nasal. For this reason someone may hear "pamphlet" [ˈpæmflət] as /ˈpænflət/ and be surprised by the "m" in the spelling. However, the opposite is much more common, hearing /nf/ as /mf/.

Before /p/ or /b/, /m/ and /n/ may be neutralized and pronounced [m] as in an alternative pronunciation of *input* as [ˈɪmpʊt]. There are no minimal pairs in which the difference is /np/ and /mp/, or /nb/ and /mb/. This type of assimilation explains that someone who hears "impossible" [ɪmˈpɒsəbl̩] as /ɪnˈpɒsəbəl/ may be surprised that the spelling has an "m".

## References

1. ↑ SLTinfo, Labialization
2. ↑ Historical Sound Changes - Assimilation

## See also

* IPA phoneme /n/ § Assimilation
* Pronunciation exercises: /mf/ vs /nf/
Phoneme \ɒ\ in Received Pronunciation

This phonetics article is based on British English and Received Pronunciation. The phoneme /ɒ/ does not exist in General American. For American English see Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American and Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American. For an article valid in most of the English speaking world see **IPA phoneme /ɒ/**.

In Received Pronunciation, the IPA phonetic symbol **/ɒ/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "lot", "stop", "cloth" and "long".

In General American "lot" and "stop" are pronounced with /ɑː/; "cloth" and "long" are pronounced with /ɔː/.

## Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of **/ɒ/** include the following:

* with "**o**": across\*, along\*, body, box, cost\*, econ**o**mic, f**o**llow, gone\*, got, holiday, hot, involve, job, long\*, lot, model, off\*, offer\*, office\*, often\*, policy, possible, probably, problem, product, project, shop, song\*, stop, strong\*, top, wrong\*
* with "**a**": qualify, quality, quantity, restaur**a**nt, wad, wallet, wander, want, wash, wasp, watch, what
* with "**au**": Aussie\*, austerity\*, Australia\*, Austria\*, because\*, cauliflower\*

\*: These words are pronounced with /ɔː/ in General American.

### Spelling anomalies

* cough /kɒf/\*
* knowledge /ˈnɒlɪdʒ/

## /ɒr/

*See Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"*

* with "**o**": borrow, foreign, horror, orange, sorrow, sorry, tomorrow
* with "**a**": warrant, warranty

## Less common words

* with "**o**": C**o**ngo, c**o**nnoisseur /ˌkɒnəˈsɜːr/, Honduras, Mor**o**cco
* with "e": entrepreneur /ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜːr/

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

While /ɒ/ is very similar to the Spanish letter "**o**", it is actually slightly shorter, and most Spanish speakers pronounce it pretty well. However, it's useful to point out the difference between this short vowel sound and a sound which is particularly difficult for many Spanish speakers: **/əʊ/**, as in "slow". Practice may be needed to distinguish between words like "want" and "won't".

## See also

* Pronunciation exercises: /əʊ/ vs /ɒ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /ʌ/ vs /ɒ/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation
Pronunciation exercises: "of" vs "off"

Many students believe the words **"of"** and **"off"** are pronounced the same. However "of" ends in /v/ and "off" ends in /f/.

## Received Pronunciation

In Received Pronunciation both words have the same vowel: "of" is /ɒv/ and "off" is /ɒf/. But "of" has a weak form, /əv/, which is much more common.

As in most cases, to go from a strong form to a weak form the vowel is replaced by /ə/.

## General American

In General American the strong form of "of" is (probably) derived from the weak form. That's why its strong form is /ʌv/.

The word "off" is pronounced /ɔːf/ with the same vowel as many other words such as "cloth" and "long". See Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American.

## Summary

Arrows indicate the direction of the derivation.

## Homophones

The weak forms of "of" and "have" are the same: /əv/.

The words /ˈkʊd əv/ are correctly spelled "could've", but a confused writer may spell \*"could of" because the pronunciation is the same. The same happens with other contractions such as "should've", "would've", etc.

## /v/ devoicing

* “of course” can be pronounced /əv kɔːrs/ or /əf kɔːrs/

## Informal spelling

Most dictionaries have *helluva* /ˈheləvə/ meaning "hell of a". Urban Dictionary also has *sonova* /ˈsʌnəvə/ meaning *son of a*.

Sometimes "of" is pronounced /ə/ and spelled "a" as in "lotsa" (lots of) or "kinda"  (kind of).

## References

1. ↑ John Wells's phonetic blog, STRUT and commA, 13 July 2010.
2. ↑ Oxford Learners Dictionaries, helluva
3. ↑ *Dictionary.com Unabridged.* Random House, Inc., helluva
4. ↑ Urban Dictionary, sonova
5. ↑ Oxford Learners Dictionaries, lotta
6. ↑ Oxford Learners Dictionaries, kinda
Phoneme

A **phoneme** is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. If two words are different in just one phoneme (such as "goat" and "got") the meaning may change. See minimal pair. Phonemic notation (or broad notation) uses only the distinctive sounds of a language (phonemes). It does not show the finer points of pronunciation. It is written with slanting brackets //. On the other hand, phonetic notation (or narrow notation) is written in square brackets [].

If the meaning is preserved then the two different sounds belong to the same phoneme. For example, most people pronounce the "p" in "pot" [pʰɒt] much aspirated than in "spot" [spɒt]. However interchanging the two sounds doesn't create a difference in meaning: [pɒt] (with no aspiration) is understood as "pot" and /spʰɒt/ sounds weird but is understood as "spot". This means that these two sounds in narrow notation [p] and [pʰ], are only one symbol in broad notation (i.e. one phoneme) /p/.

As another example, the word *goat* is pronounced [gəʊt] in British English, [goʊt] in American English, and [gəʉt] in Australian English, but everybody agrees that the three pronunciations represent the same word. In broad notation [əʊ], [oʊ] and [əʉ] can be written with one symbol. In this wiki we selected /əʊ/.

It has been said that one of the main problems with spelling in English is that we have to cover between 42 and 44 phonemes, depending on our accent, using only 26 letters of the alphabet. However this is not completely true. In computers it is possible to write everything with just two symbols, 0's and 1's, and similarly it is possible to express up to 676 sounds using digraphs. English makes extensive use of digraphs ("ai", "ou", "ow", "wh", "ss", "ph", etc.) with uneven results. For example, "sh" is very useful, "rh" is not, and "gh" is misleading.

## References

1. ↑ *Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics*, page 400.
2. ↑ David Crystal, *Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling* Profile Books ISBN 978-184668567 5

## See also

* Phonetic symbol; this article discusses English phonemes

## External links

* British Council BBC Teaching English: Phonemic symbols, British Council/BBC
Семенные папоротники

**Семенные папоротники** — группы вымерших палеозойских и мезозойских голосеменных растений. Они имеют важное стратиграфическое и биогеографическое значение. Многие представители этой группы являются руководящими формами для установления геологи­ческого возраста и корреляции вмещающих отложений. Семенные папоротники, в отличие от папоротников обыкновенных, размножаются не спорами, а семенами. Представляют собой промежуточный этап эволюции между папоротниками и цикадовыми растениями, похожими на современные пальмы, с которыми птеридоспермы находятся в тесном родстве. Листья расчленены. Микроспорофиллы — с краевыми микроспорангиями, мегаспорофиллы — с семязачатками.
Decoding exercises: "oa"

The sequence "oa" has two pronunciations in English: \əʊ\ as in "boat" and /ɔː/ as in "boar".

Followed by "r" the sound is always /ɔːr/ (in Received Pronunciation "r" is silent unless it's followed by a vowel).

## Examples

* as **/əʊ/**: approach, boat, coach, coal, coat, coast, float, foam, goal, goat, load, loan, oats, road, roast, throat, toast

at the end of the word: cocoa
* as **/ɔː/**: abroad, broad

Followed by "r": boar, board, boart, coarse, hoard, hoarse, oar, roar, soar;
Different syllables
* /əʊ.ə/: boa, coalition, coalesce, Noah, protozoan, psychoanalysis
* /əʊ.ɑː/: coati, koala
* /əʊ.æ/: coagulate, proactive, radioactive
* /əʊ.eɪ/: oasis

Other
* /wɑː/: quinoa
IPA phoneme \uː\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/uː/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "goose", "moon", "do" and "June".

The actual sound may be [uː], [uw] or [ʉw]. See IPA phonetic symbol [w].

## Common words

Some common words which practice this pronunciation include the following:

* with "**ew**": blew, brew, chew, crew, drew, screw, threw
* with "**o**": approve, approval, improve, lose, move, movie, prove, remove, shoe, tomb, whose, womb

final "**o**": do, two, who
strong forms and before vowels: into, onto, to
* with "**oo**": boot, Cameroon, choose, cool, food, fool, Liverpool, loose, moon, pool, root, school, shampoo, shoot, soon, stool, tool, tooth, troop, zoo
* with "**ou**": group, soup, through, you, youth

* with "**u**": flu, include, June, Peru, rule, truth
* with "**ue**": blue, glue, sue, true
* with "**ui**": bruise, cruise, fruit, juice, lawsuit, suit, suitable, suitcase

* homophones: blew/blue, chews/choose, flew/flu, threw/through, too/two.

In many words /uː/ is preceded by /j/ as in you, music or few. See IPA phonetic sequence /juː/.

## Uncommon words

Stress marks added to facilitate pronunciation.

* with "**u**": gnu, ˈgur**u**, ˈhaiku, ˈtofu
* with "**ou**": aˈcoustic, ˈcaribou, rouˈlette, rouˈtine, wound *(injury)*
* with "**oo**": bamˈboo, boo, ˈcuckoo /ˈkʊkuː/, ˈigloo, kangaˈroo, moo, shoo, taˈboo, tatˈtoo, too, ˈvoodoo, ˈWaterloo *or* Waterˈloo

## These words don't rhyme

* do, go; food, good, blood; lose, nose; move, drove, love; new, sew /səʊ/; tomb, bomb; youth, mouth;

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

See Pronunciation exercises: /uː/ vs /ʊ/ § Spanish.

## See also

* Decoding the letter U
* Decoding exercises: "oo"
* Pronunciation exercises: /uː/ vs /ʊ/
* IPA phonetic sequence /juː/
* IPA phoneme /ʊ/
* Silent e

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation
Syllable

A **syllable** is a unit of spoken language that consists of one or more vowel sounds which may be preceded or followed by consonant sounds. It can be reflected in writing, where it corresponds only approximately to the spoken syllable.

English, in comparison to many other European languages, has a huge number of monosyllabic words, including the 25 most commonly used verbs. Strikingly, of the first 60 words in the list of the 100 commonest English words of the two-billion word Oxford English Corpus only one word, *about*, clocking in at number 45, has more than one syllable.

## Examples

**IPA consonants**

The word *elephant* consists of three syllables and can be divided graphically as follows: *el-e-phant* /el.ə.fənt/.

A syllable can't end in a "short" vowel: /æ/ (short a), /e/ (short e), /ɪ/ (short i; however a syllable can end in an unstressed short i), /ɒ/ (short o), /ʌ/ (short u), /ʊ/ (short oo). For example "channel" is /ˈtʃæn.əl/.

If possible a syllable must begin with a consonant. For example "greater" is /ˈgreɪ.tər/.

An unstressed short "i" can end a syllable: "difficulty" is /ˈdɪf.ɪ.kəl.tiː/.

Note that written syllables don't always correspond to phonetic syllables. For example, we divide "learn-ing" and we pronounce /ˈlɜːr.nɪŋ /.

## Nomenclature

* Monosyllable: a word consisting of just the one syllable;
* Dissyllable or disyllable: a word made up of two syllables;
* Polysyllable: a word made up of more than two syllables;

## Varisyllabic words

*Main article: Varisyllabic words*

A word is **varisyllabic** if it can be pronounced with a variable number of syllables, as in *family* /ˈfæm.ə.liː, ˈfæm.liː/. Varisyllabic words are formed by deleting the /ə/ in /əl/, /ən/ or /ər/ when followed by a vowel.

Examples:

* family /ˈfæməliː, ˈfæmliː/
* maddening /ˈmædənɪŋ, ˈmædnɪŋ/
* federal /ˈfedərəl, ˈfedrəl/

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The OEC: Facts about the language", Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 30th September 2012.
2. ↑ *Collins English Dictionary*, dissyllable/disyllable

## See also

* Diphthong
* International Phonetic Alphabet
* Triphthong
MerryHarry Wiki

## Welcome to Merry Harry wiki

Since English spelling has little relation to pronunciation, you must learn to pronounce every word.

Do "beer", "chair" and "pear" rhyme?
A) All of them rhyme; all vowels sound the same
B) Only "beer" and "chair" rhyme; "pear" sounds different
C) Only "beer" and "pear" rhyme; "chair" sounds different
D) Only "chair and "pear" rhyme; "beer" sounds different
E) None of them rhyme; all vowels sound different
Solution

**IPA consonants**

See other pronunciation quizzes.

## Learning English pronunciation

Merry Harry is a friend of Merry Mary's and also a friend of Hairy Harry's.

Decoding the letter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H I J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

A detailed IPA table is in Merry Harry phoneme table.

## All pages

All pages

Popular pages

## Latest activity

See https://merryharry.fandom.com/wiki/Special:RecentChanges
Decoding exercises: "or"

The letter combination **"or"** has several different pronunciations, mainly /ɔːr/. This article sets out some words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of the differences.

For the case when "or" is followed by a vowel (not including a silent letter) see also Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

As /ɔː/: before - normal - for - force - forget - form - important - more - north - or - order - report - sort - support

As /ɒ/,*BrE* /ɔː/*AmE*: categorical - foreign - forest - historic - minority - moral - orange - origin - priority

As /ɜː/: network - word - work - world - worm - worth

As /ə/: author - color*AmE* - doctor - director - effort - factor - major

Optionally silent "o". See Varisyllabic words.

favorite - history

## See also

* Decoding written words
* Decoding the letter O
* Decoding the letter R
* Decoding exercises: "orr"
* Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"
* Pronunciation exercises: /ɒrV/ vs /ɔːrV/
Decoding exercises: "arV" and "arrV"

**IPA consonants**

The sequence /ærV/, where V is any vowel sound, can be spelled "ar" (as in ch**ar**ity) or "arr" (as in c**arr**y).

The sequence /ɑːrV/ is very uncommon. It can be spelled "ar" in foreign words (as in s**ar**i or saf**ar**i)
or "arr" in derived words (as in st**arr**y, derived from *star,* or b**arr**ing, derived from the verb *bar).*

The following table shows the most common sounds of "arV" and "arrV". Exceptions (such as /ə/) are shown in the examples.

 /eər/ | hilarious | N/A

## Common words

"ar"
* As /æ/: apparently, character, characteristic, comparison, guarantee
* As /eə/: area, parent, variable, variation, various

* -ing forms: caring, comparing, declaring, preparing, sharing, staring

* As /ə/: arise, around, salary, variety
* Silent "a": separate

"arr"
* As /æ/: barrier, carry, embarrass, marriage, marry, narrative, narrow
* As /ə/: arrange, arrangement, arrest, arrival, arrive, narrate, narrator

## Less common words

"ar"
* As /æ/: characterize, parallel, paragraph, paranoid
* As /ɑː/: guitarist, safari, sari
* As /eə/: apparent, hilarious
* As /ə/: preparation, summary

"arr"
* As /æ/: arrogant, arrow, barrio,*BrE* carrot, parrot, sparrow
* As /ɑː/: barring, barrio,*AmE* scarring, starring, starry
* As /ɒ/*BrE*, /ɔː/*AmE*: quarrel, warrant, warrior
* As /ə/: arrival, arrhythmia, diarrhea

## Proper nouns

"ar"
* As /æ/: Arizona, Carol, Carolina, Carolyn, Gary, Harold, Karen, Paraguay, Sharon
* As /æ,*BrE* *AmE* eə*AmE*/: Gary
* As /eə*BrE* *AmE*/: Bulgaria, Sarah
* As /eə*BrE* *AmE*, e*AmE*/: Mary
* As /eə*BrE*, e*AmE*/: Maryland
* As /ə/: Hungary, Maria, Marie, Nicaragua
* As /ə/ or silent "a": Barb**a**ra, Marg**a**ret

"arr"
* As /æ/: Carrie, Harry, Larry

## Minimal pairs

* /eə/ vs /æ/: Mary - marry; See also Mary-marry-merry merger.
* /eə/ vs /ɑː/: scaring - scarring sparing - sparring; staring - starring;

## Variant pronunciations

* /ər/,*BrE* /er/:*AmE* adversary, library, necessary, primary, temporary
* /r/ (silent a),*BrE* /er/:*AmE* military, ordinary, secretary

## Table "ar" and "arr"

 /ɑːr/
 /eər/

## See also

* Decoding the letter A
* Decoding the letter R
* Decoding exercises: "ar"
* Decoding exercises: "arr"
IPA phoneme \r\

In Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phoneme **/r/** corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "rose", and "wrong" and the final one in "car" and "more".

In a narrow notation the correct IPA phonetic symbol for /r/ is **[ɹ]**. For simplicity in a broad notation /r/ is used in most dictionaries.

In Received Pronunciation /r/ after a vowel is not pronounced unless it is followed by another vowel. For example "dear Charles" is [dɪə ˈtʃɑːlz] and "dear Alice" is [dɪəɹ ˈælɪs].

In General American "r" is always pronounced: [dɪɹ ˈtʃɑːrlz] and [dɪɹ ˈælɪs]. In many rhotic accents /ər/ is realized as [ɚ] (*color* [ˈkʌlɚ]) and /ɜː/ is realized as [ɝ] or stressed [ɚ] (occur [əˈkɝ, əˈkɚ]). [ɚ] and [ɝ] are called r-colored vowels. Many American Dictionaries use [ɚ] and [ɝ].

There are places in the United Kingdom where /r/ is pronounced, and places in North America where /r/ is silent.

In this site the /r/ is always written; the reader must know when to drop it (the rule is exactly the same for phonetic notation and for conventional spelling).

## Common words

Initial pronunciation of **/r/**

* read, really, report, result, rhyme, right, room, run, write, wrong

Final pronunciation of **/r/**. /r/ is always preceded by one of seven vowels.

* /ɑː/: car
* /eə/: air, bear, share, their, where
* /ɪə/: hear, peer, year
* /ɔː/: door, more, pour, war
* /ʊə/: sure, tour
* /ɜː/: occur, prefer, sir, were
* /ə/: color, over, sugar

/aɪə/: fire
/aʊə/: sour
Mid-word pronunciation of **/r/**:

around, break, carry, different, ferry, mirror, parent, worry
* In the following examples /r/ is silent in Received Pronunciation

arm, careful, force, forget, large, order, perform, verb, word
* These are probably the only words where /r/ is not spelled "r":

"l" as /r/: colonel /ˈkɜːrnəl/
French "oe" as /ɜːr/: hors d'oeuvre /ɔr ˈdɜːrv/
metathesis: comfortable /ˈkʌmftəbəl, ˈkʌmfərtəbəl, **ˈkʌmftərbəl***AmE*/
## Phonotactics

The sound /r/ has several restrictions about what vowels it can follow.

In the following table # means the end of the word, C is any consonant and V is any vowel.

## See also

* Decoding the letter R
* Rhotic and non-rhotic accent
* IPA phoneme /ɑː/
* IPA phoneme /eə/
* IPA phoneme /ɪə/
* IPA phoneme /ɔː/
* IPA phoneme /ʊə/
* IPA phoneme /ɜː/
* IPA phoneme /ə/
* FORCE lexical set
* Pronunciation exercises: /l/ vs /r/

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds
Decoding the letter J

**IPA consonants**

The letter **J**, lowercase **j** (pronounced /dʒeɪ/) normally represents IPA phoneme /dʒ/. For examples see IPA phoneme /dʒ/.

## As /ʒ/

All English words that have IPA phoneme /ʒ/ spelled as "j" are of foreign origin, mainly French.

* bijou /ˈbiːʒuː/, déjà vu /ˌdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/, force majeure /ˌfɔːrs mæˈʒɜːr/, je ne sais quoi /ˌʒə nə seɪ ˈkwɑː/, jeté /ʒəˈteɪ/ *(a ballet term)*, joie de vivre /ˌʒwʌ də ˈviːvrə/

From Persian: Taj Mahal /ˈtɑːʒ məˈhɑːl/

From Portuguese: Rio de Janeiro /ˈriːoʊ deɪ ʒəˈnɛəroʊ/

## As /j/

IPA phoneme /j/ is called the yod, and it is a semivowel.

* fjord /ˈfjɔːrd/, hallelujah /ˌhælɪˈluːjə/

## Spanish loan words

The letter "j" is pronounced [x] in Spanish.
In Spanish loanwords it is pronounced in different ways in English, normally /h/.

* jalapeño: /ˌhæləˈpeɪnjəʊ,*BrE* ˌhɑːləˈpeɪnjəʊ*AmE*/
* junta: /ˈdʒʌntə,*BrE* ˈhʊntə*AmE*/
* San Jose (California): /ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ/

Silent J
* Juan: /wɑːn/
* marijuana: /ˌmærəˈwɑːnə/. This word comes from Spanish *marihuana* [mariˈwana]. The spelling has a J in English but not in Spanish. Spanish has the alternate spelling *mariguana*.

## References

1. ↑ Diccionario de la Lengua Española, marihuana.
So-called “short u”

The so-called **“short u” sound** is an informal term that means **the short sound of the letter u** which is **IPA phoneme /ʌ/**.

* Examples: *strut*, *butter*, *cultivate*

The term “short u” should only be used when the spelling is actually “u”. It's confusing to say "*love* is pronounced with short *u*". If this sentence had to be spoken it would be better to say "*love* is pronounced with the STRUT vowel". Alternatively it could be said "*love* is pronounced like the short sound of the letter u".

The terms “long u” and “short u” are not recommended is because the opposition between /ʌ/ and /juː/ (“long u”) is not only a difference in length, but mainly a difference in quality.

## Examples

* as the last vowel: adult, bun, bus, but, cut, fun, gun, just, luck, lunch, much, must, result, run, stuff, such, sun, truck, up, us
* u followed by a double consonant C1C1: butter, summer, tunnel

with a suffix a single letter is doubled: cutter, funny, runner, sunny
* u followed by two different consonants (VC1C2): husband, number, Sunday, thunder, under

with a suffix two letters are unchanged: lucky, lunched, resulting
* Exceptional case: u followed by one consonant and a vowel (VCV): study

## See also

* Decoding the letter U
* So-called “short” and “long” vowels
Decoding the letter Q

**IPA consonants**

The letter **Q**, lowercase **q** (pronounced /kjuː/) very reliably represents IPA phoneme /k/. It is normally followed by u and "qu" sounds /kw/. For examples see IPA phoneme /k/.

When "qu" does not sound /kw/ (silent u):

* antique /ænˈtiːk/ - bouquet /buːˈkeɪ/ - cheque*BrE* - conquer - etiquette - liquor - mosquito /məˈskiːtəʊ/ - quay /kiː/ - queue /kjuː/ - quiche /kiːʃ/ - technique /tekˈniːk/ - tequila /təˈkiːlə/ - unique /juːˈniːk/

Homophones:

* cheque*BrE* - check; quay - key; queue - cue;

Q not before U

* Iraq /ɪˈrɑːk, ɪˈræk/ - Iraqi
* Qantas /ˈkwɒntəs/
* Qatar /ˈkʌtɑːr,*BrE*, ˈkætɑːr,*BrE* ˈkɑːtɑːr,*AmE* kəˈtɑːr*AmE*/ - Qatari
Decoding the letter P

The letter **P**, lowercase **p** (pronounced /piː/) very reliably represents IPA phoneme /p/. For examples see IPA phoneme /p/.

## "ph"

**IPA consonants**

* normally as /f/: atmosphere - Christopher - emphasis - Joseph - paragraph - phase - phenomenon - Philippines - philosophy - phone - photograph - phrase - physical - Stephanie - telephone
* as /v/: nephew /ˈnefjuː, ˈnevjuː/, Stephen
* as /ph/ in compound words: loophole, uphill
* silent "h": shepherd /ˈʃepərd/

## Silent "p"

Exceptionally "p" can be silent.

* cupboard, pneumonia, psychology, pterodactyl, raspberry, receipt

## Homophones

* Stephen - Steven
* shepherd - Sheppard - Shepard
Diphthong

A **diphthong** is a sound that moves from one vowel sound to another. There are two main kinds in English: rising diphthongs and falling diphthongs.

## Falling diphthong

A falling diphthong starts with a vowel of higher prominence and ends with a short vowel [ɪ], [ʊ], [ə] or semivowel [j] or [w]. In English it is customary to use vowels (e.g. [ɪ] instead of [j]), and to consider falling diphthongs as phonemes.

* IPA phoneme \eɪ\: face, play
* IPA phoneme \ɔɪ\: choice, boy
* IPA phoneme \aʊ\: mouth, how
* IPA phoneme \aɪ\: price, fly
* IPA phoneme \əʊ\: goat, so
* IPA phoneme \eə\: square
* IPA phoneme \ʊə\: cure
* IPA phoneme \ɪə\: near

Some phoneticians consider that /iː/ is a diphthong [ij] and that /uː/ is a diphthong [uw].

## Rising diphthong

A rising diphthong begins with a semivowel [j] or [w]. In English rising diphthongs are normally analyzed as sequences of two phonemes. There are many rising diphthongs in English, as /j/ and /w/ can combine with many vowels.

* IPA phonetic sequence \juː\: cute, few
* /jɒ/: yacht
* /je/: yell
* /jə/: Kenya
* /wiː/: weed
* /wɪ/: quick
* /wɔː/: walk

## See also

* Digraph
* Monophthong
* Triphthong
Decoding exercises: "ae"

The letter combination **"ae"** has several different pronunciations; however the only common word is *aeroplane* (replaced by *airplane* in American English). This article sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of the different sounds

## Words with a global spelling

* As /eə/: aerial,*BrE* aerobics, aeroplane,*BrE* aerosol
* As /ə/: Michael
* As /iː/: algae, antennae *(plural of* antenna *as part of an insect)* - Caesar - larvae *(plural of* larva)
* As /aɪ/: maestro - tae kwon do
* As /eɪ/: Israel - Israeli - reggae
* As /eɪ/, /iː/ or /ɪ/: sundae

As two separate sounds:

* Israel: /ˈɪzriːəl/ *(also* /ˈɪzreɪl/)

Past tense of verbs ending in "a"

* As /ə/: congaed, rumbaed, salsaed, sambaed, scubaed, subpoenaed /səˈpiːnəd/

## Graeco-Latin words

Most words with "ae" are of Greek or Latin origin, and many of them are spelled or pronounced differently in British English and American English.

## See also

* American spelling vs. British spelling
* Decoding exercises: "oe"
* Decoding written words
Unwritten sounds

**IPA consonants**

A few English words have **unwritten sounds**, as the following examples show. The symbol in parentheses shows the unwritten sound.

## Unwritten /ə/

* could(ə)n't, should(ə)n't, would(ə)n't
* does(ə)n't, has(ə)n't, is(ə)n't, must(ə)n't /ˈmʌsənt/
* Edinburgh(ə) /ˈedɪnbrə,*BrE* ˈedɪnˌbɜːrə*AmE*/
* cent(ə)ring*BrE*/centering*AmE*
* Comparatives: free(ə)r

/əm/. See main article: IPA phonetic symbol [m̩]

* /zəm/: alcoholis(ə)m, criticis(ə)m, enthusias(ə)m, feminis(ə)m, mechanis(ə)m, optimis(ə)m, orgas(ə)m, pris(ə)m, sarcas(ə)m, touris(ə)m
* /ðəm/: algorith(ə)m, logarith(ə)m, ryth(ə)m

/ə/ as apostrophe

* could've, should've, would've, must've
* it'd, it'll

## Unwritten /ɪ/

* Morpheme “-s”: :church’(ɪ)s, Dennis’(ɪ)s, fish’(ɪ)s, Leeds’(ɪ)s
* Superlatives: free(ɪ)st

## Unwritten /h/

* thresh(h)old /ˈθreʃhəʊld/ also /ˈθreʃəʊld/

## Unwritten /t/

* eigh(t)th /eɪtθ/ also /eɪθ/
* comforta(r)ble*AmE* /ˈkʌmftəbl, ˈkʌmfərtəbəl, ˈkʌmftərbəl*AmE*/

## Trademarks

* Flick(ə)r, Grind(ə)r, Tumbl(ə)r
* Q(w)antas

## See also

* Silent letter
* Pronunciation of contractions

## External links

* J.D. Stein, Wired, An Obituary for the Letter E, 5 December 2013
Possible pronunciation difficulties

**IPA consonants**

*This article is about difficulties trying to repeat a word after listening to it. For reading difficulties see Decoding difficulties*.
**Possible pronunciation difficulties** refer to the anticipated difficulties students may encounter with the characteristics of English pronunciation. Depending on their mother tongue (L1), they may have difficulty distinguishing between certain vowel and consonant sounds, not to mention consonant clusters.

More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

This page outlines some of the difficulties of certain sounds in individual words and links to pages with specific exercises. Intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence stress, are also, of course, of vital importance not only in speaking "better" English, but also in understanding speech.

## Vowel sounds

* /əʊ/ vs. /ɒ/ (most vs. lost)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /əʊ/ vs /ɒ/
* /ʌ/ vs. /æ/ (cut vs. cat)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /ʌ/ vs /æ/
* /ɪ/ vs. /iː/ (fill vs. feel)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /ɪ/ vs /iː/
* /eɪ/ vs. /aɪ/ (late vs. light)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /eɪ/ vs /aɪ/
## Consonant sounds

* /b/ vs. /v/ (ban vs. van)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /b/ vs /v/
* /d/ vs. /t/

See: Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /t/ (bad vs. bat)
See: Past tense pronunciation (logged vs. locked)
* /d/ vs. /ð/ (den vs. then)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /d/ vs /ð/
* /dʒ/ vs. /tʃ/ (edge vs. etch)

See: [Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /tʃ/
* /l/ vs. /r/ (lock vs. rock)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /l/ vs /r/
* /s/ vs. /z/ (ice vs. eyes)

See: Pronunciation and decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/
* /ʃ/ vs. /tʃ/ (ship vs. chip)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /ʃ/ vs /tʃ/
* /θ/ vs. /ð/ (thing vs. there)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /θ/ vs /ð/
* /ʒ/ vs. /ʃ/ (vision vs. mission)

See: Pronunciation exercises: /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/
IPA phoneme \tʃ\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/tʃ/** corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "check", and the final one in "catch".

Strict IPA emphasises the fact that /tʃ/ is one phoneme: "teacher" is /ˈtiːt͡ʃər/ and "hotshot" is /ˈhɒtʃɒt/. The alternative is to use the syllable separator: /ˈtiː.tʃər/ and /ˈhɒt.ʃɒt/.

/tʃ/ is an unvoiced consonant; its voiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /dʒ/.

/tʃ/ is an affricate; its fricative counterpart is IPA phoneme /ʃ/.

## Common words

* Initial pronunciation of **/tʃ/**

As "ch": chain - chair - challenge - champion - chance - change - channel - chapter - charge - chart - chat - cheap - cheat - check - cheese - chess - chief - child - China - choice - choose - church
* Final pronunciation of **/tʃ/**

As "ch": approach - beach - branch - church - coach - each - launch - lunch - much - reach - research - rich - search - speech - such - teach - touch - which
As "tch": attach - batch - catch - match - sketch - stretch - switch - watch
* Pronunciation of **/tʃ/** in "mid"-position

As "ch": achieve - exchange - purchase - Richard - teacher
As "tch": butcher - kitchen
As "tu": adventure - culture - feature - fortunate - furniture - future - picture - natural - situation
As "ti": suggestion - question
## Uncommon words

* As "tch": ditch - hitch - itch - pitch - slitch - switch - twitch - unhitch
* righteous /ˈraɪtʃəs/
* wretched /ˈretʃɪd/

* Spelling anomaly: Czech /tʃek/

## /t/+/ʃ/

/t/ and /ʃ/ can be two separate phonemes. For example, the pronunciation of "nutshell" is /ˈnʌt.ʃel/ and "nature" is pronounced /ˈneɪ.t͡ʃər/.

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

In Spanish the letters "ll" and "y" sound similar to **/dʒ/**, **/ʒ/** or **/j/**. The sound of these letters is never in final position. For this reason many students will "hear" **/tʃ/** in words like *orange* or *judge*.

## References

1. ↑ See the lyrics of *Munchkinland* in *The Wizard of Oz*. Wendy's Wizard of Oz, Munchkinland.

## See also

* Decoding the letter T
* Decoding exercises: "ch"
* Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /tʃ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /ʃ/ vs /tʃ/

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds
IPA phoneme \aʊ\

In English the IPA phonetic symbol **/aʊ/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "mouth", "how" and "out". In some parts of the English speaking world this sound is more similar to [ʌʊ]. Other alternatives are [aw] and [ʌw]. See IPA phonetic symbol [w].

Whatever the actual sound, /aʊ/ is used as broad notation.

In strict IPA diphthongs need an inverted breve under their less prominent vowel: /aʊ̯/. However the notation we are using does not have the symbol /a/ by itself, and therefore we know that a vowel after /a/ has an implied inverted breve.

## Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of **/aʊ/** include the following:

* with **"ou"**

* /aʊ/: about, account, amount, announce, around, background, blouse, bound, boundary, cloud, compound, council, counsel, count, county, discount, doubt, encounter, flounder, foul, found, founder, ground, house, loud, mount, mountain, mouse, mouth, noun, out, outcome, output, pound, profound, proud, round, scout, shout, sound, south, surround, thousand, trout, wound *(verb wind),*
* /aʊə/: flour, hour, our *(unstressed* /ɑːr/), sour. See also Triphthong.

* with **"ow"**

* /aʊ/: allow, bow *(inclination)*, brow, brown, browse, clown, cow, crowd, crown, down, drown, eyebrow, frown, how, now, owl, powder, row *(quarrel)*, towel, town, vowel, wow
* /aʊə/: coward, flower, power, shower, tower

## Spelling exceptions

Spelling exceptions (i.e., words which are not spelled with "ou" or "ow") are uncommon words:

* Maori /ˈmaʊriː/
* McLeod /məˈklaʊd/
* sauerkraut /ˈsaʊərkraʊt/
* umlaut /ˈʊmlaʊt/

## See also

* Decoding exercises: "ou"
* Decoding exercises: "ow"
* Decoding and spelling exercises: /əʊ/ vs /aʊ/
* Spelling exercises: "ou" vs "ow"

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation
Different stress in similar words

Many similar words have stress in a different syllable, and this changes the quality of the adjacent vowels.

 ˌəˈiː | strategic

 ˌe.əˈe.ə.iː*BrE**AmE*, ˈe.ə.ə.ə.iː | necessarily

## Heteronyms

 əˈʌ (v.) | ɪˈɜː (v.)

Other words

* conflict, content, contract, contrast, object, present, produce, project, process, record, survey, subject
Pronunciation exercises: \d\ vs \t\

**/d/** is a voiced consonant. **/t/** is an unvoiced consonant.

## /d/

**IPA consonants**

* with initial /d/: day - did - do;
* with final /d/: and - bad - bed;
* initial and final: dad - dead - did;
* past tense: answered - loved - played - waited

## /t/

* with initial /t/: ten - two/too;
* with final /t/: bat - but - put;
* past tense: asked - jumped - laughed - missed - passed - pushed

## /d/ vs /t/

See more minimal pairs ending in /t/ or /d/ in next section.

* aid - eight; bad - bat; bed - bet; bid - bit; bride - bright; code - coat; dead - debt; do - two/too; down - town; dry - try; fade - fate; had - hat; hard - heart; hide - height; inside - insight; mad - mat; ride - right/write; slide - slight;
* Past tense of verbs: bend - bent; bowled - bolt; broad - brought; complained - complaint; learned*AmE* - learnt*BrE*; lend - lent; sad - sat; send - sent/cent; spelled*AmE* - spelt;*BrE* spend - spent;

This is not a minimal pair: dreamed*AmE* /driːmd/ - dreamt*BrE* /dremt/

### Neutralization of intervocalic /t/ and /d/

Between vowels, /t/ and /d/ sound [ɾ] in American English. The following minimal pairs exist.

* Adam - atom; ladder - latter; medal - metal; rider - writer; pudding - putting;

Canadian rising
Before some consonants, including /t/, in the phenomenon called Canadian raising, /aɪ/ sounds [ʌɪ] and /aʊ/ sounds [ʌʊ]. The following words are not homophones even if the consonant is neutralized.

* rider [ɹaɪɾɚ] - writer [ɹʌɪɾɚ]

## Exercise

An interesting exercise to get students to pronounce these endings correctly, or at least be aware of the problems, is to spell out a series of "base" words and get them to come up with the variations finishing in /t/ or /d/:

## See also

* Past tense pronunciation
* Homophones
* Decoding the letter D
* Silent e
Decoding exercises: "é"

**IPA consonants**

The letter **"é"** (e with an acute accent) is not an integral part of the English language, and words that have it are often spelled with "e".

In languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, "é" indicates the stressed syllable. In English this is different; "é" often indicates that the "e" is pronounced, as in Beyoncé /biːˈjɒnseɪ/. The spelling "Beyonce" suggests /ˈbiːjɒns/ or /bɪˈjɒns/.

## French loan words

* As /eɪ/: attaché /əˈtæʃeɪ,*BrE* ˌætəˈʃeɪ*AmE*/; café /ˈkæfeɪ,*BrE* kæˈfeɪ*AmE*/; déjà vu /ˌdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/; entrée /ˈɒntreɪ/; fiancé, fiancée /fiːˈɒnseɪ/; pâté /ˈpæteɪ, pɑːˈteɪ*AmE*/; resumé or résum**é** /ˈrezjumeɪ*BrE*, ˈrezʊmeɪ*AmE*/
* As /eɪ/ or /ɪ/: elite *or* élite /eɪˈliːt, ɪˈliːt/
* As /e/ r**é**sumé *(also* resumé)

## An accent indicates that the "e" is not silent

* As /eɪ/: Beyoncé /biːˈjɒnseɪ/; mate *or* maté /ˈmɑːteɪ, ˈmæteɪ/;
* As /eɪ/ or /ɪ/: Pokémon /ˈpəʊkeɪˌmɒn, ˈpəʊkɪˌmɒn/; Poké Ball *or* Pokéball; Pokédex
* As /eɪ/ or /iː/: Nestlé /ˈnesleɪ,*BrE* ˈnesliː*AmE* /

## Heteronyms

In some cases cases the acute accent prevents two words from becoming heteronyms. However, often "é" is replaced by "e".

* expose /ɪkˈspəʊz/ vs. exposé /ekˈspəʊzeɪ,*BrE* ˌekspəʊˈzeɪ*AmE*/
* mate /meɪt/ vs. mate *or* maté /ˈmɑːteɪ, ˈmæteɪ/;
* resume /rɪˈzjuːm/ vs. resumé *or* résumé /ˈrezjumeɪ*BrE*, ˈrezʊmeɪ*AmE*/

## References

1. ↑ WordReference Forums, English Only, Nestle [Nestlé] - pronunciation.
E

**This article is a disambiguation page for E**

The following is a list of links to pages that might share the same title.

Please follow one of the disambiguation links below or search to find the page you were looking for if it is not listed. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

**E** may refer to the following articles

* Decoding the letter E
* So-called “short e”

* IPA phoneme /e/

* So-called “long e”

* IPA phoneme /iː/

* IPA phonetic symbol [e]
* IPA phonetic symbol [ɛ]
Decoding exercises: "ay"

The sequence "ay" very reliably represents the diphthong /eɪ/.

## /eɪ/

* always, away, day, delay, essay, display, gray*AmE*, lay, Malaysia, may, maybe, Norway, okay, pay, pray, play, Raymond, say, stay, today, tray, way

## /eɪ/, /iː/ or /ɪ/

Days of the week. See IPA phoneme /eɪ/ § Unstressed /eɪ/, /iː/ or /ɪ/

## Spelling anomalies

* As /aɪ/: kayak /ˈkaɪæk/ - Paraguay /ˈpærəɡwaɪ/ - Uruguay /ˈjʊərəɡwaɪ/
* layer: /ˈleɪər, leər*BrE*/
* mayor: /meər,*BrE* ˈmeɪər*AmE*/
* prayer: /preər/
* quay: /kiː/
* says: /sez/