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10/24/2018 The 44 Phonemes in English
Despite there being just 26 letters in the English language there are approximately 44
unique sounds, also known as phonemes. The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or
meaning from another. Various letters and letter combinations known as graphemes are
used to represent the sounds.
The 44 English sounds fall into two categories: consonants and vowels. Below is a list of the
44 phonemes along with their International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and some examples
of their use. Note that there is no such thing as a definitive list of phonemes because of
accents, dialects and the evolution of language itself. Therefore you may discover lists with
more or less than these 44 sounds.
Consonants
IPA What is the
Phoneme Graphemes Examples Voiced?
Symbol International Phonetic
1 b b, bb bug, bubble Yes Alphabet?
2 d d, dd, ed dad, add, milled Yes
How can you pronounce a
f, ff, ph, gh, fat, cliff, phone, enough,
3 f No word you've never read? It
lf, ft half, often
can be a bit tricky. How about
g, gg, gun, egg, ghost, guest,
4 g Yes a word in a foreign language?
gh,gu,gue prologue
5 h h, wh hop, who No
Now that must be impossible!
Or is it? Imagine a set of
j, ge, g, jam, wage, giraffe, edge,
6 dʒ Yes
dge, di, gg soldier, exaggerate symbols that could tell you
k, c, ch, cc, how to pronounce any word
kit, cat, chris, accent, folk,
7 k lk, qu ,q(u),
bouquet, queen, rack, box
No in any language on the
ck, x
planet? Well that is exactly
8 l l, ll live, well Yes
what the International
m, mm, mb, man, summer, comb,
9 m Yes Phonetic Alphabet is.
mn, lm column, palm
Currently, the IPA consists of
n, nn,kn, net, funny, know, gnat,
10 n
gn, pn pneumonic
Yes 107 sound symbols, 52
diacritics (accents) and 4
11 p p, pp pin, dippy No
prosodic marks (intonations)
12 r r, rr, wr, rh run, carrot, wrench, rhyme Yes
encompassing virtually every
s, ss, c, sc, sit, less, circle, scene,
13 s ps, st, ce, psycho, listen, pace, No
phoneme used in every
se course language on the earth. So for
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10/24/2018 The 44 Phonemes in English
Phoneme
IPA
Graphemes Examples Voiced? any written word, you can
Symbol
identify the associated
14 t t, tt, th, ed tip, matter, thomas, ripped No
phoneme symbols, and with a
15 v v, f, ph, ve vine, of, stephen, five Yes
bit of practice, pronounce the
16 w w, wh, u, o wit, why, quick, choir Yes
word! Congratulations, you
17 z
z, zz, s, ss, zed, buzz, his, scissors,
Yes can speak Greek now!
x, ze, se xylophone, craze
Vowels
IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples
Symbol
a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, et, ei, au, a_e, bay, maid, weigh, straight, pay, foyer, filet, eight, gauge, mate,
26 eɪ
ea, ey break, they
27 e e, ea, u, ie, ai, a, eo, ei, ae end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic
be, bee, meat, lady, key, phoenix, grief, ski, deceive, people,
28 i: e, ee, ea, y, ey, oe, ie, i, ei, eo, ay
quay
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10/24/2018 The 44 Phonemes in English
IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples
Symbol
30 aɪ i, y, igh, ie, uy, ye, ai, is, eigh, i_e spider, sky, night, pie, guy, stye, aisle, island, height, kite
32 oʊ o, oa, o_e, oe, ow, ough, eau, oo, ew open, moat, bone, toe, sow, dough, beau, brooch, sew
o, oo, ew, ue, u_e, oe, ough, ui, oew, who, loon, dew, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit, manoeuvre,
35 u:
ou group
39 eəʳ air, are, ear, ere, eir, ayer chair, dare, pear, where, their, prayer
40 ɑ: a arm
41 ɜ:ʳ ir, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle
aw, a, or, oor, ore, oar, our, augh, ar, paw, ball, fork, poor, fore, board, four, taught, war, bought,
42 ɔ:
ough, au sauce
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10/24/2018 The 44 Phonemes in English
New! Comments
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Siva Heiman
Is the qu sound as in the word quick another phoneme? It seems
to me there are 45 phonemes, not 44. I think qu is a digraph. What
do you think?
Like · Reply · 19h
Rachel Dudley
This is a fantastic resource! I am designing an online platform to
help parents understand what phonics is and how they can
support their child in learning phonics, as part of a course in
eLearning design that I am studying. Do you mind if I include a link
to your site for further reading?
Like · Reply · 2 · 4w
Danielle Skane
Following!
Like · Reply · 2w
Yun Guo
French Teacher tells me to search up why the is much phonemes
in English and this is the first one that pops up, seriously
Like · Reply · 2 · 5w
Oluwayemisi Edun
Unvoiced not invoice sorry
Like · Reply · 7w
Oluwayemisi Edun
Very helpful but I think there is a mistake in the th sounds as
voiced and invoiced . The first one should be No and the other
Yes. Thank you
Like · Reply · 7w
Doris Okonkwo
Thanks so much
Like · Reply · 1 · 8w
Andrew Thomas
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10/24/2018 The 44 Phonemes in English
Andrew Thomas
Are you using US or UK pronunciation?
Like · Reply · 2 · 10w
LSreelakshmi S S
Thankzzzz
Like · Reply · 2 · 11w
Mohamoud Dahir
I was straggling long time ago to get this chart,thank you putting it
in front of me
Like · Reply · 1 · 12w
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