International Phonetic Alphabet

Bill's American English Tutor Profile on Preply with Reviews

List of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Symbols

Below is a list of the 31 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) letters/symbols and their pronunciations, with examples (mostly) from the English language (yes, this is so important for the sake of efficiency that I’ve created a dedicated page on this site).

  • 13 Consonants

    • [p] - voiceless bilabial stop (like p in pat)

    • [b] - voiced bilabial stop (like b in bat)

    • [t] - voiceless alveolar stop (like t in top)

    • [d] - voiced alveolar stop (like d in dog)

    • [k] - voiceless velar stop (like k in cat)

    • [g] - voiced velar stop (like g in go)

    • [ʃ] - voiceless postalveolar fricative (like sh in shoe)

    • [ʒ] - voiced postalveolar fricative (like s in measure)

    • [θ] - voiceless dental fricative (like th in think)

    • [ð] - voiced dental fricative (like th in this)

    • [m] - bilabial nasal (like m in man)

    • [n] - alveolar nasal (like n in net)

    • [ŋ] - velar nasal (like ng in sing)

  • 12 Vowels

    • [i] - close front unrounded vowel (like ee in see)

    • [ɪ] - near-close near-front unrounded vowel (like i in sit)

    • [e] - close-mid front unrounded vowel (like é in French café)

    • [ɛ] - open-mid front unrounded vowel (like e in bed)

    • [æ] - near-open front unrounded vowel (like a in cat)

    • [ɑ] - open back unrounded vowel (like a in father in AmE)

    • [ɔ] - open-mid back rounded vowel (like o in thought in BrE)

    • [o] - close-mid back rounded vowel (like o in go in many languages)

    • [u] - close back rounded vowel (like oo in food)

    • [ʊ] - near-close near-back rounded vowel (like u in book)

    • [ə] - schwa, mid-central vowel (like a in sofa)

    • [ɐ] near-open central vowel (like a in about)

  • 6 Special Letters and Diacritics

    • [ʔ] - glottal stop (like the break in uh-oh)

    • [ɾ] - alveolar tap (like t/d in AmE water)

    • [ʲ] - palatalization mark (like in Russian мь)

    • [ː] - length mark (e.g., = long ee)

    • [ˈ] - primary stress marker

    • [ˌ] - secondary stress marker