The IPA Chart for English — Full Phonetic Alphabet Reference

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a system of symbols used to represent the sounds of spoken language. Unlike ordinary spelling, each IPA symbol always represents exactly one sound, so it removes the guesswork that English spelling creates for learners.

English spelling was largely fixed centuries ago, while pronunciation kept changing, and English also borrowed words from many other languages with their own spelling rules. As a result, the same letters can represent different sounds (the "ough" in though, through, and cough) and the same sound can be spelled many ways — which is exactly the problem IPA symbols solve.

English has around 20 distinct vowel sounds: 12 pure vowels called monophthongs, where the tongue stays in one position (as in sit or too), and 8 diphthongs, where two vowel sounds glide together within one syllable (as in day or now). Both groups are listed in full on this chart.

/iː/ (as in see) is a long vowel made with the tongue high and tense, while /ɪ/ (as in sit) is shorter and made with the tongue slightly lower and more relaxed. Confusing this pair is one of the most common pronunciation errors for learners, since it can change one word into another, such as ship versus sheep.

A diphthong is a single syllable that glides smoothly between two vowel sounds, such as the /aɪ/ in my or the /əʊ/ in go. English has 8 diphthongs, and getting the glide direction right — starting on one vowel quality and moving toward the other — is more important than holding either vowel perfectly still.

English has 24 consonant sounds, grouped by how they are produced: plosives (like /p/ and /b/), fricatives (like /f/ and /θ/), affricates (/tʃ/ and /dʒ/), nasals (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/), and approximants (/l/, /r/, /j/, /w/). All 24 are listed with example words on this chart.

The schwa /ə/, heard in the second syllable of about, is the most frequent sound in spoken English. It is a short, relaxed, unstressed vowel that replaces many other vowel letters in unstressed syllables, which is why so many English words don't sound the way their spelling suggests.

This chart uses standard British English (RP) symbols, matching the rest of LexFizz's pronunciation guide, including the 20 vowel phonemes (12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs) and 24 consonants. American English uses a broadly similar but not identical set of symbols, most noticeably for the vowels in words like hot and car and for a rhotic /r/ pronounced after vowels.

Use our free Text to Speech tool to hear any example word read aloud, then repeat it yourself and compare. Our Speaking Cards exercise and the linked topic guides for vowels, consonants, minimal pairs, and the schwa sound all give focused, structured practice for individual sounds.

No — you can improve your pronunciation just by listening and imitating. But learning to read IPA symbols is a valuable shortcut: dictionaries show pronunciation with IPA, so once you can read this chart, you can look up the exact sound of any English word instantly, without relying on inconsistent spelling.