Introduction to phonemic

symbols

English alphabet
consists of 26 letters
around 44 sounds 20 vowels and 24
consonants.
A vowel sound is a sound produced without
blocking the air flow from the mouth with our
teeth, tongue or lips.
A consonant sound is a sound produced by
blocking the air flow from the mouth with the
teeth, tongue or lips.

IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet is the most
widely used set of symbols for showing the
sounds of a language.
A phonemic symbol is a letter which
represents a sound.

Vowel sounds

Consonant sounds

Match the words with their

pronunciation

Lets try to read this!

then
though
that
thought
think
thoroughly
throughout
throat
tough

Digraph
a combination of two letters or characters
used to represent a single speech sound such
as ch, sh, th, wh, qu, etc.
E.g. sh in shoe
Diphtong two vowel sounds pronounced as
one syllable

Syllable
Is a word or part of a word that has one vowel
sound. It may also have one or more
consonant sounds.
e.g. Mother, mum

Word stress
Is the pattern of strong and weak syllables in a
word.
Party - ['pa:ti]

Sentence stress
Is the pattern of strong and weak syllables in a
sentence.
E.g. How do you do? OooO

Vowels

 How many vowel letters do you know?

R: There are 5 vowel letters.
How many vowel sounds do you know?
R: approximately twenty.

 /i:/ is a long sound and it is

usually spelled as ee or ea.
See, agree, seat, eat, team
NB: 8 letters of the alphabet have the sound /i:/
BCDEGPTV
// is a short sound and it is
usually spelled i
If, listen, miss, dinner, swim

Circle all the /i:/ sound and

underline all the // sounds :
big, busy, dinner, give, green, in, listen, meet,
office, people, pizza, please, repeat, six, tea,
three, lead, lid, wheat, wit, been, bin, cheek,
chick, feel, fill, reach, rich

 /u:/ is a long sound and it is

spelled as oo, oe, ou, u, ue, ew
group, shoe, blue
When the spelling is u or ew there is a /j/
sound before the /u:/
Music, new
But: two, fruit, juice
/ju:/ is the name of the letter U in the alphabet.

 // is a short sound and it is

usually spelled as u, oo, ou:
full, sugar, book, foot, would

 Circle the words with the sound /u:/:

Food, four, June, look, news, room, school, soup,
spoon, sugar, town, Tuesday, two

Circle the words with the sound //:

Book, cookery, cough, could, good, looking,
lunch, soon, sugar, thought, through

 /a:/ is a long sound and it is

usually spelled as a and ar:
After, afternoon, ask, bath, bathroom, cant ,
class, dance, fast, father, glass, tomato, bar,
car, card, far, park, star, start
But: aunt, laugh, heart, half,
In words with the letter r after /a:/, most
Americans and some British people
pronounce the r

 The sound // is a short sound

and it is usually spelled u but also, ou, o.

E.g. bus, colour, come, cup, front, London, luck,

Monday, month, mother, much, nothing,
number, run, study, sun, uncle, under
Try to read : son and sun!

Write the words under the right

sound
the sound //

the sound /a:/

Luck, cud, barks, lark, card, dark, duck, last, lust,

carp, cup, bucks

 // is a short vowel and

usually spelled o and sometimes a.
Bottle, box, holiday, chocolate, clock, coffee,
copy, cost, cross, doctor, dog, gone, got, holiday,
hospital, hot, job, lock, long, lost, lot, not, off,
often, possible, shop, song, sorry, stop, top,
wrong, quality, want, wash, watch, what
NB: the word was is sometimes pronounced
with //

 is a long sound and has different spellings:

a all, ball, call, fall, tall
al talk, walk, au autumn, aw saw
augh caught, daughter, taught
ough bought, thought
ar quarter, warm
or born, short, sort
oor door, floor
ore before, more
our four

 /e/ is a short sound and usually spelled as

e check, leg, letter, red, sentence
ea bread, head, read
ie friend
a any, many
ai again, said

 // is a short sound and

usually spelled a
Back, camera, hat, jam, map, plan, traffic

 // is a long sound and spelled

ir, or, ur, our, ear, er.
Ir bird, first, birthday, circle, thirty
Or word, work, world, worse, worst
Ur turn, Thursday
Our journey
Ear early, earth, heard, learn
Er service, Germany, prefer

Put the words into the correct

groups

 /i/ is a long sound and is spelled in different

ways.
ea
real
ear ear beard clear hear year
eer beer cheers
ere here were

 /e/ is a long sound and is spelled in different

ways:
are care, square
air air, chair, fari, hari
ear wear
ere where
aer aeroplane

 / e /is a long sound and is spelled in different

ways.
a age, came, plane, table
ai rain, wait
ay day, play, say
ey grey
Ea break, great
Eigh eight, weight

 /a/ is a long sound and id spelled in different

ways
i
like, time, white
ie die
y dry, July, why
igh high, night, right
uy buy

 // is a long sound and usually spelled as

oi coin, point, voice
oy boy, enjoy, toy

 //is a long sound and usually spelled as:

o no, cold, post, close, drove, home, phone
ow know, low, show, slow
oa boat
oe toe

 /a/is a long sound and usually spelled as

ow how now vowel
ou loud, mouth sound

Compare