English Pronunciation

Consonants and semi-vowels

symbol
/b/ bat bat Sound more explosive than that of a Spanish initial b.
/d/ dig /dIg/ Sound more explosive than that of a Spanish d.
/j/ jam Similar to a ch but closer to the initial sound of Giuseppe in Italian.
/f/ fit fit Like the Spanish f.
/g/ good good Sound more explosive than that of a Spanish initial g.
Softer aspiration sound than the Spanish j, articulated as if you
/h/ hat hat
It was trying to fog up a mirror with its breath.
A /w/ with the aspiration of the /h/ (many speakers do not distinguish between /hw/.
/hw/ wheel /hwi:l/
y /w/ they pronounce whale in the same way as wail).
/j/ yes /jes/ Like the 'y' in 'yema' and 'yo' (except in Rioplatense Spanish).
/k/ cat cat More explosive sound than that of a Spanish 'c' in bed or act.
/l/ lid lid Like the Spanish L.
l tidal title the elongated and resonant.

/m/ mat mat Like the Spanish m.

nib nib Like the Spanish n.
/n/̩ threaten in elongated and resonant.

/ŋ/ sing sing Like the Spanish n in bank or hip.

/p/ pet /pet/ Sound more explosive than that of a Spanish p.
Between the Spanish r and rr, pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled upwards
/r/ rat rat
back and without touching the palate.
sip sip Like the Spanish s.
Sound similar to the interjection "sh!", used to ask for silence (see
/ʃ / ship ship
also
/t/ tip tip Sound more explosive than that of a Spanish t.
/tʃ / chin chin Like the Spanish ch.
/θ/ thin thin Like the c or the z of European Spanish in five or shoe.
/ð/ the /ðə/ Sound similar to a Spanish intervocalic d like in cada or modo.
Sound produced with the upper incisors on the lip.
/v/ van van
inferior.
/w/ win win Similar to the initial sound of egg.
/x/ lake lark Like the Spanish j.
/z/ zip zip it sounds (with a buzzing noise).

Sound similar to that of the y or ll of Rioplatense Spanish in yo or llave, or to that of the j

/ʒ / vision vision
French in I (see also /dʒ /).

Vowels and diphthongs

: indicates that the preceding vowel is long.
/ɑ :/ father Sound longer than that of a Spanish 'a'.
Sound that is obtained when pronouncing a Spanish 'a' with the lips in position.
/æ/ fat fat
to pronounce an e.
A sound shorter than the Spanish 'a' and pronounced at the back of
/ʌ / cup cup
the mouth.
/e/ met /met/ Sound similar to the Spanish e in mesa.
/ə/ abet abate Sound similar to the French 'e' in 'je' (see also /əʊ /).
Sound obtained when pronouncing a Spanish 'e' with the lips in position.
/ɜ :/ fur fur
to pronounce an o.
/ɪ / bit bit Sound shorter than that of the Spanish i.
/i;/ beat beat Sound longer than that of the Spanish i.
/i/ very digit Sound similar to the Spanish i in papi.
/ɔ :/ paw /pɔ :/ Sound longer than that of the Spanish 'o'.
/u:/ boot boot Sound longer than that of a Spanish 'u'.
/ʊ / book book A sound shorter than that of the Spanish 'u'.

/aI/ fine fine Like ai in the Spanish words aire, baile.

ow now now As in the Spanish words pause, flute.
aɪ fate fate Like the 'ei' in the Spanish words 'peine,' 'aceite.'

/əʊ / goat goat Like an o pronounced without rounding the lips too much.
/ɔɪ / boil boil As I hear envoy, coypu.

Like a pronounced u without rounding the lips too much and followed by a
/uə/ sexual
/ə/.

Additional symbols used in the transcription of British vowel sounds

/ɒ / dog dog Similar to a Spanish one.
/eə/ fair fear Like a Spanish e followed by /ə/.
/ɪ ə/ near Like a Spanish i followed by /ə/.
Like a Spanish u pronounced without rounding the lips too much and
/ʊ ə/ tour tour
followed by /ə/.
CONSONANTS

Step 1: consonants shared with Spanish

The following consonants are pronounced like in our language. They are the
easier to learn, for obvious reasons. However, four of them are going to
vary depending on its position or the letter that accompanies it in the word.
Read the phrase that appears after the lyrics, trying to exaggerate your pronunciation.
Don't worry about the rest; we'll see it later.

For four fiefdoms, Frank found five fields.

Can I ask you a question concerning kilograms?

when C is followed by E or I, it becomes an S
The Q, which is not the QU, is pronounced like the K. The U is pronounced (KU).

Alas, Lord Alan, Lady Lorraine looks lavish in her bridal dress.
The L is pronounced more elongated when it appears at the eeeeend of the
word.

Martin, my impeccable man, you must mollify the remorse.

on my mind

Non-wiggling children need to notify news not spoken neither by

singing, giggling nor snarling like oxen.
The eNes are pronounced in a more elongated way when
they appear at the end of a song.
The N before a G (/ŋ/) sounds nasal (with a blocked nose) when
they appear at the end of a syllable and the next begins with a consonant.
Calm down; it's just like in Spanish: both foolish suddenly sing tunes with
a blanket.

So, Susan sings in Spanish music bands

The towering turtle talks with contempt.

Excuse me, I’m transfixed with the exquisite mix of the xylophone
music from the xiphoid taxi
When the word starts with X (xeric, xerox, xylophone, xiphoid...), the
the sound of the letter is that of Z, but the English one, not the Spanish.

Yes, you yawned and yelled 'yellow mayonnaise' to your, sorry,

my young boy yesterday.
The Y is a consonant at the beginning of a word or syllable and sounds like a
LL. For the rest, it is a vowel, which can be pronounced like I (mayonnaise,
sorry, boy, yesterday) or like AI (mine).

Step 2: consonants similar to Spanish

The following consonants are pronounced similarly to our language, only
with greater or lesser power. Try to exaggerate its sound a lot in the
examples, because it will sound more or less like in reality.

Hold your breath longer before speaking.

consonant–try not to have any food inside, by the way)

But, blimey, Brian! The Brazilian buffoon is lambasting the bus driver!

Don’t you dare to understand his deeds

Hello, Harvey, how happy to hear from your heroic rehearsal. Hooray!
Some words, like hour or honest, do not pronounce the H.

Please, put the trumpet in the appropriate place.

Good, great, we’ll go to beguiling Germany with our gilded bags.

and Giles and his guffaw
In some cases, the G (/dʒ/) is pronounced similarly to the LL, with
a D before. Practice with the word I first, putting a D in front.
(DLLO)
Weaker (let all the air out of your lungs when pronouncing the letter)

Richard is reading in his room a wonderful book written by

a Romanian writer
*When R precedes a vowel, it is not pronounced in British English.
long vocal) but yes in American.

Zoe goes to the zoo to realize how bizarre buzzards are.

Step 3: rare consonants

By rare we mean that they are the same as in Spanish, but there
pronounce it differently. The phonetic alphabet can help you, but
We will include a brief review to better understand them.

The city center includes a cinema, a café, and a circus for lice and mice.
NOTE: C becomes an S if followed by E or I, like in Spanish
(but we do it with a Z, remember).

Joe is a DJ with orange jeans who broke his joint with the junk while
telling jaunty jokes in the garage under the bridge
The sound of the J, as you have been able to see, is not only limited to
this consonant. If the word ends in -GE, it is a J.

Victor and Veronica have a vandal son who behaves very viciously.
The V sounds like an F or the voicing of Argentines, but softer.

What was Wendy wondering about? How were her renowned wits?
Lost? Why would such a wonderful woman wring the neck of sanity?
The easiest way to pronounce this consonant is by transforming it into
a vowel: U, but longer. Be careful not to add a G before it, because
it is common and it is wrong. If W is followed by R (write, wrong, wring), do not
pronunciation.
 Step 4: combined consonants
Finally, let's go with the sounds coming from combined consonants.
that have their own phonetic sound. Or two.

English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough

thought, though

In Old English, there were two letters called thorn.þ) and eth(ð) what
they represented the two current sounds of TH: the soft zeta (θ) and the de-zeta
(ð). With the arrival of Middle English, both sounds began to be represented
with the same combination of letters: TH.
Here the pronunciation is more complex, although it follows a series of
rules that can help you say the words correctly. These
norms are:
1.a)–gh = F. If the word ends in –gh, its phonetic sound is equivalent to that of the

F (/f/): cough, tough, enough.

If the word ends in -ght, the GH is not pronounced: night, light,
fight, thought.
3.c) gh-=G. If the word starts with gh-, the sound is a G: ghost, ghetto.
4.d)–gh-=G. If the combination is in the middle of the word, it is pronounced as
G: aghast, Afghanistan.
e)-gh=silence. Exception of section a). Here the sound of -gh is not the one of
an F, but it is not pronounced at all: sigh, high.
f)-gh=P. Another exception, very rare. The sound of -gh becomes
the one with a P at the end of the word: hiccough (/hɪkʌp/).

The mischievous alchemist echoed the orchestra chiefly from his chiffon
archives as he avoided the chivalrous merchant and the scheduled monarch
at six under the arch by the loch.

Almost all the words that have the CH letter are pronounced
like the Spanish: mischievous, chiefly, chiffon, eschew, merchant
*CH=K (/k/) If the word has Greek origin, CH becomes K:
alchemist
*CH=SH (/ʃ/) If the word is of French origin, CH is pronounced as a
chivalrous
If the word is of Scottish origin, the CH becomes a J: loch

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

The sound of SH (/ʃ/) is the same as that of an S, but with the tip of the tongue.
downwards. Practice with the tongue movement reciting the tongue twister
which appears as an example (down, up, up, down, up, down).

VOWELS

Well, once the easy part is over (believe me), let's move on to the part
complicated, that are the vowels. These are divided, in a summarized way, into
short, long and diphthongs. Before moving on to the nougat, soaked in spirit
Christmas of these dates, it is advisable that we understand what short means and
long, because ours are right in the middle.

The short vowel is nothing more than an aspirated vowel. Let's practice. Say A,
E, I, O, U with one hand in front of the mouth. The heat of your breath will have
warming up your fingers, right? Do it now in reverse, swallowing the air in
place to let it go. It's hard, isn't it? Well, curve your lips towards your ears, without
to manage to smile, pulling the neck muscles that come from the sternum
(sternocleidomastoid) to repeat the exercise. You will notice that the air does not come out.

now, it just stays floating in the throat. Bravo; you have succeeded.
pronounce a short vowel.

The long one is called that because it sounds for a longer time. That doesn't mean that
we need to elongate the sound. If we do, it will be a short vowel elongated and
It sounds like when we say "meeee calllllllll me Robeeeeeertoooo". No
we want to say that. The English long vowel consists of repeating the same vowel
quickly, emphasizing the first. Let's practice it slowly, to
learn to control it. Say the word 'coordinate'. We have two oes, but not
we pronounce only one, right? We say co-ordinate. Let's go from
wonder. Now, let's accentuate the first 'o' in the following way: có-
ordinary. Repeat a couple of times, until we join them in one single stroke.
voice (coordinate). Now, in English: Car. Instead of saying 'kar', like before
Now, we are going to make it long, separating it first (ká-ar) and joining it when
we have mastered it in 'káar'. Congratulations: you now have the English long vowel
at your service.

We will talk about diphthongs in another blog post; they deserve a section.
special. So let's finish with the sounds of vowels that are greater
problems will cause us.

Step 1: A
The first, and on the forehead. Not all the As that you see are pronounced as A nor
all the vowels you read are pronounced as they are written. I am afraid
It's time to gradually learn its pronunciation... Let's look at the vowels.
without diphthong, since, as we said before, this combination produces
phonetic alterations. Ah! And remember that A in English is said /ei/.

-/æ /:apple,ammunition, have,add, cat,ankle, pat, mattress

This is about the short vowel. If there is a double consonant after it, it is easy.
to locate her. The bad thing is that she doesn't always carry it.

-/eɪ /: male, strange, bate, baby, data, behave

This is how it is pronounced in the alphabet and in the words that end in -e. Or rather
said, is usually pronounced.

-/ ʌ/: luck, run, but,onion, must, cut,ugly, blood,uncle, funny, love, come,
cover
Say the letter U, but pronounce the A in its place. The lips say one, but
the throat, another. It often appears with the letter U, but it is not always so.
/ɒ/
quality
Say the letter O, but pronounce it like an A. Similar to the previous one in its
execution, not sound.

-/ ɑ:/: car, father, calm,are, far, market

The long vowel. The R after a vowel in the same syllable is a good
Clue to know that your pronunciation, although not the corresponding vowel.
The long vowels are easy to identify because the accent usually falls on them.
word in them.

Step 2: E
The second vowel is somewhat tricky. Sometimes it is E, sometimes I, and other times, a
sound similar to E, but written with another vowel.

-/ɛ/: bet,elephant,any,ever,every, never, necessary, eleven, event

The main difference between a Spanish vowel and an English one is the lack of enthusiasm to
the time to pronounce them. That peculiar sound is obtained by opening the throat
a little more than normal and giving a hit with the diaphragm (like when one
spit). Leave the belly weak, say 'e' and start cutting it with blows that
pull your stomach in while opening your mouth a little more
throat, if you can)

/ɛ:/ : care, aware, many, share

The A becomes a long E, but open. If you observe the writing
phonetic, each time the vowel is long, two dots (:) appear after it
symbol.

-/ ɪ /: elephant, necessary,extreme,eleven,event, wanted, landed, houses

The sound of this vowel is practically symbolic, but it sounds. Unlike
from the /ɛ/, here we close the throat. It is key for the plurals of the words
and for the past/participle of verbs that end with the sound of T or D
-/ ɪ:/:evening,England, extreme, gene, intercede, siamese
The same as the previous one, but long. Remember: if it is long, it has the accent.
NOTE: if there is an -e at the end of the word, the previous -e is always pronounced.
so.

-/ə/: teacher, manager, capacity, camera, worker

employer
Decide the letter A, but pronounce an E in its place. All the words that
Those that end in –ER follow this rule.

/ɜ:/ : nurse, word, surf, bird, certain, burn, birthday, person, term, verb, third
her, perfect
Trick: they have an R afterwards. I can't say more. It's the sound of an E.
inside. To put it bluntly, it sounds as if you're being foolish. For
practice it, listenthis songand learn youthe letter(it's very simple).

Step 3: I
Like the previous vowel, the I (sometimes Y) alternates with its sounds with some degree of
freedom. It coincides with the examples seen in the previous vowel.

-/ɪ/: garage, sausage,message,in, begin,important, fish, hit, quick, since,

think, typical, kill, physics, women
The A becomes a short I with almost all the words that end in -age.
Also if the consonant is doubled (kill, mill,
hill) or is double (pink, physics), except in some cases.

-/aɪ/: cry,item,idea, like, Mike, fine, find, bind, time, arrive, by, try, psychology
supply
Always when the word ends in -e or -nd. When it ends in -y if it has
a single syllable or is accented (ba-by / Ju-ly à/’beibi / –/dʒu ːˈlaɪ/)

Step 4: Or
The funniest vowel of all. Because it sounds like the tourists asking for 'a
"Vinou, poo favoo." Now you will understand why they say it like that. And also why.
we always pronounce it wrong and say O instead.
-/əʊ/: cold, open, low, tomato, hole, alone, bone, ago, soldier, gold, go, roll,
almost, associate, focus, ghost, local, over, only, program, total
Decide, but pronounce O, adding a U to the mouth position. It is the
most common way to pronounce this vowel.

-/ɔ: /: was, water, what,all, law,already,also, war,almost,

*A becomes O, but open. Pronounce it as if you had a
injury on the lower lip that prevents you from placing your mouth in the usual position.
It usually appears in almost all the words that have a W or WH before the
A. In American English, it sounds more like A, by the way.

Step 5: U
The only one that has no similarity with Spanish. Or, at the very least, a sound.
similar.

-/ju/:university, museum, music, cute, you, community, humour, abuse,

excuse
The U is actually a letter that is pronounced like IU. It is usually the form
habitual of pronouncing it.

/ʊ/
Its short form. As we have seen before, if it has a double consonant or
two consonants, this gives us a clue about its pronunciation
move, flu, flute, include, Peru, June

It's not the most usual form (it's used more in diphthongs). But, what
Would it be English without its exceptions?