Phonetic symbols for English This is the standard set of phonemic symbols for English (RP and similar accents) Consonants Vowels p pen, copy, happen ɪ kit, bid, hymn, minute b back, baby, job e dress, bed, head, many t æ trap, bad tea, tight, button d day, ladder, odd ɒ lot, odd, wash k key, clock, school ʌ strut, mud, love, blood g get, giggle, ghost ʊ foot, good, put tʃ church, match, nature iː fleece, sea, machine dʒ judge, age, soldier eɪ face, day, break f fat, coffee, rough, photo aɪ price, high, try v view, heavy, move ɔɪ choice, boy θ thing, author, path uː goose, two, blue, group ð this, other, smooth əʊ goat, show, no s soon, cease, sister aʊ mouth, now z zero, music, roses, buzz ɪə near, here, weary ʃ ship, sure, national eə square fair, various ʒ pleasure, vision ɑː start, father h hot, whole, ahead ɔː thought, law, north, war m more, hammer, sum ʊə poor, jury, cure n nice, know, funny, sun ɜː nurse, stir, learn, refer ŋ ring, anger, thanks, sung ə about, common, standard l light, valley, feel i happy, radiate glorious r right, wrong, sorry, arrange u j thank you, influence, situation yet, use, beauty, few suddenly, cotton w wet, one, when, queen ʔ (glottal stop) department, football middle, metal ˈ (stress mark) IPA Alphabetic representation p p b b t t, th (rarely) thyme, Thames d d c (+ a, o, u, consonants), k, ck, ch, qu (rarely) conquer, kh (in foreign k words) ɡ g, gh, gu (+ a, e, i), gue (final position) m m n n ŋ n (before g or k), ng f f, ph, gh (final, infrequent) laugh, rough v v θ th thick, think, through ð th that, this, the s s, c (+ e, i, y), sc (+ e, i, y), ç often c (façade/facade) z ʃ z, s (finally or occasionally medially), ss (rarely) possess, dessert, wordinitial x xylophone sh, sch (some dialects) schedule (plus words of German origin), ti (before vowel) portion, ci/ce (before vowel) suspicion, ocean; si/ssi (before vowel) tension, mission; ch (esp in words of French origin); rarely s/ss before u sugar, issue; chsi in fuchsia only medial si (before vowel) division, medial s (before "ur") pleasure, zh (in foreign words), z before u azure, g (in words of French origin) (+e, i, y) genre, j (in words of French origin) bijou h h (syllable-initially, otherwise silent) tʃ ch, tch, t before u future, culture dʒ j, g (+ e, i, y), dg (+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment r r, wr (initial) wrangle j y (initially or surrounded by vowels), j hallelujah l l w w ʒ