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IPA notation for American English

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system of symbols that represent every sound in
every language. American English IPA notation uses about 50 symbols.

This website can help your pronounce these sounds correctly.


http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

It looks like this: Click on "american english."

A window that looks like this will pop up:


CONSONANTS

This window has several parts that will help you. Click on "voice."

Your screen will show these two categories:

Every consonant sound in English is


either voiced or voiceless.
(This just means that you either use
your voicebox in your throat in order
to pronounce it, or you don't.)

These are the voiced consonants: These are the voiceless consonants
VOWELS
Every vowel in English is either a monopthong (it has one sound)...

...or a diphthong (it has two sounds that are pronounced together).

If you click on the monophthongs, you will get this screen: It will ask you to chose between three
categories:

front monophthongs are


pronounced in the front of
the mouth.

central monophthongs are


pronounced in the center of
the mouth.

back monophthongs are


pronounced in the back of
the mouth.

FRONT:
CENTRAL:

BACK:

All the diphthongs are listed on one page:


It looks like this:

If you click on ANY of the sounds, you can see exactly how it is formed in American English.
There are two PLAY buttons that will animate the screen.

One shows you what should happen inside your MOUTH.

One shows you


what you should do
with your lips.

You will never have to guess again.

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