IPA pronunciation guide

Introduction

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a phonetic notation system that is used to show how different words are pronounced. Unlike many standard alphabets where one phonetic symbol can often represent multiple sounds (e.g., the "o" in the words "do," "no," and "not" are all pronounced differently in English), the IPA has a one-to-one correspondence between a speech sound and the symbol used to represent it. 

IPA symbols for American English

The following tables list the IPA symbols used for American English words and pronunciations. Please note that although the IPA is based on the Latin alphabet, the IPA contains some non-Latin characters as well.

• The tables above represent pronunciations of common phonemes in general North American English. Speakers of some dialects may have different sounds in certain words represented in the tables. For example, many American speakers pronounce words with /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ (e.g., "cot" and "caught") the same.


• In the IPA, a word's primary stress is marked by putting a raised vertical line (ˈ) at the beginning of a syllable. Secondary stress is marked by putting a lowered vertical line (ˌ) at the beginning of a syllable. For example, the word "Tennessee" has primary stress on the last syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable, so it is transcribed as /ˌtɛnəˈsi/.


• To help with readability, we use /r/ instead of the standard /ɹ/ in our transcriptions to represent the voiced alveolar approximant found in American English (i.e., the "r"-sound in a word like "ring").