All of the Sounds of American English
Pronunciation and IPA Symbols
When it comes to learning general American pronunciation in English, I encourage all English learners to go back to the start and get a clear understanding of all of the sounds used in American English. Even highly advanced and fluent English speakers sometimes have points of confusion with at least some of the vowel and consonant sounds in American English.
Commonly confused vowels in American English include the different ‘oo’ sounds such as in “moon” and “book” or the short i and long e such as in “sit” vs. “seat.” Of course, there is also the schwa which is actually the most used vowel in English, but rarely gets the attention it deserves.
Difficult consonant sounds in American English include the two ‘th’ sounds as well as the various different pronunciations of the ‘t’ sound, especially the flap ‘t’.
I have a video lesson on this and more here: All of the Sounds of American English… Made Simple, if you prefer to watch a video, but I wanted to create this text and audio lesson below as a reference guide for you to be able to quickly return to when you need clarification on the various sounds of American English.
Bookmark it and review it from time to time to review. Let’s go!
How to Pronounce the Vowels Sounds of American English:
The short vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:
short a /æ/
Examples: cat, apple, bat, bad, mat
short e /ɛ/
Examples: ten, elephant, men, pen, met, red
short i /ɪ/
Examples: sit, igloo, in, is, him, chin
short o /ɑː/
Examples: dog, octopus, father, call, hot, bought
short u /ʌ/
Examples: cup, umbrella, sun, cut, duck
The long vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:
long a /eɪ/
Examples: cake, acorn, name, day, rain, eight
long e /iː/ or /i/
Examples: see, free, seat, many, believe, she, babies
long i /aɪ/
Examples: bike, ice, five, idea, night, sign, try, cries
long o /oʊ/
Examples: bone, nose, go, boat, slow, though
long u /uː/
Examples: tube, use, moon, soup, blue, new
y + long u /juː/
Examples: cube, music, few, mute, value, feud
The other vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:
u/ou/oo /ʊ/
Examples: book, foot, good, look, put, pull, would
ou/ow /aʊ/
Examples: cow, how, now, town, loud, out, mouse
oi/oy /oɪ/ (if the word ends in l sound like oil: /ojəl/)
Examples: boy, toy, loyal, annoy, oil, coin, choice
schwa /ə/
Examples: about, a, the, review, carrot, item
The r-controlled vowels (also called r-colored vowels) in American English pronunciation:
er/ir/ur /ɚ/
Examples: bird, girl, birthday, nurse, teacher, doctor
or /oɚ/
Examples: door, for, poor, store, more, warm
ear /iɚ/
Examples: ear, fear, rear, deer, here, career
ar /ɑɚ/
Examples: car, star, bar, far, hard, alarm
air /eɚ/
Examples: bear, air, hair, there, fair, stairs
How to Pronounce the Consonants Sounds of American English:
b /b/
Examples: bat, ball, cab, baby, because, bike
d /d/
Examples: dog, dark, bad, dad, ended, dear
f (or ph) /f/
Examples: face, fun, phone, stuff, feel, effort
h /h/
Examples: hand, hill, happy, hip, hard, history
m /m/
Examples: man, make, them, ham, imitate, mark
n /n/
Examples: no, nurse, then, ten, enter, inner
p /p/
Examples: paint, pen, app, tip, accept, happy
s (or soft c) /s/
Examples: sun, eraser, caps, mice, history, insist
z (or s) /z/
Examples: zebra, zippers, days, was, razor, lizard
regular t /t/ (initial) + stop t /t/ (ending)
Examples: time, ten, cat, pit, list, stop
v /v/
Examples: van, very, alive, knives, ever, eve
w /w/
Examples: water, wait, away, awake, west, well
r /r/
Examples: river, red, rent, tree, green, brush
c (or k or ck) /k/
Examples: cake, call, kite, duck, pack, think, create
l /l/ *a dark l sound will come at the end of syllables and does not have a different symbol
Examples: leaf, light, lift, hill, full, eleven
g /g/
Examples: go, give, bag, big, glass, grammar
j (or soft g) /ʤ/ *You will also hear this instead of d in the cases of: “dr” or “du”
Examples: judge, jam, age, large, dream, education
y /j/ *This sound is sometimes before a vowel though it’s not written
Examples: yes, year, yesterday, cube (“cyube”), onion, beyond
ng (or n before k) /ŋ/
Examples: sing, ring, pink, hungry, sinking, young
s(ion) s(ure) s(ual) /ʒ/
Examples: vision, measure, confusion, decision, visual, usually
voiceless th /θ/
Examples: think, moth, thing, math, with, thanks
voiced th /ð/
Examples: this, mother, the, there, they, weather
sh or t(ion) /ʃ/
Examples: she, shark, fish, communication, national, sure
ch (or tch) /tʃ/ *You will also hear this instead of d in the cases of: “tr” or “tu”, however the IPA will still say “t”
Examples: child, charge, watch, catch, true, nature
qu /kw/
Examples: queen, quick, quarter, squash, request, equal
x /ks/
Examples: fox, box, X-ray, mixture, taxes, text
Are you ready to take your English to the next level?
My students have found that private lessons are the best way to improve their English. Often times students don’t know what mistakes they are making until a teacher makes them aware and coaches them through how to correct them.
To find out more about my online accent reduction and English fluency classes and to book your free 15-minute consultation, CLICK HERE to find out more.
