What is the phonetics of vowels in English?

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The vowels in English, just like in Spanish, are a, e, i, o and u; so far everything is the same, but everything changes when we look at their pronunciation in English. They do not always sound like their phonetic transcription and, in fact, there are cases where they sound like a neutral vowel represented by the schwa phoneme (/ə/), which happens in unstressed syllables.

At ABA English we care about helping you with the pronunciation of English words and, for that, it is essential that you first know how to pronounce the letters, including the vowels. Thanks to our speaking exercises you will be able to practice all the sounds in English until you master them.

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ENGLISH PHONETICS OF VOWELS

Among the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols are those that correspond to English phonetics. Thanks to them we can know how vowels, consonants, and words that make up this language are pronounced.

Although the name of the vowels in English has its phonetic representation, unlike what happens in Spanish, this sound is not the only one they can be pronounced with; pronunciation can vary depending on the combination of sounds in the word.

ABA on Air · Ep. 30 How To Improve Pronunciation | ABA on Air

What is the phonetics of vowels in English?

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF VOWELS IN ENGLISH

A is /eɪ/

E is /iː- /

I is /aɪ/

O is /oʊ/

U is /ju /

Let’s see how vowels can sound:

With A we find ace (as) /eɪs/ that in Spanish sounds like ‘eis’ and apple (apple) /ˈæp.əl/ that sounds like ‘apl’ with an ‘a’ similar to the Spanish one.

With E we find read (to read) /riːd/ that in Spanish sounds like ‘rid’. Two ‘e’s together, like in feet (feet pl.) /fiːt/ sound like ‘fit’. Elephant (elephant) /ˈel.ɪ.fənt/ sounds like ‘elefant’ with an ‘e’ similar to the Spanish one.

With I we find iceberg (iceberg) /ˈaɪs.bɜːɡ/ that in Spanish sounds like ‘aisberg’ and ring (ring) /rɪŋ/ that sounds like ‘ring’ with an ‘i’ similar to the Spanish one.

With O we have go (to go) /ɡəʊ/ that in Spanish sounds like ‘gou’. Two ‘o’s together like in roof (roof) /ruːf/ sound like ‘ruf’. Toy (toy) is represented as /tɔɪ/ and sounds like ‘toi’ with an ‘o’ similar to the Spanish one.

With U we have unique (unique) /juːˈniːk/ that in Spanish sounds like ‘iunik’ and bus (bus) /bʌs/ that sounds like ‘bas’ with the sound produced by putting the mouth as if to say ‘u’ but saying ‘a’.

PRACTICAL TIPS TO UNDERSTAND THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET SYMBOLS FOR VOWELS

If you are not yet familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for vowels, don’t worry, because we will give you some tips on how to understand it.

First of all, don’t worry when you see all the IPA symbols, as it is very likely that naturally, when you see this information in the phonetic chart, you more or less know how the sound of a vowel is produced thanks to its phonetic transcription.

If you pay attention to the IPA for vowels, you will first find the place of production of the phoneme, which can be front, central or back. This refers to the area where the tongue is located at the moment of producing the sound. Try the exercise of becoming aware of what area your tongue is in when pronouncing the ‘a’ sound.

Then we have the manner of articulation, which can be close, close-mid, mid, open-mid and open. This has to do with the height of the tongue in relation to the palate when you produce a vowel sound. Again, notice at what height your tongue is when pronouncing the ‘a’ sound.

Besides the transcription of the letter sounds, in the case of ‘e’ /iː/ you will find other symbols that might cause some doubt. The symbol you find in the phonetic transcription is very easy to understand since it means the sound is lengthened.

So once you have understood how each vowel sound is pronounced, you will be able to perfectly pronounce any English word, thanks to its phonetic transcription.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH

Do you want to improve your vowel pronunciation in English? Here you have a word with all of them to practice subcontinental. Have fun finding words that contain all 5 vowels and practicing their different sounds. It’s a great way to expand your vocabulary!

We suggest that as you practice and learn new words you also learn the phonemes in English. Knowing English phonetics better will give you the tools to know how to pronounce a word just by looking at its representation. It’s better to learn one or two phonemes at a time.

Finally, don’t miss opportunities to listen to how native speakers pronounce and imitate them. It’s a great exercise!

Vowels in English and their phonetics

There are 12 sounds for vowels in English and it is important to know how to distinguish their phonetic symbols because it will help you when learning new words. Here is a table with each phoneme with examples:

i:

feet

i

sit

ʊ

put

u:

too

e

ten

ə

teacher

ɜ:

bird

ɔ:

door

æ

cat

ʌ

cup

a:

far

ɒ

on

There are 12 sounds for vowels in English and it is important to know how to distinguish their phonetic symbols because it will help you when learning new words. Here is a table with each phoneme with examples:

i:

feet

e

ten

æ

cat

i

sit

ə

teacher

ʌ

cup

ʊ

put

ɜ:

bird

a:

far

u:

too

ɔ:

door

ɒ

on

Practice the different phonemes with vowels in English

Classify the following words according to the phoneme of the underlined vowel:

see (see), happy (happy), fat (fat), call (call), sorry (sorry), saw (saw), beat (beat), up (up), bird (bird), father (father), shoot (shoot), card (card), bed (bed), book (book), ugly (ugly), leg (leg), luck (luck), met (met), hit (hit), turn (turn), away (away), arm (arm), learn (learn), union (union), bank (bank), rock (rock), heat (heat), cinema (cinema), red (red), good (good), could (could), black (black), last (last), man (man), hot (hot), sitting (sitting), about (about), four (four), clock (clock), fell (fell), paw (paw), boot (boot), fur (fur), ago (ago), jump (jump), bit (bit).

Answers:

ʌ = up, luck, ugly, jump

a: = father, arm, last, card

æ = man, bank, black, fat

e = met, bed, red, fell, leg

ə = away, cinema, ago, about

ɜ: = turn, learn, fur, bird

i = hit, bit, sitting, happy

i: = see, heat, beat

ɔ: = paw, call, four, saw

ɒ = hot, rock, clock, sorry

ʊ = book, good, could

u: = boot, shoot, union

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