THE 44 PHONEMES IN ENGLISH

Despite there being just 26 letters in the English language there are approximately 44 unique
sounds, also known as PHONEMES. The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning from
another. Various letters and letter combinations known as GRAPHEMES are used to represent the
sounds.

The 44 English sounds fall into two categories: consonants and vowels. Below is a list of the 44
phonemes along with their International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and some examples of their
use. Note that there is no such thing as a definitive list of phonemes because of accents, dialects
and the evolution of language itself. Therefore you may discover lists with more or less than these
44 sounds.

WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET?

How can you pronounce a word you've never read? It can be a bit tricky. How about a word in a
foreign language? Now that must be impossible! Or is it? Imagine a set of symbols that could tell
you how to pronounce any word in any language on the planet? Well that is exactly what the
International Phonetic Alphabet is. Currently, the IPA consists of 107 sound symbols, 52
diacritics (accents) and 4 prosodic marks (intonations) encompassing virtually every phoneme
used in every language on the earth. So for any written word, you can identify the associated
phoneme symbols, and with a bit of practice, pronounce the word!

The IPA was created by the International Phonetic Association. Founded in 1886 in Paris, their
original mission was to help school children pronounce words in foreign languages and to aid in
the teaching of reading. Today their mission is to promote the scientific study of phonetics.

CONSONANTS
IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples Voiced?
Symbol

1 b b, bb bug, bubble Yes

2 d d, dd, ed dad, add, milled Yes

3 f f, ff, ph, gh, lf, ft fat, cliff, phone, enough, half, often No

4 g g, gg, gh,gu,gue gun, egg, ghost, guest, prologue Yes

5 h h, wh hop, who No

jam, wage, giraffe, edge, soldier,

6 dʒ j, ge, g, dge, di, gg Yes
exaggerate

k, c, ch, cc, lk, kit, cat, chris, accent, folk, bouquet,

7 k No
qu ,q(u), ck, x queen, rack, box

8 l l, ll live, well Yes

 IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples Voiced?
Symbol

9 m m, mm, mb, mn, lm man, summer, comb, column, palm Yes

net, funny, know, gnat, pneumonic,

10 n n, nn,kn, gn, pn, mn Yes
mnemonic

11 p p, pp pin, dippy No

12 r r, rr, wr, rh run, carrot, wrench, rhyme Yes

s, ss, c, sc, ps, st, sit, less, circle, scene, psycho, listen,
13 s/c No
ce, se pace, course,cement

14 t t, tt, th, ed tip, matter, thomas, ripped No

15 v v, f, ph, ve vine, of, stephen, five Yes

16 w w, wh, u, o wit, why, quick, choir Yes

17 z z, zz, s, ss, x, ze, se zed, buzz, his, scissors, xylophone, craze Yes

18 ʒ s, si, z treasure, division, azure Yes

19 tʃ ch, tch, tu, te chip, watch, future, righteous No

sh, ce, s, ci, si, ch, sham, ocean, sure, special, pension,
20 ʃ No
sci, ti machine, conscience, station

21 θ th thongs No

22 ð th leather Yes

23 ŋ ng, n, ngue ring, pink, tongue Yes

24 j y, i, j you, onion, hallelujah Yes

VOWELS

IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples
Symbol

25 æ a, ai, au cat, plaid, laugh

a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, bay, maid, weigh, straight, pay, foyer, filet, eight,
26 eɪ
et, ei, au, a_e, ea, ey gauge, mate, break, they

e, ea, u, ie, ai, a, eo, end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard,
27 ɛ
ei, ae heifer, aesthetic
 IPA
Phoneme Graphemes Examples
Symbol

e, ee, ea, y, ey, oe, ie, be, bee, meat, lady, key, phoenix, grief, ski,
28 i:
i, ei, eo, ay deceive, people, quay

29 ɪ i, e, o, u, ui, y, ie it, england, women, busy, guild, gym, sieve

i, y, igh, ie, uy, ye, ai, spider, sky, night, pie, guy, stye, aisle, island,
30 aɪ
is, eigh, i_e height, kite

31 ɒ a, ho, au, aw, ough swan, honest, maul, slaw, fought

o, oa, o_e, oe, ow, open, moat, bone, toe, sow, dough, beau, brooch,
32 oʊ
ough, eau, oo, ew sew

33 ʊ o, oo, u,ou wolf, look, bush, would

34 ʌ u, o, oo, ou lug, monkey, blood, double

o, oo, ew, ue, u_e, oe, who, loon, dew, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit,
35 u:
ough, ui, oew, ou manoeuvre, group

36 ɔɪ oi, oy, uoy join, boy, buoy

37 aʊ ow, ou, ough now, shout, bough

38 ə a, er, i, ar, our, ur about, ladder, pencil, dollar, honour, augur

air, are, ear, ere, eir,

39 eəʳ chair, dare, pear, where, their, prayer
ayer

40 ɑ: a arm, art, cart2

41 ɜ:ʳ ir, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle

aw, a, or, oor, ore, oar, paw, ball, fork, poor, fore, board, four, taught, war,
42 ɔ:
our, augh, ar, ough, au bought, sauce

43 ɪəʳ ear, eer, ere, ier ear, steer, here, tier

44 ʊəʳ ure, our cure, tourist

DIPHTHONGS
A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins
as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin, loud, and side ).
"these are the most common type of diphthong among the languages of the world"
/eɪ/ as in day, pay, say,
lay /aɪ/ as in sky, buy, cry,
tie /ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy, coy or
the first syllable of soya /ɪə/ as in beer, pier, hear
/eə/ as in bear, pair, and hair
/ʊə/ as in tour, poor or the first syllable of tourist
/əʊ/ as in oh, no, so, or phone
/aʊ/ as in all the words of “How now brown cow!

WHAT IS A DIAGRAPH EXAMPLE?

A digraph is two letters that combine together to correspond to one sound (phoneme). Examples of
consonant digraphs are 'ch, sh, th, ng'. Examples of vowel digraphs are 'ea, oa, oe, ie, ue, ar, er, ir,
or, ur, ee, ie, ey,ei, oa, oo, ow,,ue

WHAT ARE WORDS WITH DIAGRAPH?

A digraph in the English language is a group of two successive letters that represents a single
sound or phoneme. Common vowel digraphs include ai (rain), ay (day), ea (teach), ea (bread), ea
(break), ee (free), ei (eight), ey (key), ie (piece), oa (road), oo (book), oo (room), ow (slow), and ue
(true).

A pair of letters that operate together to represent a single sound

(e.g., clown, chin). In a vowel digraph, a pair of vowel letters operate together to represent a single
vowel sound (e.g., ow, ee, oo), and a pair of consonants (e.g., ch, th, sh) to give a consonant
digraph.

MORE THAN ONE SOUNDS

Letter combinations can represent more than one sound, for example, the letter “y” represents four
different sounds in the words “yes”, “by”, “baby” and “gym”. The spelling “ea” represents three
different sounds in the words “beach”, “dead” and “break”.

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