Phonetic transcription help

Definition pages on Antimoon tell you how to say English words. This information is the phonetic transcription or pronunciation. If you read it, you will know how to pronounce a word.

On Antimoon, phonetic transcription (pronunciation) is written in two alphabets: the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet. The IPA is used in most English dictionaries. The ASCII Phonetic Alphabet is not used in dictionaries, but it has symbols which you can type easily on your keyboard.

The transcription of the word computer using IPA symbols looks like this: //. With ASCII symbols, it looks like this: [k..m 'pju: t..(r)].

Table of phonetic symbols

Here is a table of symbols used in both alphabets. A pretty printable version is also available.

The examples column gives words which use the phonetic sound. The underline shows where the sound is heard. The links Amer and Brit play a sound recording (requires Flash) where the words are pronounced in American and British English. The British version is given only if it is very different from the American version.

vowels IPA ASCII examples listen ^ cup, luck Amer a: arm, father Amer / Brit @ cat, black Amer e met, bed Amer .. away, cinema Amer e:(r) turn, learn Amer / Brit i hit, sitting Amer i: see, heat Amer o hot, rock Amer / Brit o: call, four Amer / Brit u put, could Amer u: blue, food Amer ai five, eye Amer au now, out Amer ei say, eight Amer Ou go, home Amer oi boy, join Amer e..(r) where, air Amer / Brit i..(r) near, here Amer / Brit u..(r) pure, tourist Amer / Brit

consonants IPA ASCII examples listen b bad, lab Amer d did, lady Amer f find, if Amer g give, flag Amer h how, hello Amer j yes, yellow Amer k cat, back Amer l leg, little Amer m man, lemon Amer n no, ten Amer N sing, finger Amer p pet, map Amer r red, try Amer s sun, miss Amer S she, crash Amer t tea, getting Amer tS check, church Amer th think, both Amer TH this, mother Amer v voice, five Amer w wet, window Amer z zoo, lazy Amer Z pleasure, vision Amer dZ just, large Amer

special symbols IPA ASCII what it means ' ' is placed before the stressed syllable in a word. For example, ['kon tr@kt] is pronounced like this, and [k..n 'tr@kt] like that. (r) [ka:(r)] means [ka:r] in American English, and [ka:] in British English. i(:) i(:) means something between i: and i. Examples: very ['ve ri(:)], ability [.. 'bi li ti(:)], previous ['pri: vi(:) ..s]. .l .l shows that the consonant l is pronounced as a syllable (it sounds like a vowel). Examples: little ['li t.l], uncle ['^N k.l]. .n .n shows that the consonant n is pronounced as a syllable. Examples: written ['ri t.n], listen ['li s.n].

Many pronunciations for one word

If a word can be pronounced in many ways, many transcriptions are given. For example, the definition page for ours gives two transcriptions:

ours
[au..(r)z] = //
[a:(r)z] = //

AmE in front of a transcription means that the pronunciation is used only in American English. BrE means that the pronunciation is used only in British English.

For example, the definition page for progress says:

progress
AmE ['prog res] = //
BrE ['prOu gres] = //

Only the most popular pronunciations are given, to keep things simple. In this example, the pronunciation ['prog r..s] = // is not given. For full information, use your dictionary.