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Pronunciation Guide For English PDF
Pronunciation Guide For English PDF
In the English writing system, many of the graphemes (letters and letter groups) have more
than one possible pronunciation.
Sometimes, specific sequences of letters can alert the reader to the possible pronunciation
required; for example, note the letter sequences shown as hollow letters in this guide as in
watch, salt and city - indicating that, in these words with these letter patterns, letter a
is usually code for the /o/ sound and letter c is always code for the /s/ sound. Slash marks
around a letter or letters - for example, /o/, /s/ or /sh/ - indicate a sound usually at the
level of the phoneme the smallest unit of sound identifiable in speech.
This Pronunciation Guide is not comprehensive as it does not include all the graphemes and
sounds in the English language. The guide is based on letters, groups of letters, and common
spelling patterns, which generally have more than one pronunciation dependent on the words
themselves. This is NOT the same as an Alphabetic Code Chart based on ALL the phonemes.
Some of the word examples in the Pronunciation Guide below are words used commonly but
they have very unusual spellings, for example: any, said, pretty, women and choir.
The
guide
below
cannot
be
definitive
about
how
to
pronounce
each
word
because
pronunciations vary according to regional or national accents in the English language. The
complexity of the Pronunciation Guide demonstrates the advisability of teaching the English
alphabetic
code
(the
grapheme-phoneme
correspondences)
for
reading,
and
for
spelling,
systematically and thoroughly. Some learners are able to deduce the alphabetic code for
themselves through lots of book experience and writing experience as they mature (although
they may not fully appreciate that they are picking up what is known as the alphabetic
code
alphabetic
code
without
explicit
teaching
or
they
may
fail
to
deduce
the
alphabetic
spelling
patterns
shown
in
the
left
column
and
provides
examples
of
different
example words
apple
apricot
watch
qualify
father
salt
drama
any
also always
manage
first aid
again
against
mountain
palace
capital
salt
/u/
/i/
/e/
/u/
schwa
/ul/
alternative /o/+/l/
chalk
palm
half
almost
walk talk
/or/
calves
/ar/
altogether
artist
start
wardrobe
/ar/
/or/
sugar
schwa
hare
care dare
/or/+/l/
quarter
collar
aw
/or/
/a/+/l/
hospital
are
/o/
/ai/
bargain
ar
/ai/
schwa
village
also
greybackground=common
pronunciation
/e/
banana
al
multiple phonemes
/ar/
many
water
said
phonemes and
/a/
table
ai
sounds
/er/
/air/
/ar/
awful
aware
/or/
/a/+/w/
or
/u/
ay
e
tray
/ai/
/e/
egg
/e/
emu
ea
me he she we be
pretty
/i/
acne
between/i/ and
eat
reach
head
ear
-eau
/ee/
each /ee/
breakfast
/e/
break
great
/ai/
ears
nearby
/eer/
bear
wear
/air/
earth
search
/er/
heart
hearth
/ar/
plateau
/oa/
beautiful butterfly
/y+oo/
It rained.
/d/
She skipped.
/t/
He acted.
/u/+/d/
ei
either
/igh/
-ei
deceive
-eo
people
/ee/
leopard
/e/
mermaid
/er/
mixer
schwa
-ed
er
-ere
neither
receive
/ee/
receipt
/ee/
/er/
adhere
here
/eer/
where
there
/air/
you were
Copyright Phonics International Ltd 2013
/er/
or
/u/
-ew
-ey
new
news
/y+oo/
crew
long
key
/ee/
monkey
between/i/ and
bird of prey
i
-ie
they
/i/
/igh/
piano
/ee/
radio
chief
brief
believe
He cried.
/igh/
friends
/e/
fiesta
/ee/+/e/
octopus
/o/
yo-yo
no go so
son
mother
move
to do who
wolves
/oo/
short
/oo/
ointment
/oi/
coincidence
/oa/+/i/
choir
/w/+/igh/
on board
/o/+/n/
long
/i/
wolf
on
/oa/
/u/
women
oi
/ee/
between/i/ and
tie
good
book
moon
flood
one
look
balloon
blood
Copyright Phonics International Ltd 2013
/ee/
/ai/
insect
movie
/oo/
/w+o/+/n/
short
long
/u/
/oo/
/oo/
/ee/
-oor
or
ou
door
floorboards
poorly
/long oo+er/or/or/
fork
/or/
world
/er/
sailor
schwa
historic building
/o/+/r/
ouch
/ou/
soup
you
touch
ough
dough
though although
through
long
bought ought
schwa
/er/
/ou/+
your house
four
/or/
schwa
bow
tomorrow
/oa/
owl
down town
/ou/
umbrella
schwa
/er/
/u/
united
pull
/y+ oo/
short
/oo/
penguin
/w/
superman
long
barbecue
/y+oo/
tube
/u/
/or/
flour
push
u-e
or
/oo/
our house
blue
/u/
/oa/
/ou/
unicorn
-ue
or
/oo/
plough
no thoroughfare
ow
long
/er/
/u/
thought
our
/or/
long
/oo/
/oo/
/y+oo/
/u/
or
/u/
flute
-ui
-ure
be
bt
rule
long
/oo/
fruit
long
/oo/
building
(bu=/b/)+/i/
guitar
(gu=/g/)+/i/
intuition
/y+oo/+/i/
pure
cure obscure
sure
/or/
treasure
schwa
beg
/b/+/e/
behind
/b/+/i/
debt
doubt subtle
subtract
c
-cc
subterranean
bicycle
/s/
succumb
/k/
chairs
soft c: ce ci cy
/k/+/s/
school
soft c
/k/
chef
/sh/
ci
city
/s/+/i/
-ci
magician
/sh/
pronunciation
/s/+/ee/
desk
/d/+/e/
demand
/d/+/i/
detour
/d/+/ee/
feathers
/f/
of
/v/
/u/
/ch/
chameleon
de
or
/b/+/t/
/k/
succeed
/er/
/t/
cat
accent
ch
/y+oor/
soft c
soft c
girl
/g/
giraffe
/j/
courgette
/zh/
I get it!
/g/+/e/
gentle touch
/j/+/e/
cabbage
/j/
collage
/zh/
gh
ghost
/g/
-gh
laugh
/f/
gn
gnome
/n/
signal
/g/+/n/
guitar
/g/
gust of wind
/g/+/u/
le
leg
/l/+/e/
-le
kettle
/ul/
-mb
thumb
ge
-ge
gu
comb
number
remember
soft g: ge gi gy
/m/
/m/+/b/
net
/n/
-n
jungle
/ng/
-ng
gong
/ng/
bangles
/ng/+/g/
danger
/n/+/j/
pneumatic drill
/n/
hypnotic
/p/+/n/
pterodactyl
/t/
pn
pt
helicopter
reception
deceptive
deception
soft g
soft g
/p/+/t/
/p/+(ti=/sh/)
qu
que
queen
squeeze
bouquet
/k/
question
/k+w/+/e/
plaque
re
/k+w/
queue
/k/
reggae
/r/+/e/
remind
/r/+/i/
theatre
schwa
macabre
/r/+/u/
snake
/s/
-s
fries
/z/
treasure
/zh/
/s/+/k/
scissors
/s/
house
/s/
cheese
/z/
si
sit
/s/+/i/
-si
television
st
/s/+/t/
-st-
castle
/s/
sw
sweets
/s/+/w/
sword
/s/
-re
sc
-se
th
division
listen
thistle
over there
/er/
/zh/
unvoiced
voiced
/t/+/i/
-ti
station
/sh/
-ture
mature
adventure
Copyright Phonics International Ltd 2013
/th/
/th/
tin
picture
/u/
soft c: ce ci cy
ti
immature
or
/t/+/y+oor/
/ch+u/
tw
twice
two
twins
/t/+/w/
ve
vest
-ve
dove
wa
watch
/t/
/v/+/e/
love
have
was
/v/
swap
/w/+/o/
wag
wh
/w/+/a/
wheel
who is it?
wor
whole one
worm
can be +breath
/h/
work worth
/w/+/er/
worn
/w/+/or/
fox
/k+s/
exam
/g+z/
xylophone
/z/
excellent
/k/
yawn
yesterday
sunny
/y/
happy
fly
between/i/ and
by my why try
cymbals
/ee/
/igh/
symbols 1 2 3 /i/
/f/ ph,
/igh/ igh,
/ai/ eigh
oa,
ow,
oe,
o-e,
eau,
ough
/oa/ though, /or/ thought, /oo/ through, /ou/ plough, /u/ thorough
This Pronunciation Guide demonstrates that learning to read the English language is not straightforward.
It is easier to teach and learn reading and spelling in English, however, when beginners are not
expected to read and write independently with words that have complex and unusual code.The Synthetic
Phonics Teaching Principles are based, therefore, on introducing the alphabetic code systematically and
providing
words,
sentences,
texts
and
reading
books
which
match,
more
or
less,
the
incremental