The IPA Alphabet: How and Why You Should Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (With Charts)

---

Every aspiring polyglot should learn to read the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It’s a powerful tool when learning any language.

I taught myself to read the IPA alphabet, but it was tough at first. Wikipedia has tons of comprehensive information, but can be confusing to a beginner.

So this article is my attempt to create the resource that I wish I’d had when I started. I’ll give you an overview of what IPA is, why it’s useful, and what the best way (in my opinion) is to learn it.

Let’s start with the first and most obvious question:

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

What is The International Phonetic Alphabet?

You might not have heard of IPA – and no, I’m not talking about India Pale Ale. What is it anyway?

Like a smooth-talking politician, I’ll reply with a question of my own:

How do you pronounce the word “wind”?

Does it rhyme with “blind” (as in “wind-up toy”) or with “sinned” (as in “run like the wind”?) Without more context, you have no idea.

Likewise with the words “read”, “live” or “tear”. English spelling is a terrible guide to pronunciation.

It gets worse when you add more languages into the fray. The Spanish word come (“he/she eats”), sounds nothing like the English word with the same spelling. But you’ve spent your entire life pronouncing letters like “o” and “e” the English way. It can be hard to shake the habit!

The Portuguese sede has two pronunciations with different meanings, and German Bucht (“bay”, with a short vowel) differs from the verb bucht (“books”, with a long vowel). In French, cent, sang, sens, sent, s’en and sans can all sound the same: here sens and sent are forms of sentir, while the noun sens normally has a pronounced final s. Liaison can also change what you hear in a phrase. Confused yet? And how the hell do you pronounce “العَرَبِيَّة”, “汉语/漢語”, or “ภาษาไทย”?

The International Phonetic Alphabet gives linguists a consistent set of symbols for transcribing speech sounds. A detailed phonetic transcription can show how a word is pronounced, while a broad phonemic transcription leaves out predictable detail.

For example, <wind> written in IPA is /wɪnd/ (rhymes with “sinned”) or /waɪnd/ (rhymes with “blind”).

(<Angle brackets> denote ordinary spelling. /Slashes/ – or should that be /ˈslæʃɪz/? – enclose phonemic transcriptions, which represent a language's contrasting sound categories. Square brackets show phonetic detail; both types can use IPA symbols.)

In a phonetic transcription, an IPA symbol denotes a defined sound, while in a phonemic transcription it labels a language-specific phoneme whose exact realisation can vary. A broad transcription of the Spanish <come> is /ˈkome/, while the English <come> is /kʌm/.

3 Good Reasons to Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet

You may be wondering, “why bother”? Is learning IPA worth the time investment?

I hope I can convince you that the answer is “yes”. Learn IPA, and you’ll:

1. Get Words Right the First Time

What do you do when you don’t know how to pronounce a word? You could ask a native speaker, but they’re usually terrible at explaining:

You: How do you pronounce E-U-C-H?
German: Euch.
You: Oich?
German: No, euch.
You: Oysh?
German: No! Euch. Can’t you hear the difference?
You: Yes, but I don’t know how to say it!

If you knew IPA, you could have just looked it up and seen that the correct pronunciation is /ɔʏç/. Don’t know how to read that? I’ll get there.

In the early stages of learning a language, I write all my notes in IPA, and avoid the “real” spellings as much as possible. This way I ensure that I learn pronunciation first, spelling last.

I find it useful to put pronunciation before spelling. Children learn spoken language before reading too, though adults can benefit from learning sounds and spelling together.

2. Speak (With Good Pronunciation) From Day One

The real power of IPA comes when you use it to learn how to pronounce not just words but entire languages.

For example, if I was starting to learn German (I already speak it, but just for the sake of example), the first thing I’d do would be to look at the Wikipedia page for German IPA.

Here is a starting selection of symbols used for Standard German, rather than a complete phoneme inventory. It mixes sound categories with details such as syllabic consonants; vowel length, reduced vowels and diphthongs also need attention:

/b/ /ç/ /d/ /f/ /ɡ/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /l̩/ /m/ /m̩/ /n/ /n̩/ /ŋ/ /p/ /ʁ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /t/ /ts/ /tʃ/ /v/ /x/ /z/ /ʔ/ /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /ɪ/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /œ/ /ø/ /ʊ/ /u/ /ʏ/ /y/

Immediately, I see a few that need attention, like /ç/, /œ/, /ø/, and /y/. These are not separate phonemes in my English, though a sound like [ç] may occur for some speakers in words such as “hue”. I’ll know I have to practise these and take extra care to get them right.

I also see that German doesn’t normally use the English “th” /θ/ in its native vocabulary, and a common German “r” differs from my English /ɹ/. So to sound less like an Engländer, I'd listen to the particular German variety I'm learning. German “r” varies, and loanwords are another reason not to make a rule that /ɹ/ and /θ/ can never occur.

Remember euch? Most German textbooks will tell you that the “eu” vowel is like the “oi” in English words like “choice”. That can be a useful starting approximation. English is often transcribed /ɔɪ/ and German /ɔʏ/, but broad symbols alone do not specify every phonetic detail. Compare recordings of the target accents rather than assuming the written symbols tell the whole story.

An English speaker may carry the English /ɔɪ/ vowel into euch. That is something to listen for and practise, not a test of whether someone can ever pass for a German.

Once you're confident with IPA, details like this become easier to spot. Use them alongside recordings and feedback, and you can make much more focused pronunciation practice out of a short session.

3. Gain a Deeper Understanding of Phonetics

Did you know that there are different “p” sounds in English? The word “paper” has them both. Say it out loud – the first “p”, before the stressed vowel, usually has a stronger puff of air than the second. The amount varies with accent and speech context.

In linguistic terminology, the first “p” is “aspirated” and the second is typically less aspirated. In IPA, [p] can represent an unaspirated sound and [pʰ] an aspirated one.

You probably didn’t even realise that you do this. Learn IPA, and you’ll find dozens of similar interesting little insights. As a language nerd, I find it fascinating – and very useful.

I wish more language courses made room for practical phonetics. Imagine a saxophone teacher who didn’t teach you the finger positions for each note. Instead he just played a jazz solo, and told you to imitate. How fast would you learn?

IPA is your gateway to a deep understanding of how the human speech organ works. You’ll learn what the tongue, lips and vocal cords actually do to produce different sounds. It should be obvious why this will improve your pronunciation.

How to Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet

By now I hope I’ve convinced you to give IPA a chance. Now I need to explain how to get IPA into your head.

The IPA has more than a hundred letter symbols, plus diacritics and marks for stress, length and tone. Don't let that put you off, because you don't need to learn them all, and we still haven't after years of using it.

A transcription of any one language uses only a selection of those symbols. Just learn the ones your target language uses, and you can leave the rest till later. (E.g. clicks can wait unless your target language uses them, as Xhosa, Zulu and several southern African languages do.)

Before you look at IPA for a foreign language, it’s better to start with the IPA symbols that you already know how to pronounce. What are the IPA symbols used by your native language?

How to Learn IPA For English

(Not a native English speaker? Look up “[Your native language] phonology” on Wikipedia and use that instead.)

Let’s start with consonants. The following symbols represent familiar English consonants. Their exact pronunciation still depends on accent and position in the word:

/b/ /d/ /f/ /ɡ/ /h/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /z/

Many Scottish speakers also use /x/, the raspy sound at the end of “loch”: /lɔx/. I'm English, so I say it with the consonant in “lock”. The vowel varies by accent too: /lɔk/ is one broad rendering, while southern English dictionaries commonly use /lɒk/.

English also uses:

• /j/ – not to be confused with the sound we write in English as <j> – this is the English “y” sound.
• /ŋ/ – the “ng” in “sing”.
• /θ/ – the “unvoiced” “th” in “think”, “path”, or “thistle”.
• /ð/ – the “voiced” “th” in “that”, “this”, or “there”.
• /ʃ/ – the “sh” in “ship” or “wish”.
• /ɹ/ – the “r” in “red”. Sometimes when writing English in IPA, this is written as /r/ for the sake of simplicity. In phonetic brackets, [r] denotes a trill, as in Spanish; phonemic /r/ can be a conventional label for English r.
• /ʒ/ – the “s” in “pleasure” or “vision”, or the “g” in “genre”.
• /ʔ/ – a “glottal stop” – it’s the pause in the middle of uh-oh. In many dialects, such as my British one, this sound can replace the /t/ in words like “water” or “Saturday”.

There’s also the English <j> and <ch>. Each is an affricate: a single consonant that combines a stop closure and a fricative release, written with two symbols that I’ve already covered. So <j> in IPA is /dʒ/ and <ch> is /tʃ/.

IPA Vowel Chart

It’s trickier to explain the IPA for English vowels, because they vary so much from dialect to dialect. Now is a good time to introduce the IPA vowel chart:

The usual chart is drawn as a trapezoid rather than a grid. It is a schematic map of vowel qualities, described through tongue height and frontness, not a literal diagram of the mouth. The grid hides one useful detail: ɪ, ʏ and ʊ sit slightly inward from the edge rather than fully front or fully back.

Look at the “vowels” table on this Wikipedia page. If you say the example words out loud, it should help you figure out the IPA vowels for your native English accent.

Pay attention to what your tongue is doing for each vowel. It should become clear how the above chart works. The diagram gives a rough guide to tongue height and frontness within the mouth, but listening is essential: its coordinates are not exact tongue measurements.

For example, for /i/ (the “ee” sound in “sheet”), the front of your tongue is raised towards the hard palate. For /ɑ/ (the “a” sound in “cargo” or the way posh Brits like me say “bath”), your tongue is low and retracted. There’s a reason why dentists don’t tell you to say “ee!”

Where a position in the chart has two symbols, the symbol on the left is the “unrounded” vowel and the one on the right is the “rounded” vowel. This refers to the shape of your lips.

Say /i/ again: notice that your lips are unrounded; they may be spread, but you do not need to force a wide smile. Now say /u/ (the “oo” in “shoot”): your lips are rounded, though the amount of rounding varies with accent. That’s what “roundedness” means.

Learning new IPA Vowels

Let’s go back to those unfamiliar German sounds from earlier. How do I pronounce the /y/? (The long version /yː/ is usually written with <ü> in German; short ü often represents /ʏ/.)

Looking at the vowel diagram, I can see that /y/ has the same tongue position as /i/. All I have to do is say /i/, but round my lips. That gives me a starting position. Recordings and feedback help me adjust it to the vowel used in the language.

First, find out the vowel’s IPA symbol. You can usually get it by searching for “(name of language) phonology” or “IPA for (language)” on Wikipedia. Then find that symbol on the chart, and see how it relates to the vowels you already know how to say.

Another nice thing about Wikipedia is that it has a separate page for every sound (and its symbol). These pages usually have a list of languages that use that sound, with example words. So if you already speak multiple languages, you have more points of reference.

For example, if I go to the Wikipedia page for the /y/ sound, I see it isn’t found in most English dialects. However, it is found in French, a language that I speak.

That’s a valuable insight: the vowel quality of long German <ü> is close to the <u> in the French chute, though length and fine phonetic details can differ. This makes it even easier to learn.

IPA Consonant Chart

Here is the pulmonic-consonant section of the IPA chart. Other sections cover clicks, implosives and additional symbols; the plain grid below also omits the official shading.

You can’t really map consonants onto a picture of the mouth in the same way you can with vowels. Instead, consonants are classified based on three features:

• “Manner of articulation” – How you make the sound.
• “Place of articulation” – Where you make the sound.
• Whether the consonant is “voiced” or “unvoiced”.

For example, try saying /k/, /p/, and /t/. Did you notice the similarity in how you make each sound? They’re called “stop consonants” (also known as “plosives”). To form them, you cut off the airflow out of your mouth, then release it suddenly in a percussive little burst.

These three sounds all have the same manner of articulation (plosive), but a different place. /k/ comes from the back of your mouth, /p/ comes from the lips, and /t/ comes from the tongue and the upper gums.

On the consonants chart, columns show the place and rows show manner. So /k/, /p/ and /t/ are all in different columns, but on the same row.

Likewise for the English “s”, “sh”, and “th” – in IPA, that’s /s/, /ʃ/, and /θ/. They’re all “fricatives”. To say them, you squeeze air out through a narrow gap in your mouth, making a turbulent hissing noise. Once again, the difference is only in the place of articulation.

Some cells have two symbols. /k/, /p/, and /t/ are all on the left-hand side of their cell. This means that they’re “unvoiced” consonants; the right-hand symbol is the “voiced” version.

The difference between an unvoiced and a voiced consonant is the difference between “t” and “d” (as in “tip” and “dip”), “s” and “z” (as in “sink” and “zinc”), “p” and “b” (as in “pat” and “bat”), or “k” and “g” (as in “kill” and “gill”). The paired IPA sounds share a place and manner of articulation, with vocal-fold vibration distinguishing voiced from voiceless. English stop pairs such as p/b also differ in aspiration and timing, so switching vibration on or off is not the whole pronunciation lesson. Put a finger on your throat and say “sss”, then “zzz”, and you’ll feel the vibration switch on.

The chart doesn’t give every fine articulatory distinction its own row or column. For example, /θ/ is placed in the dental-fricative cell, though English speakers may articulate it interdentally.

An empty cell doesn’t mean the sound can’t be made. On the official chart, the shaded cells are the ones judged physically impossible, such as a glottal nasal. An unshaded empty cell leaves an articulation without its own symbol there; it does not guarantee that a language uses it. Diacritics can express extra detail, such as the dental articulation in t̪.

Look on the chart for the English consonants you know, and figure out why they are where they are. Once you’ve got to grips with this, you have a practical starting point for learning new consonant sounds.

For example, I recently learned some Arabic. It’s full of weird and wonderful new consonants that aren’t found in English, like /q/. (In Arabic this sound is written <ق>.) How do I pronounce this?

From the chart, I know that /q/:

• Is unvoiced
• Is a “stop”, like /k/ or /t/.
• Is “uvular”, meaning it comes from the very back of the mouth, at the uvula! (Compare with /k/, which is “velar”, meaning the back of the roof of the mouth.)

Put these three together and you have a starting point for practising /q/. It’s like /k/ but even further back in the mouth, a very throaty sound. (You can hear it in the native pronunciation of “Qatar (قطر)”.)

Other Elements of IPA

The more IPA you learn, the more you’ll realise how deep the topic of phonetics goes. You don’t need it all unless you plan on a career in academic linguistics. But there are a few extra things worth quickly mentioning:

Word Stress

In IPA, the stressed syllable is denoted with a /ˈ/ written before the syllable. So the two pronunciations of <present> in English are /prɪˈzɛnt/ (for the verb) and /ˈprɛzənt/ (for the noun).

If the word has a secondary stressed syllable, use /ˌ/. E.g. one broad American pronunciation of <extraordinary> is /ɛkˈstrɔrdəˌnɛri/. Other accents and dictionaries may represent it differently.

Diacritics

A “diacritic” is an extra symbol that you add to a letter, like the accent on “é”. E.g. when writing French or Portuguese in IPA, the “nasal” vowels have a tilde: “ã”.

You can leave most diacritics until you need them, but learn any that distinguish important sounds in your target language. As with everything else in IPA, look them up as and when a language actually makes you care.

Broad vs. Narrow Transcription

You’ll sometimes see IPA written with square brackets rather than slashes. The brackets distinguish phonetic transcription [in square brackets] from phonemic transcription /in slashes/. Broad and narrow describe how much detail a phonetic transcription includes.

Remember the two different “p”s in “paper”? In English, these can be variants of the same /p/ phoneme, so they do not form a separate p-versus-pʰ word contrast. Aspiration still matters for a natural accent and can affect what listeners hear; it is not something to ignore completely.

A phonemic transcription gives the contrasting sound categories. For a non-rhotic English accent, <paper> can be /ˈpeɪpə/. A more detailed phonetic transcription might be [ˈpʰeɪpə], showing aspiration on the first p. A phonetic transcription can be broad or narrow; it includes the detail relevant to your purpose, not necessarily every possible feature.

Technically, [pʰ] and [p] are different phones (units of sound). Whether or not they’re different phonemes (sound categories that can distinguish words) depends on the language.

In English, [pʰ] and [p] can belong to the same phoneme. Korean, however, distinguishes lenis, aspirated and tense stops, commonly written /p/, /pʰ/ and /p͈/. Mixing those categories can change a word. Their pronunciation involves more than aspiration alone, including voice timing and pitch, so learn them from Korean examples rather than simply copying the two English p sounds.

Exercises to Practise Your IPA Pronunciation

Now that you’ve got this far, can you read these examples of English words and phrases in IPA? (We used toPhonetics to get transcriptions of the American pronunciations.)

• /ɡɪv/
• /dɔɡ/
• /blu/
• /blæk/
• /jɛs/
• /tʃaɪld/
• /ˈtʃɪldrən/
• /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/
• /ˈlæŋgwədʒ/
• /ðə kæt sæt ɑn ðə mæt/
• /ˈfluənt ɪn θri mʌnθs/
• /ˌɪntərˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt/

The tool may display “ch” and “j” as the single characters ʧ and ʤ. In the examples here, as earlier, we use /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. Both turn up in the wild, but the IPA dropped the ligatures back in 1989, so the two-character versions are the ones to use in your own notes.

Choose Your Own IPA Adventure

Learning IPA is like a “choose your own adventure” book. I can’t tell you exactly where to go from here – it depends on your goals.

What language do you want to learn? Do you just want a quick boost to your pronunciation ability? Or are you interested in “going deep” and learning the finer details of phonetics and linguistics?

The fastest way to make IPA stick is to use it with a language you’re actually learning rather than studying it in the abstract, so it’s worth reading it alongside a pronunciation guide. Ours for Spanish and French both go sound by sound, and our general guide to sounding like a native covers the habits that matter in any language.

When you’d like to put all that pronunciation to work on an actual person, join the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp, where you get 90 days to reach a 15-minute conversation with a native speaker. Knowing what your tongue is supposed to be doing gives you a real head start.

Whatever the case, I hope you found this introduction useful. Do you use IPA? How has it been helpful? What insights did it give you? Let us know in the comments. And /θæŋks/ for reading!