Woman: You will now listen to the 25 vowel phonetic symbols, followed by an example of their pronunciation.
Now listen to these examples of the 12 monophongs:
Man: 1 / i:/ as in sheep
Man: 2 / ɪ / as in ship
Man: 3 / ɛ / as in get
Man: 4 / æ / as in hat
Man: 5 / ɑ:/as in art
Man: 6 / ɒ / as in hot
Man: 7 / ɔ:/ as in war
Man: 8 / ʊ / as in wood
Man: 9 / u:/ as in blue
Man: 10 / ʌ / as in up
Man: 11 / ə / as in mother
Man: 12/ ɜ:/ / as in word
Woman: Now let’s listen to the sounds of the 8 diphthong vowel sounds: Man: 13 /eɪ/ as in hay
Man: 14 /aɪ/ as in high
Man: 15 /ɔɪ/ as in coy
Man: 16 /aʊ/ as in cow
Man: 17 /əʊ/ as in open
Man: 18 /ɪə/ as in cheer
Man: 19 /ɛə/ as in care
Man: 20 /ʊə/ as in cure
Woman: Now let’s listen to the sounds of the 5 triphthong vowel sounds: Man: 21 /eɪə/ as in player
Man: 22 /aɪə/ as in tyre
Man: 23 /ɔɪə/ as in soya
Man: 24 /aʊə/ as in flower
Man: 25 /əʊə/ as in sower
Woman: Although it is impossible to learn phonetic transcription over night, (especially the vowel sounds,) but, it is a good idea to make a note of them when you look up a word in a dictionary, so you start to begin to recognise them, and improve your pronunciation, as there is often no logic to the way English words are written and spoken, due to how the language has developed and changed over the centuries.
Woman: If you wish you can hear this lesson again. In the meantime we hope we have helped you to be more confident with your English. Watch out for the next topic and thank you for using the EnglishBlog.

Scarica il file mp3 per ascoltare offline la lezione: Pronuncia - Fonologia

Scarica gratuitamente iTunes e iscriviti al podcast di EnglishBlog.it.

Vowels in the alphabet are the following characters “a”, “e” ,”I”, “o”, “u”.

However in the English phonetic language, there are 25 vowel sounds (phonemes), as shown below.

This can be a problem, as many language students have less vowel sounds in their own language, so their ears are not trained to perceive the difference between “ship” and “sheep” for example.

There are 12 monophthongs (OR a single vowel sound)

There are 8 dipthongs (OR a single vowel sound also, but, the tongue moves to produce a transition from 1 vowel to another)

And there are 5 tripthongs (OR also a single vowel sound, but the tongue moves twice, to produce a transition from one vowel to another, and then to a third)

Below is the “vowel phonetic alphabet” with examples, and in the following podcast, you will hear the correct pronunciation of them.