The o sound in English has a hook. Transcription and reading rules in English

When starting to learn English, many neglect to study transcription, considering it a pointless waste of time. However, correct pronunciation is one of the main goals in learning a foreign language.

Where to start?

Pronunciation of individual sounds. Words in English language are read differently than written, so learning transcription will be the most effective approach to learning the language. In order to learn english sounds independently, it is recommended to study each sound of the English language separately.

All sounds of English

Reasons to learn the sounds of English

1. When studying transcription, you learn the rules of reading. Having analyzed only about a hundred words, you will be able to build logical chains and determine the basic patterns of pronunciation of sounds. Over time, you will be able to pronounce words correctly without special effort. Studying the rules does not exclude the need to listen to English speech. It is important to develop both auditory and visual memory.
2. By reading aloud you improve your pronunciation skills. The lack of correct pronunciation will become an obstacle in overcoming the language barrier, and in the future will cause the development of a communication complex. Incorrect pronunciation can change the meaning of a word or sentence.

Intonation. When working on intonation, it is important to listen to foreign speech. Regularly use audio lessons in your training, repeat after the speaker, try to feel the intonation. Memorize short poems and dialogues. In order to hear yourself from the outside, use a voice recorder, and then work on your mistakes.

I offer you an article that explains the pronunciation of English sounds and reading the transcription using a selection of words in the Russian language, where this or that sound corresponds in pronunciation to the English sound. All information is given in the form of tables, which makes it easier to understand.

Pronunciation of vowel sounds.

Table “Vowel sounds” pronunciation and reading transcription.

Pronunciation of consonants.

There are 20 consonants in English.

Table “Consonant sounds” pronunciation and reading transcription.

I hope these tables of pronunciation and reading transcriptions of sounds in English were useful to you.

If you are just starting to learn English, start learning with the basic topics, which, of course, include English alphabet [ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ˈalfəbɛt] or the English alphabet. During express training, this topic is often omitted, they say, it will come on its own with time. However, if you do not know the entire list of letters, their pronunciation and writing, nothing will come of your learning process. Therefore, let's look at what the letters of the English alphabet are and how they are used.

But first, let's look at how the English alphabet was formed. It is quite difficult to say exactly when it appeared, but the very first fragments of the English alphabet found date back to the 5th century. Then, to write it, Latin letters were used in combination with runes, and therefore the letters were absolutely not like those used in modern English. Subsequently, however, this alphabet changed, all runes were replaced by Latin letters, the number of which by the 11th century amounted to 23 characters, which were ordered for numerological purposes. After this, the alphabet did not change significantly, but 3 more letters were added to it, which were also used in the creation of the modern alphabet.

English alphabet: composition

It was probably not difficult to calculate how many letters are used in modern English. There are 26 letters in English. B different situations they may sound different as their pronunciation changes depending on the combinations. In total, there are 44 sounds in the English language. However, each letter has its own standard pronunciation, which is used when learning the alphabet. English letters are written differently from how they are pronounced, and therefore when studying them it is necessary to use transcription to avoid further mistakes. It is also worth noting that each letter of the English alphabet has a serial number. Numerology in English, as in Russian, was created solely for convenience and is not of such importance.

The letter Z in American English is pronounced zee.

Please note that the pronunciation written in Russian letters is approximate. It is impossible to convey the exact English sound using Russian letters. It is indicated here for ease of study. initial stage. However, the transcription option is preferable. If you are not yet very familiar with the sounds, try to listen and imitate native speakers.

English alphabet: frequency of use

All letters in the English alphabet have their own frequency of use. Thus, figures for 2000 show that the most popular letter in the English language is the vowel E. The second most frequently used consonant is the consonant T. It is not so difficult to explain such results. Both of these letters appear in the definite article "the", which is the most commonly used word in the English language. The most unpopular is the letter Z, which is known only for zebra, zip and zigzag.

Other English topics: English alphabet for children: there are a lot of options, but which one to choose?

Other letters are located in the following way:

This numbered list gives an approximate frequency of occurrence of letters, which means that in any given passage, the frequency of letters may vary depending on the words used in it.

English alphabet: vowels

As you may have noticed, there are only 5 in the English language. These are the letters: A, E, I, O, U. Periodically, the letter Y is added to the list, which can convey both consonant and vowel sounds. By the way, regarding sounds: English vowels can change their sound depending on two aspects:

1. Locations, that is, from adjacent letters
2. Stressed or unstressed

Let's look at similar changes using the letter A as an example:

Some sounds contain a colon. The fact is that English vowel sounds are divided into short and long. Short ones are usually pronounced, but long ones last 2 or even 3 times longer. It is necessary to know the pronunciation of the letter in a word according to this principle, otherwise you can distort your thought. Examples:

Regarding the characteristics of vowels, we can also add that the letter E at the end is usually not pronounced. For example:

In addition, vowel letters can have diphthongs or a combination of two vowel sounds, but in order to avoid too much information, we will consider this issue in a separate topic.

It can be added that vowels, like consonants, do not have diacritics. Such signs include all sorts of dashes, squiggles, wavy lines above and below letters, which are characteristic, for example, of the French or Spanish languages. However, in very rare cases such signs can be used with borrowed words. The most popular among them are:

English alphabet: consonants

The number of consonant letters in the alphabet is 21. Despite the fact that these letters are different from Russian ones, some of them have a similar pronunciation. These include the letters: B, F, G, M, P, S, V, Z. Speaking about similarities with the Russian language, it can also be noted that if English words have a double consonant, they are pronounced with one sound:

Besides simple letters English contains digraphs or signs formed using two English letters . These include:

It is worth noting that the letter ch in words borrowed from Greek is pronounced as [k].

The letter ch is also read as the sound [k] in the name Michael, which is very common abroad:

Exception not applicable to the options above:

The combination th is pronounced like “s” and “z” in Russian, only to pronounce them you need to position your tongue correctly. Bite down and then lower it, maintaining the position between your teeth. Now try to pronounce both of these letters.

The digraphs kh and zh are used in English with foreign surnames. Foreign surnames can also often contain the digraph sh, which, however, is also used in ordinary English words.

English alphabet: how to learn

We've sorted out how many letters and how they are used, but how to learn them? IN modern world This issue is quite easy to solve, because there are a lot of materials on learning English in both printed and electronic versions. However, the choice in favor electronic material in the case of learning the alphabet it will perhaps be more correct.

Firstly, the English alphabet is something that one learns very quickly. Once you have mastered it, you will not have to return to this topic again and again, which means that the purchased alphabet books will lie idle on the very top shelves.

Secondly, on the Internet you can find the greatest variety of programs, videos, songs that will help you learn the alphabet in the fastest possible time. short term. Use only one method or combine several at once: hum songs, write each letter on a piece of paper, memorize the sequence of letters in English and the words in which they are used.

That's all. As you can see, there is nothing wrong with the English language. The only thing you may need when studying it is a little patience, seasoned with motivation. Don't think of language as overwhelming, but instead enjoy it.

As we know, English sounds, of which there are only 44, and English letters, of which there are 26, are not the same thing. If in the Russian alphabet the name of a letter and the corresponding sound are approximately similar, then in the English language letters often make completely different sounds. Therefore, if you decide to learn English, then you will have to learn not one language, but two - written and spoken. Each of them has its own alphabet.

We discussed the written alphabet in the article, and the oral alphabet is presented in the table IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet) - international phonetic alphabet.

English sounds in the table

These tables may look different, for example, here is one of the views:


At the top are the short vowels of English, below them are the long vowels, then are the diphthongs, and at the bottom are the consonants, which are divided into voiceless and voiced.
What difficulties await us in mastering English sounds? Firstly, this is a different representation of sounds by letters. Let's take for example the word elephant [ˈelifənt]. It contains the first "e" pronounced as in the word egg [ˈeg], the second - as in eagle [ˈiːgəl].

In a word cough[ˈkɔf] the last sound is pronounced like "f", also in the word laughˈ, however in the word bough[ˈbæʊ] is a completely different sound at the end, although they are very similar in spelling.
Woman[ˈwʊmən] in the singular; however, in the plural, it is already women[ˈwɪmən], as in the word ink
In a word Station[ˈsteɪʃən] sound ʃ represented by two letters "ti"
In a word sugar[ˈʃʊgər] same sound ʃ represented by the letter "s"

Seam sound - Schwa

There is one tricky vowel sound in the English language that is the most common and also very important vowel sound. It is called schwa(seam) - ə. This is an unstressed vowel sound that can be found in almost every word more than one syllable in length. It is a very short neutral vowel whose exact pronunciation depends on the surrounding consonants.
For example in the word computer- two schwa- first and last.

Shva also used for weak forms of words such as: a, an, the, some, and, but, of, from, for, at, them, us, that, as, than, there, am, are, was, has, have, had, does, can, must(these words have both a strong and a weak form).
For example in the phrase: There was a call for you just a word call has no sound seam, we hear this word clearly. And all weak forms are a series seam sounds:

It is precisely the fact that the weak form of words is represented by sound seam, makes understanding spoken English so difficult.

English sounds when combining words

The next difficulty arises from the merging of words. Listen to Jane Lawson's recording of her pronouncing the phrases from Table 1, first separately, then together.

When combining words, sometimes the last sound of the previous word merges with the first syllable of the next one, for example ‘one egg’ (wuneg) And ‘five eggs’ (fivegz), that completely new non-existent words are heard 'neg' or 'vegz'. Table No. 1

The red letters in this table represent extra sounds that are not in writing and that are forced to be pronounced in order for speech to be fast and smooth. If you try to say it quickly 'two eggs' no extra sound w, 'three eggs' no extra sound y, or 'four eggs' no extra sound r, you will realize that it is difficult to do. This is a whole topic in English pronunciation called Word Linking.

The following comic poem will help you understand the phenomenon of word fusion Word Linking. This limerick(limerick), written by Edward Lear, a famous English writer.

There are 5 lines, the first rhymes with the second and fifth, and the third with the fourth. Limericks are a good way to learn natural English sounds. Listen to Jane Lawson read this poem. She reads it several times - with and without merging words, separately working on the merging of two words highlighted in table No. 2 yellow:

All stressed syllables are highlighted in blue bold font. The remaining syllables are unstressed - in other words, we pronounce them faster and more quietly. Try saying it yourself a few times until you get the rhythm right.

Limericks are also very good way understand the phenomenon of merging words, because merging occurs by itself if you pronounce them in the right rhythm. If you pronounce each word separately, it will not sound as natural.

Rule for merging words: When one word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, the words merge together.

In table No. 2 this is marked with red arrows. The places where two consonant sounds from the previous and next words occur are highlighted in yellow. If these two consonants use the same lip position when pronounced, we combine them into one sound, otherwise it will be difficult to pronounce them.

Linking sound R

The next feature of merging words is the use of extra sound R. If we pronounce words separately, we do not use extra sound R between them. However, if we pronounce them together, we use them, as this makes the pronunciation smoother and faster.

Let's listen to another audio recording by Jane Lawson, in which she explains this phenomenon using examples from table No. 3.

You can try to pronounce phrases that require a connecting sound R, without it, it sounds somewhat unnatural. More examples of phrases in which a connective appears R:

Sometimes this sound confuses students, for example the following phrases sound the same, but have different meanings:

So it is very important to remember the binder R, because otherwise you might misunderstand the meaning!

And now a little exercise in mindfulness: why does Ghoti = fish?

Answer: gh=f (laugh), o=i (wo men), ti=sh (stati on)

So, here we are at the last sixth vowel of the English alphabet letter Uu. If you have studied reading rules inEnglish language According to our recommendations, you already have sufficient theoretical knowledge. However, practice is most likely not enough. However, our course in reading does not end there. Practice awaits you ahead. More on this a little later.

In Lesson #25 you will learn:

• how to read a letter Uu in English;
• repeat the pronunciation of sounds , [ʌ], [ə:], .

Rules for reading the English letter U

Here are phrases to help you remember reading the letter U in each syllable type. A dictionary is connected to the site and, if in doubt, click on a word and listen to how it is pronounced.

Reading the English letter U in 4 syllable types. Tongue Twisters

1. : I don’t like u sual t u nes in m u sic. — I don’t like ordinary melodies.

2. [ʌ]: Have l u nch with u s. - Have lunch with us.

3. [ə:]: I have a p ur ple p ur se. — I have a purple wallet.

4. : I am s ure. - I'm sure.

Phonetic exercises for reading the letter U in open and closed syllables

U (I, II):

fun, music, plum, cube, pumpkin, rubber, super, drum, student, stupid, hunting, hungry, tune, tunic, luck, supper, super, to return, curl, sunny, pupil, blue, uniform, summer, suck , unit, due, ugly, mutton, butter, struggle, to construct, to consult, cluster, dub, drunk, true, tulip, use, upland, under, computer, cucumber, buck, must, to amuse, mummy, truth, gum, bubble, much, huge

to– sign of a verb. Most verbs have stress on the second syllable

Exceptions:

1. after letters l, r, j vowel U often read as: blue, true, truth, June, July,

2. after letters b, p, f vowel in a closed syllable U often read as [u]: full, bush, put, pull, etc.

Words to remember:

1. busy [‘bizi] - busy
2. study [‘stʌdɪ] - to study
3. sugar [‘∫ugə] - sugar

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Phonetic exercises for reading the letter U in the third and fourth syllable type

U (III, IV):

church, turn, burn, to return, pure, curl, curb, fur, hurt, sure, nurse, curse, curt, burning, turning, turkey, lure

In an unstressed syllable U is read as [ə]:

to s u ppose ,`fig u re [‘fɪgə], `maxim u m [‘mæksɪməm]

Phonetic exercises for practicing reading the letter U with audio recording and answers (closed content)

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Title: Phonetic exercises with audio recording

Description: Access to restricted content *Repeat the rules for reading in English*

Reading the letter combination UI:

3. UI read – in a closed syllable after n, s: suit - suit, nuisance [‘nju:səns] - annoyance. Exception: suite - hotel room
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Reading the letter combination QU

1. qu read almost always: qu ick qu ickly qu iet, qu ietly, qu estion, qu iz, qu it, qu ite, s qu irrel, qu ail, qu ill, qu ilt, qu arter
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Don't be confused: qu ite — quite And qu iet - quiet

This was the last lesson of the course "Teaching English reading and pronunciation at the same time." In conclusion, I would like to once again draw your attention to the fact that in the first 20 lessons I relied on reading teaching method "from sound to letter" and in the last 5 lessons on reading teaching method "from letter to sound" and finally the circle is closed. There is an English expression “to round up”. I hope that you now have sufficient theoretical knowledge to, as a reinforcement, study on your own a few more articles, namely: