Greetings, my dear readers.

Today we continue to talk about how to learn how to read correctly, so the topic of today's article is the transcription of English letters.

We have already got acquainted with the concept and dealt with the pronunciation of sounds in English. Today we will figure out exactly how they are pronounced in various combinations.

I have a clear table for you. It contains letters English alphabet with transcription, Russian letters-analogues and my notes, so that you can immediately put correct pronunciation. I also added examples of words with studied sounds and their translation.

What else can be found on the blog:

1. with letters and transcription (you can study them online, download, print and work with them);
2. for children I have a complete .

Let `s start?

Features of English transcription:

• it is always enclosed in square brackets. I can't say exactly where it came from, but I think it's just worth taking it for granted;
• to understand where the stress is, the transcription uses the sign [‘] before the stressed syllable;
• It is important to remember that transcription is about the sound, not the spelling of words. Sometimes the spelling can be 90% different from what we pronounce;
• to show that the sound is long - we use a colon.

In general, about English transcription I wrote - please!

Letters of the English alphabet and their transcription in Russian and English:

English letter	Transcription	Russian analogue
aa		Hey
bb		Bee
CC		Xi
Dd		Di
ee		And
FF	[ɛf]	ef
gg		Gee
hh		h
II		Ai
jj		Jay
Kk		Kay
Ll	[ɛl]	Al
mm	[ɛm]	Em
Nn	[ɛn]	En
Oh	[əʊ]	OU
pp		Pi
Qq		Q
Rr	[ɑː] or [ɑɹ]	A or Ar
Ss	[ɛs]	Es
Tt		Tee
Uu		YU
vv		In and
www	[ˈdʌb(ə)l juː]	Double-u
xx	[ɛks]	The ex
Yy		Wye
Zz	,	Zed, zee

But you know what is the most interesting thing about English?

If different letters are combined, they are pronounced differently!

That's why I prepared for you

Examples of English letter combinations in Russian and English:

Combination	Transcription	How to pronounce	Example
ee	/i:/	And	bee - bee
ea	/ ı:/	And	tea - tea
oo	/u/	At	cook - cook
th	/ ð / / Ѳ /	Z, S (interdental)	thumb - finger
sh	/ ʃ /	W	shout - shout
ch	/tʃ/	H	chair - chair
ph	/f/	F	phone - phone
ck	/k/	To	snack - snack
ng	/ Ƞ /	Ng	song
wh	/w/	Ua	why - why
wr	/r/	R	write - write
qu	/kw/	Kua	queen - queen
igh	/aı/	Ai	high - high
all	/Ɔ:l/	Ol	tall - tall
ai	/eı/	Hey	Spain
ay	/eı/	Hey	May
oi	/oı/	Ouch	point
oy	/oı/	Ouch	toy
ow	/oƱ/	OU	grow - grow
ou	/aƱ/	ay	out - outside
ew	/ju:/	YU	knew - knew
aw	/ Ɔ: /	Ltd	draw - draw
ee+r	/ ıə /	ia	engineer - engineer
ou+r	/abə/	Aue	our - our
oo+r	/ Ɔ: /	Ltd	door - door
wo+r	/ ɜ: /	Y/O	work - work
ai+r	/eə/	Ea	chair - chair
oa+r	/ Ɔ: /	Oo	roar - cry
old	/Ʊd/	Oud	could - could
around	/aƱnd/	Aund	round - round
eigh	/eı/	Hey	eight - eight
-y	/ ı /	And	tiny - tiny
au	/ Ɔ: /	Oo	Paul
gh	/f/	F	laugh - laugh
aught	/Ɔ:t/	From	taught - taught

I know this table looks huge now. Surely you think that remembering all this is unrealistic. I'll tell you this: at a certain point, when you have enough, you won't even pay attention to these combinations. Your brain will learn to quickly remember how these letters sound. Moreover, even when you come across a completely unfamiliar word, you can read it correctly. The only question is the amount of practice on your part.

How to memorize combinations of letters?

1. Use cards. visual perception developed better in most people.
2. Read. Pay attention to letter combinations when or just texts.
3. Don't get hung up. It is not necessary to immediately memorize these combinations and only then go directly to English. Learn as you go!
4. Buy paper or download a good one e-book in order to quickly learn to recognize combinations and pronounce them correctly. Even if you need it - an adult - do not hesitate to take books for children - it is there that everything is chewed in detail and not without interest.
5. Take the course « English from scratch» . This will make your path easier.

That's all, my dears. I hope you found it useful and understandable. I give even more such materials in the blog mailing list - subscribe and receive a portion of usefulness regularly.

Learn more about what dash, colon, parentheses, and other symbols mean.

You can see another version of the English transcription and, if necessary, print or copy for editing in Microsoft Word
English transcription

Pronunciation of English sounds.

Pronunciation of English vowels.

The pronunciation of English sounds is represented by Russian letters, you should understand what to convey the correct English pronunciation using the Russian alphabet is not possible.

• ɑː long, deep a
• ʌ short vowel a, as in the Russian word to run.
• ɒ = ɔ - short, open about
• ɔː - long o
• зː - long vowel ё, as in the Russian word hedgehog.
• æ - open e
• e - like e in the word these
• ə - unclear unstressed sound, similar to e
• iː - long and
• ɪ - short, open and
• ʊ \u003d u - short u, pronounced with a slight rounding of the lips.
• uː - long y pronounced without much rounding of the lips.

Two-vowel sounds

Pronunciation of English consonants.

• p - p
• b - b
• m - m
• f - f
• v - in
• s - with
• z - z
• t - resembles a Russian sound tpronounced with the tongue positioned at the gums.
• d - resembles a Russian sound dpronounced with the tongue positioned at the gums.
• n - resembles a Russian sound npronounced with the tongue positioned at the gums.
• l - resembles a Russian sound l, pronounced with the tongue positioned at the gums.
• r - very hard sound, pronounced without vibration of the tongue. Corresponds to the sound p in the word lot
• ʃ - soft Russian sh
• ʒ - soft Russian zh, as in the word yeast.
• tʃ- h
• ʤ - similar to the Russian sound j (voiced h)
• k - k
• h - breath, reminiscent of a weakly pronounced sound x
• ju - long yu in the word southern
• je - the sound e in the word spruce
• jɔ - sound ё in the word Christmas tree
• jʌ - sound i in the word pit
• j - resembles the Russian sound й before vowels. Occurs in combination with vowels.

English consonants that do not have approximate equivalents in Russianː

• w - formed with rounded lips (as in a whistle). It looks like a sound delivered with only lips. In translation, it is denoted by letters in or y ː W illiams - Williams, Williams.
• ƞ - Open your mouth and say n without closing your mouth.
• ɵ - Move the slightly flattened tip of the tongue between the teeth and pronounce Russian with
• ð - Push the slightly flattened tip of the tongue between the teeth and say Russian

About letters and sounds, it is worth deepening your knowledge in reading the vowels of the English alphabet. After all, they make up almost half total all sounds.

General concept of vowels

As mentioned earlier, there are 20 vowels, while there are only 6 vowels themselves. This is not easy to put into the understanding of a Russian-speaking person, because there is no such thing in the Russian language. Wider variety of vowels in the English alphabet – it is his distinguishing feature. Namely diphthongs, which are completely alien Slavic languages are difficult to study. But transcription comes to the aid of students - this is a record of reading a word using phonetic symbols denoting a certain sound. That is, each English word in the dictionary it is written with a transcription that will tell you exactly how it is read. It remains only to learn to distinguish and read all the sounds.

Reading vowels in open and closed syllables

Reading vowels depends on their place in the word:

• in the first type of syllable (vowel at the end) the letter is read according to its name in the alphabet,
• in the second (consonant at the end) - as a short sound.

Consider reading all the vowels of English letters with transcription:

Letter	open syllable	Closed syllable
aa [ ei]	[ ei] g a me - game pl a ne - aircraft	[ ᴂ ] f a t - bold pl a n - plan
ee	b e- to be h e- he	p e n - handle t e n - ten
II	n i ne - nine f i ne - good	b i t - a little l i st - list
Oh	g o- go t o ne - tone	[ ɒ ] n o t is not sp o t - spot
Uu	st u dent - student t u ne - melody	[ ʌ ] c u t - cut n u t - walnut
Yy	fl y- fly m y- my	s y stem - system beauty y- the beauty

Other rules for reading vowels and letter combinations

Vowels are found not only in the above situations. There are other rules for reading them. For example:

• The letter Aa before the letter Ll is read as a sound [ɔ:] - b al l - ball, and in an unstressed position as a sound [ə] - Americ a[ə`mericə] – America.
• The letter Ee at the end of words is not readable: gam e- the game.
• The letter Yy at the beginning of words is read as the sound [j] -yellow - yellow.

Different combinations of letters are read differently, for example:

• Before the letter Rr, vowels are read like this: ar - car - car; or [ɔ:] - door - door; ir, er, ur [ɜ:] - girl - girl, service - service, fur - wool.
• The letter combination ee always conveys the sound: speed - speed, feet - legs.
• The letter combination oo reads [u]: food - food, tool - tool.

There are many rules for reading in English, but there is also that category of words that cannot be read according to them - these are exception words. They need to be learned.

But first you need to master the basic rules of reading, and you need to do this gradually, with a full understanding of what is happening. After all, if questions remain, it will then affect further training.

Another important nuance, some teachers advise writing down English sounds and even words in Russian letters, never practice it. It makes more sense, you say. But this is unacceptable, since in English there is not a single sound corresponding to Russian. Even if at first glance it seems that the letters are similar and also readable, this is not so. In this case, you need to listen more English speech in the original, and of course constantly repeating.

Transcription is a recording of the sound of a letter or word as a sequence of special phonetic characters.

Transcription may not be interesting to everyone, but, no doubt, useful. Knowing the transcription, you will correctly read an unfamiliar word without outside help. In the classroom, you yourself can read the transcription of a word (for example, from the blackboard) without asking others around, thereby facilitating the process of mastering lexical material, etc.

At first there will be errors in the correct reading, tk. there are always some subtleties in pronunciation. But this is just a matter of practice. A little later, if necessary, you can transcribe the words yourself.

Transcription is directly related to reading rules. In English, not everything that is seen (letter combinations) is read (as in Russian and Spanish, for example).

When textbooks (mostly domestic) talk about the rules of reading, much attention is paid to the type of syllable. About five such types are usually described. But such a detailed theoretical presentation of the rules of reading does not make the lot of a beginner much easier, and can even mislead him. It must be remembered that good knowledge reading rules is a great merit of practice, not theory.

Your attention will be presented the basic rules for reading individual letters and letter combinations. "Behind the scenes" there will be some phonetic moments that are difficult to convey in writing.

A little patience! Both transcription and reading rules are easily acquired in a short time. Then you will be surprised: "How easy it became to read and write!"

However, do not forget that, despite its widest distribution, English does not cease to be a LANGUAGE full of exceptions, stylistic and other delights. And at any stage of language learning, and especially at the beginning, look into the dictionary more often.

You can download the tables. They are listed below on the page. We use and remember.

Table 1 - Letters, sounds, name and pronunciation of letters.

Letter	Sounds (for vowels: 1) open 2) closed)	(approximate) title letters	(approximate) pronunciation sounds	Word examples
A a	, [æ]	"hey"	"hey", "e" open	n a me , m a n [æ]
Bb	[b]	"bi:"	"b"
c c	[k], [s] before i, e, y	"si:"	"k", "s"	c at [k], ni c e[s]
D d	[d]	"di:"	"d"
e e	, [e]	"and:"	"and:", "e"	h e , p e n[e]
F f	[f]	"ef"	"f"
G g	[g], [ʤ] before i, e, y (excl. give)	"ji:"	"g", "j"	g ame[g], g ym[ʤ]
H h	[h]	"h"	"X"
I i	, [ɪ]	"ah"	"ay", "and"	l i ke, b i g [ɪ]
J j	[ʤ]	"jay"	"j"
Kk	[k]	"kay"	"to"
l l	[l]	"el"	"l"
M m	[m]	"Em"	"m"
N n	[n]	"en"	"n"
O o	[әu], [ɒ(ɔ)]	"OU"	"oh", "oh"	g o [әu], d o g [ɒ]
Pp	[p]	"pi:"	"P"
Q q		"cue"	"kv"
R r	[r]	"a"	"R"
S s	[s], [z]	"es"	"s", "z"
T t	[t]	"ti:"	"t"
U u	, [u], [ʌ]	"Yu"	"yu", "u", "a"	p u pil,p u t[u], c u p[ʌ]
Vv	[v]	"in and:"	"in"
W w	[w]	"double you"	[w] sound between "u" and "v"»
X x	,	"the ex"	"ks", "gz"	fox, exam
Y y	, [ɪ] - at the end of a word [j] - at the beginning of a word	"wow"	"ay", "and", "th"	m y , bab y [ɪ], y es[j]
Zz	[z]	"zed"	"h"

Letter combination	Sounds	(approximate) pronunciation sounds	Word examples
ar/al		"a:"	car park calm
all	[ↄ:]	"about:"	tall, ball
ee/ea		"and:"	see, tea
er / or (at the end of a word)	[ә]	"e" weak	doctor, better
oo	[u],	"y", "y:"	book, school
oy / oi	[ↄɪ]	"oh"	boy, boil
ow/ou		"ay"	how, mouse
or /our /oar /oor	[ↄ:]	"about:"	horse, four, board, door
ir/ur/er	[ɜ:] (ә:)	"yo"	bird, turn, berth
ere/ear	[ɪә]	"ie"	here, hear
air/ear/ere	(ɛә)	"ea"	hair, wear, where
sh	[ʃ]	"sh"	ship, shop
tion / cion / sion (at the end of a word)	[ʃn]	"shn"	situation, suspicion, admission
ch	[ ʧ]	"h"	cheese, cheap
ph	[f]	"f"	phone, physics
th	[ð], [Ѳ]		this, thanks
dg	[ʤ]	"j"	judge
zh	[ʒ]	"and"	Voronezh
sure (at the end of a word)	[ʒ]	"and"	treasure, measure
ng	[ŋ]	"n" nasal	sing, song