How is transcription in English. How to read English words correctly. Check your pronunciation of English words

When you study a foreign language, you are not only studying a set of vocabulary and grammar, but in any case, you are faced with the culture and mentality of the people who speak this language. The best way to learn about language and culture is reading in original. And to read in a foreign language, you must learn to read in that language first .

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. You can just get people to stop reading them.

But, if at school or university you studied German or French, or your school base turned out to be smaller than you would like, and now you decide to learn English, then let's start with the most primary and basic and learn a few techniques where to start in order to master reading rules.

English alphabet

I think you know that English is different from Russian and German, in which we mostly read and write. In English, the system is a little more complicated. The very first thing we need to do is to learn the alphabet.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, of which 21 are consonants and 5 are vowels. Knowing the letters and the ability to pronounce them correctly is the key to successful and competent reading in English.

English alphabet with transcription of the names of the letters.

A very easy way to remember letters visually and aurally is with the help of a song. Watch the video and sing the song until you remember the letters of the alphabet.

You can use the same method to teach the alphabet to your children, and sing a song with your little ones.

Reading rules in English

After studying the alphabet, we will begin to study the combination of letters and read short words. In English, there are a number of rules that you need to learn, practice and remember if you want to read English words correctly.

Rules for reading English consonants

Many consonants read similarly to Russian consonants, such as letters m, n, l, b, f, z. You can see it in words like mom, lemon, finger, boy, zebra .

Letters like t and d sound similar but are pronounced with aspirated. For example words table, teacher, dad, dirty.

Letter c has two readings. Before letters i,e,y it reads like [s]- city, face, cyber. And before the rest of the vowels it reads like [k]- cat, cake, factory.

Rule with vowels i,e,y works with letter g. Before them, it reads as - gym, George, giant. Before other consonants, the letter is read as [g].

Letter q always found in a combination of letters qu and reads like - quick, queen, square.

Letter j always read as - jacket, jam, joy.

Table of the ratio of consonants and sounds in English.

How vowels are read in English

In English, a word can end in an open or closed syllable, which affects pronunciation. For example words cat, pot, sit end in a closed syllable and have vowels a, o, i give sounds .

Words such as name, home, five end in an open syllable, since the word ends with a letter e, which is unreadable. But, thanks to her, the vowels in the middle of the word are read exactly the same as they are pronounced in the alphabet, that is, the word name is read.

Types of reading English vowels in stressed syllables.

Reading vowel combinations in English

There are certain combinations of letters that have established reading rules, although English is the language of exceptions, and when reading more complex words, you should consult a dictionary. The table below shows combinations of english vowels with examples how they are read and what sound they make.

Table of combinations of vowels in English.

And of course, there are exceptions to all rules. However, do not worry and think that you will never be able to learn it. Everything can be understood, you just need to try a little and practice.

English diphthongs with transcription

When you learn the basic rules of reading, you will see that in English there are diphthong sounds that are quite difficult to reproduce, especially if you start learning the language not from childhood, but as an adult.

Table of English diphthongs with transcription.

Transcription of sounds in English

Practice shows that when children learn a language, they must necessarily study transcription, while adults do not want to learn it, and for them it can be difficult.

If you still want to learn how to write and read transcription, then great! And if not, then you can use online dictionaries where the word will be pronounced for you. One of the best dictionaries today is Multitran and the online dictionary Lingvo.

Important!

Remember that it is necessary to use dictionaries, not translators!

Here is an example of reading short words with transcription:

English vowel table and transcription.

The fact that we live in the age of the Internet has some advantages. Sitting at home, you can learn different knowledge online. For your attention video lesson which explains the basic principles of reading. However, even after gaining knowledge through an online lesson, they need to be consolidated in order to form a skill.

Learn English tongue twisters

Here tongue twisters can help you, which are often aimed at practicing one sound. Here are some examples you can use.

English tongue twister	Translation into Russian
Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not. Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot. We'll weather the weather whether we like it or not.	The weather will be good or the weather won't be good. The weather will be cold or the weather will be hot. We'll weather any weather whether we like it or not.
three swiss witch-bitches, which wished to be switched swiss witch-bitches, watch three swiss Swatch watch switches. Which swiss witch-bitch", which wishes to be a switched swiss witch-bitch, wishes to watch which swiss swatch switch?	Three swiss bitch witches wishing to change their gender, looking at the three buttons on the Swatch watch. Which one of the Swiss bitch witches wishing to change their gender, looks at which button on the watch "Swatch"?

Don't worry it's tongue twisters! At this stage, when you are just learning to read and practicing sounds, it is important to pronounce them correctly, albeit slowly. You can always speed up.

Learn to hear English speech

After learning the basic, basic rules of reading, you can use the method of repeating after the announcer. Your auditory memory will also work and you will hear how words are pronounced correctly and what intonation is in sentences.

To do this, you can use small dialogues and audiobooks for beginners. At this level, it will be ideal if the text is in front of your eyes, you listen, read and repeat at the same time!

You can use such a great resource as Oxford Bookworm Library, which features audiobooks for all levels. You can download the library for free

For those who continue to learn English, we recommend learning the language from films, which you can read about in the article

Work on your pronunciation

Reading is only the first step in learning a language. As well as learning grammar and vocabulary, learning how to pronounce and hear correctly is very important if you want to understand what is being said to you and say it so that you are understood. Especially if you're talking to a native speaker.

As we said a little above, one of the best ways is to listen carefully to native speakers and try to copy their pronunciation and intonation .

Particular attention should be paid to sounds that are not in your native language. Often, English learners have a problem with the 'r' sound, as in Russian it is hard, while in English it is more guttural and growling.

There are also difficulties with the pronunciation of two sounds, which gives combination of letters 'th'. Students stubbornly pronounce it as 'c' and 'h'. Although it is worth paying attention that in such words as this, that, there this sound is said as between ‘z’ and ‘d’. And in words like three, think, thief, it is pronounced as a sound between ‘f’ and ‘s’.

This may seem strange to you, since there are no such sounds in Russian, but if you listen to native speakers, you will understand that this is what they say.

Don't worry if you can't get these words right the first time, it takes a little practice. But, try to learn correctly from the very beginning, because it will be more difficult when you are forced to relearn.

Learn to pronounce phrases in English correctly

In English, words in sentences are not pronounced separately, they often merge, as if into one whole, especially if it is a combination of vowel and consonant letters. Look and practice on these transcription examples.

The same applies to such phrases where one word ends with the letter 'r', and the next word begins with a vowel. In such cases, the 'r' sound is pronounced. Here are some examples.

The English often joke about the pronunciation of the words of their native language, as there are times when a person who does not know a term will never read it. For example, chor. No matter how puffed up a Russian-speaking student is, he gets either “choir”, then “choye”, then “koe”. And when a person learns that the word is actually read as “kwai”, it causes amazement in him.

To solve the problem of reading words, as well as remembering pronunciation, English transcription was invented. Although there are “only” 26 letters in the English language, some of them are read quite differently. In addition, some clusters of two, three, and even four characters are read as one sound. Completing the confusion is that in the initial and final position, the letters are not read at all, and sometimes this happens inside the word.

About transcription of sounds

Thus, linguists simply needed to find a way out, and they decided to assign their own sign to each sound. There were “already” 44 such symbols, but they greatly simplified the problem of learning English by foreigners.

The question of how to read transcription in English is not so easy to solve, and therefore linguists offer various methods for grouping sounds. We offer you the following classification, which is accompanied by examples of words that we hope you already know. The transcription of English sounds looks like this:

Consonants:

1. Single short: [ʌ] but (but); [e] bet (bet); [æ] cat (cat); [ʊ] put (put); [ɪ] sit (sit); [ɒ] dog (dog); [ə] teacher (teacher)
2. Single long: [ɑː] park (park); meet (meet); shoe (shoe) [ɜː] girl (girl); [ɔː] ball (ball)
3. Diphthong buy (buy); [ɔɪ] boy (boy); day (day); how (how); [əʊ] go (to go); [ʊə] sure (confident); there (there); [ɪə] hear (hear)

Transcription of the English alphabet is of great importance. And in order to successfully learn the language. you just need to know the alphabet by heart. It is quite possible that you heard a word but don't know how to spell it. In this case, spelling comes to the rescue, that is, spelling it out. You just need to ask the teacher: “Spell it, please” (Please spell it), and he will gladly fulfill the request.

Transcription of English letters

The transcription of English letters sometimes coincides with sounds, and more often two transcription marks are required, one of which is a consonant, and the second is a long vowel. Vowels coincide either with diphthongs or with long monophthongs: a -; e - ; I - ; o - [əʊ]; u - ; y - (two sounds are used in the last two cases).

Transcription of consonants usually combines a consonant and a long vowel or sound [e] followed by a consonant: 1) b -; c - ; d-; g - [ʤiː]; p - ; t-; v - 2) f - ; l - ; m - ; n - ; s-

Transcription of English words

The transcription of English words consists of all the sounds of the word, grouped in one square brackets [ˈteɪbl] - table (table, table); - know (to know); - great (great). If the word has two syllables, then an apostrophe-like icon is placed before the stressed one. Unlike Russian, in English a word can have two stresses - weak and strong. The weak is placed before the syllable from below, and the strong is placed before the syllable from above. You can meet double stress in polysyllabic words, such as [ˌrɛvəˈluːʃən] - revolution; [ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən] - composition, composition.

On the Lim English website, you will get acquainted with all the rules for using transcription, learn how to read any, even the most complex word, with its help. You will learn that the reading of many words in the English language is subject to certain rules. Also, you will meet such speech units that do not obey any rules, and their pronunciation can only be caught using transcription or live English speech.

Just Letters and Sounds

The English alphabet has 26 letters - seven less than ours. Which already makes it easier for us to get acquainted with English.

The English Alphabet - English alphabet
Ah(hey)	Nn(en)
Вb(bi:)	Oh(OU)
cc(si:)	pp(pi:)
Dd(di:)	Qq(q:)
Her(and:)	Rr[ɑ:] (a:)
FF(ef)	Ss(es)
gg[ʤi:] (ji:)	Tt(ty:)
hh(h)	Uu(Yu:)
II(ay)	vv(in and:)
jj[ʤei] (jay)	www["dʌblju:] (dábl u:)
Kk(kay)	xx(the ex)
Ll(el)	Yy(wow)
mm(Em)	Zz(zed)

Square brackets indicate how each letter of the English alphabet is pronounced. In standard British language, the letter R sometimes it doesn't "pronounce" at all: car(car), star(star), door(a door). In America, as, indeed, in some parts of England, this letter sounds - growls dully - and you can boldly pronounce it if you wish: arm[ɑ:rm] (hand), form(form, form), turn(turn).

If you see a dotted line below the text, there is a hint for that text. In this case, this is an approximate (≈) Russian pronunciation, represented in the English alphabet by parentheses. And now Attention! Your task for this lesson: learn to read as it is written in square brackets, not round ones! The pronunciation in parentheses is given only for those who are new to English. Immediately after getting acquainted with all the sounds below, they will not be. And if someone somewhere teaches you to read according to Russian transcription, know that you are being deceived. Below will be given text, audio, video explanations of each sound.

Alphabet need to learn by heart. Why? It happens that we are not sure how this or that name is spelled correctly and we have to clarify:

Spell your name. - Tell your name spell.
Spell it, please. - Tell his spell, please.

And the interlocutor, whose name is, suppose, Timothy, or, for short, Tim, dictates to us:

Timothy -

Additionally, to consolidate the English alphabet:

Word - Word

Spell- a useful verb that helps us clarify the spelling ( spelling) of any word, even the most "tricky". There is a city of Leicester in England. There are five sounds in the name: ["lestə]. Let's try to find it on the English map. Where is it? Check with our friend Tim:

How do you spell it? - How do you write it?
Spell this name for us. - Spell the name to us.

Tim spells the name. We write it down. We write:

[ɑ:] - Leicester.

There are only five sounds, but nine letters! There are nine letters in Leicester . Historically, some letters in this name have become "silent".

Tim will name a few more cities, and you write them - right here in the lines.

	[ɑ:]
	[ɑ:]

Notes

Names (Ann, Tim), continents (Africa, Asia), countries (England, Russia), cities (Bristol, York), villages (Pendrift), streets (Oxford Street), squares (Trafalgar Square) and lanes (Penny Lane) ) are capitalized.

Your Dictionary
Your dictionary

Your dictionary is English-Russian, it contains English words with Russian translation. They are in strictly alphabetical order.

Let's find the translation of the word please- in the section under the letter R. A few simple rules:

1. In order not to read the entire section from beginning to end, we look at the second letter of the word - l. The alphabetical principle is in effect again: letter combination pl comes after combinations pa, re, ph, pi. Here come the words to pl: place(place), plain(plain) ... It's the turn to look at the third letter e. Then on the fourth a. And here after pleasant["plezǝnt] (pleasant), but before pleasure["pleʒǝ] (pleasure) we find the word we need.

2. After please worth the cut v , after pleasant - a . What is "secret writing"? Solution-explanation at the very beginning of the dictionary - in List of conditional abbreviations. Lettering n stands for noun(noun); v - verb(verb); a - adjective(adjective); adv - adverb(adverb).
These pointers are not meant to "load" you with grammatical terms. In English, there are cases when the same word can act as a noun or a verb, an adjective or an adverb. The dictionary will tell you what part of speech it is, and then give you a translation.

help 1. v to help. 2. n help; assistant.
fast 1. a quick, fast. 2. adv fast.

3. Nouns in all dictionaries are given in the singular.

Some words do not have a singular number. Letters indicate this. pl : from plural(plural).

clothing n pl clothes
scissors["sɪzəz] n pl scissors

It happens, fortunately, rarely that the word "looks" as in the plural, but in fact it is in the singular. The dictionary will not let you make a mistake: sing means singular(singular). For example, news(used as sing) news, news.

4. Verbs are given a stem from which other verb forms are formed - in particular, the past tense.

5. A word can have two or more meanings, so do not rush to take the translation that comes "first on the list." Let's say a noun letter translates as letter or letter. Let's read two sentences: the first deals with letters, the second deals with letters.

There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet. - There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet.

We write and get letters . We write and receive letters.

6. It is useful to look through all the explanations for the paragraph in which the desired word is located. Let's quickly run through it with our eyes, and something will "be deposited" in memory.
Let's look at that paragraph (a nest, as compilers of dictionaries call it), in which the word "nests" look. The first value is look. Second - to look like. And additional information: look in conjunction with after has the meaning take care(about someone) keep an eye on(for someone). Combination look for translated search.
After some time, you come across a text with these combinations and, quite possibly, you will translate it from memory without looking into the dictionary.

I look at my sister. - I'm looking at my sister.
She looks fine. - She looks great.
I look after my sister. - I take care of my sister.
She looks for her doll. She is looking for her doll.

7. The dictionary gives the transcription in square brackets, that is, the pronunciation. Only with the help of dictionary transcription do we learn that, for example, London(London) pronounced ["lʌndǝn], a Leicester(Lester) reads ["lestǝ] and nothing else.
If the word has one syllable, the stress mark in the transcription is not put, it is not necessary.

If two or more syllables are pronounced, the stress must be indicated, and the sign comes before the stressed syllable.

alphabet["ælfəbət] n alphabet
England["ɪŋglənd] n England
English["ɪŋglɪʃ] and English
tomorrow n tomorrow

In Russian, vowel length does not matter. In English, pronounce a long sound twice as long as a short one. Otherwise fist will turn you into feast, a pot- in port. Vowel length is marked with [ː] or just a colon.

Transcription is especially necessary when there are letter combinations that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. For example, in these pairs of words:

The Sounds of English
Sounds of English

Click on the red button on the right to watch the video.
Also don't forget to point to hints, highlighted with a dotted line.
A different spelling of one sound is given through a fraction, i.e. for example, in dictionaries you can meet and[i], and [ɪ] :)

Vowels - Vowels

[æ]	c a t (cat), c a rry (carry), r a t (rat), d a d, m a n (person, man) Note: This sound not correspond to Russian E. If someone teaches you this, you are being cruelly deceived. Hover over the tooltip on the left for details.
[ɑ:]	h ar m (harm), f ar(far away), cl a ss (class)
	h e(he), m ea l (food), tr ee(wood)
[i]/[ɪ]	i t (it), s i t (sit), t i ck e t (ticket)
[e]/[ɛ]	b e st (best), m e nd (repair), p e n (knob)
[o]/[ɔ]	c o ffee (coffee), n o t (not), r o ck (rock)
[o:]/[ɔː]	m or ning (morning), b a ll (ball), sm a ll (small)
[u]/[ʊ]	b oo k (book), f oo t (leg), p u t (put)
	bl ue(blue), m o ve (move), s oo n (soon)
[ʌ]	c u p (cup), m o ther (mother), s o me (little)
[ɜː]/[ǝ:]	th ir d (third), w or k (work), l ear n (learn)
[ǝ]	teach er(teacher), Sat ur day (Saturday)

Diphthongs - Diphthongs

(combinations of two vowels)

/	b a by (child), s ay(say), tr ai n (train)
/	i ce (ice), l ie(lie down), m y(my)
/	cl ou d (cloud), fl ow er (flower), t ow n (city)
/[ǝʊ]	n o(No), o nly (only), r oa d (road)
/[ɔɪ]	c oi n (coin), n oi se (noise), b oy(boy)
/[ɪǝ]	ear(ear), d ear(expensive), h ere(here)
[ɛǝ]/	air(air), b ear(bear), th ere(there)
/[ʊǝ]	p oor(poor), s ure(confident)

Consonants - Consonants

[b]	b ack (back), hus b and (husband), ri b(edge)
[p]	p ast (past), o p en (open)
[d]	d ay (day), d arc (dark), win d ow (window)
[t]	t ake (to take), t ree (tree), ho t(hot)
[k]	k ing (king), c old (cold), si ck(sick)
[g]	g et (receive), ba g(a bag), g irl (girl)
[v]	v ery (very), ha v e (to have), ne v er (never)
[f]	f i f teen (fifteen), wi f e (wife), ph race (phrase)
[z]	z ero (zero), ma z e (maze), ro s e (rose)
[s]	s o (so), ba s ket (basket), c ity (city)
[θ]	th in (thin), th ink (think), no th ing (nothing)
[ð]	th is (this), toge th er (together), fa th er (father)
[ʃ]	sh ip (ship), fi sh(fish), Ru ss ian (russian)
[ʒ]	lei s ure (leisure), gara g e (garage), mira g e (mirage)
[ʧ]	ch air (chair), ea ch(each), mu ch(lot)
[ʤ]	j u dg e (judge), a g e (age), langua g e (language)
[h]	h at (hat), un h appy (unhappy)
[l]	l ike (to love), pu ll(to pull), l ast (last)	n ever (never), li n e (line), rou n d (round)
[ŋ] y es (yes), on i on (bow), Ital i an (Italian)

Notes

1. Double consonants in English words are pronounced as one sound.

2. Unlike Russian, English voiced consonants at the end of a word do not become deaf. For example, in the word rub should sound clear [b]. In the word good also clearly pronounce the sound [d], and in the word dog sound [g].

conversation

I want to speak as soon as possible. And to start a conversation in English is best suited hello. This greeting corresponds to Russian Hi, hello, Hey.

Hello boys and girls. - Hello, boys and girls.
Hello, everybody. - Hello everyone.

Use hello in conversation with close relatives, friends, classmates.

Hello Mum. - Hello mother.
Hello Dad. - Hello, dad.
Hello Nick! Hello Tim! - Hello, Nick! Hello Tim!

speak hello calling to someone on the street, drawing attention to yourself, or answering a phone call.

Hello! - Hey!
Hello. - Hello.

Discussion - Discussion

English dad and mum match our dad and mother. When it comes to your own parents, these words become like names and are capitalized: mum, Dad. There is a more affectionate term: Mummy["mʌmi] (mommy), Daddy["dædi] (daddy).
In more formal cases, use father["fɑ:ðǝ] (father) and mother["mʌðǝ] (mother).

Exercises - Exercises

Exercise 1. Arrange the words in alphabetical order.

Dog, girl, go, acorn, tree, and, spell, sit, dad, conversation, well, he, what, take, egg, make, sorry, little, big, wife, question, word.

Exercise 2. Spell these words. - Spell these words.

Father, money, which, quarter, seem, jam, gust, peck, next, zebra, capital.

Exercise 3. In the famous book "Alice Through the Looking-Glass", the chess White Queen boasts to Alice that she knows the alphabet (ABC) and can read words from one letter.

The White Queen says , "I know the ABC . I can read words of one letter."

Single-letter words are a very rare thing, such as the article a. Words of two and three letters - much more, for example, go(go), do(make), in(in), and(and), but(but).

In the following text, without really going into its meaning, select all the words from two, then from three letters.

London is a big city. It is very old. It lies on the River Thames. The history of London goes back to Roman times. London has a lot of sights. There are many parks in it. a

phrases

Saying goodbye, the British say:

Good bye. - Goodbye.
Bye! - Till!
See you later. - See you later.
See you tomorrow. - Till tomorrow.

P.S. A little explanation for newbies:

• The lesson contains a description of the dictionary and an exercise for working with the dictionary. There is no dictionary on the site, only a lesson dictionary in the following lessons. You must have your own dictionary, whether paper or electronic, but you must have it. Of the electronic ones, Lingvo X5 / X6 is recommended, the Lingvo Live website. Google translator is not a dictionary, it can guess the correct translation, or it may not guess, the inexperienced cannot use it.
• In this ‘English alphabet lesson’, you only need to be able to read and reproduce sounds correctly. Start memorizing words from the following lessons.
• Lessons are free! Additional the same lessons, incl. interactive, also free, but their number (free) is limited.
• Please update/change your browser if you have problems with the audio player. They appear only on something outdated.
• To go to the next lesson, click "Next >" below on the right, or select a lesson from the menu on the top right. On mobile devices, the right menu falls to the very bottom under the comments.

Connoisseurs of the English language and those who study it from scratch should get acquainted with the peculiarities of the pronunciation of individual sounds. This will help in the future to avoid problems with the pronunciation of individual words.

In contact with

Features of phonetics

To learn how to pronounce words in English correctly, you must first learn how to pronounce all sounds without errors. To acquire this skill, transcription of the English language is used, since this is the only guarantee of the exact pronunciation of words.

Each Russian-English dictionary has a transcription of English words that allows you to pronounce them in full accordance with the orthoepic norms of the British or American version.

Why do you need a translation into Russian

In English, almost every word is equivalent to several Russian counterparts. To check this, just look into the dictionary of foreign vocabulary and familiarize yourself with the content.

In the standard English-Russian dictionary there are numerous lexical meanings that have more than one or two matches in Russian, but at least five. This is due to the fact that the modern English language is very rich.

In addition to the translation of words, there is also an exhaustive base of pronunciation norms in the form of transcription, which allows you to learn how to read correctly and perceive it by ear in foreign speech.

Techniques for improving pronunciation

There are different ways to improve the pronunciation of an English word. The fact is that it is a complex speech act. Only experience allows you to learn how to pronounce word forms correctly, without the need to constantly read theoretical reference books. The best option to achieve an effective result is constant communication with native English speakers.

We offer the main list of methods that are used in the system of self-education and in classrooms:

• daily training with a teacher, communication on simple topics;
• listening and repeating short phrases and words in English after the speaker;
• development of the laryngeal apparatus through the use of special phonetic techniques;
• reading aloud in Russian the most complex combinations of word forms that form speech competence with their translation.

All of the above methods have a high level of efficiency and provide an opportunity to learn independently. Also important is the experience of communicating with a teacher or with a native speaker. This will significantly reduce the training time.

Lessons with a tutor

Features of the pronunciation of individual words

Take, for example, the pronunciation of "the". The sound of this word is especially difficult for a number of reasons. Let's dwell on the main ones. To learn how to pronounce this combination correctly, you need to adhere to the following principles:

1. The tip of the tongue should rest against the hard palate. Without this moment, it will definitely not work to pronounce the sound.
2. The back of the tongue should be in close contact with the larynx. Only in this case the sound will match the original. The back is always pulled back to create a gap between the laryngeal cavity on exhalation.
3. It is important to consider the pronunciation of British speakers, as it differs significantly from the American version.
4. The sound of English words is considered one of the most difficult, due to the lack of similarities in other European languages.

But no matter how difficult the theoretical component may seem, it is easy to really learn how to pronounce the sound “the” in Russian with constant practice. Otherwise, serious problems may arise, even if there is a desire to learn.

How to pronounce th in English

How to learn correct pronunciation

Any teacher strives to ensure that his student can correctly pronounce sounds, first in Russian, and then in a foreign language. They are the basis of a deep understanding of the context and the ability to convey their thoughts in another language. How to pronounce English words correctly can be taught by phonetic exercises to develop the laryngeal apparatus. They include the following points:

1. The skill of forming varying degrees of jaw elevation for pronouncing vowels, in accordance with the norms of communication.
2. The duration of the operation usually does not exceed 15 minutes, but it turns out to be extremely useful with a deeper study.
3. All English sounds are divided into two types: upper and lower rise. For exact observance of the pronunciation norm, they usually resort to the need for phonetic training.

Important! Every student who speaks Russian should be aware that not a single English sound is similar to its Russian counterpart, since a different articulation, degree of tongue elevation and contact with the larynx are used to pronounce it. Sound development takes a long time.

To pronounce English words correctly, you need to practice every day.

Activating Skills

To learn how to speak English easily and quickly, you need to do phonetic exercises in Russian. This is the technique recommended by the best teachers in the world. Modern English has 11 vowel sounds and their Russian counterparts, which you can see in the table below:

The student should not be afraid that he will have to learn many new sounds. Yes, their analogues cannot be found in modern Russian, but the classification given above allows us to understand their main essence.

We also offer a list of English consonant sounds that every language learner should know. There are 24 of them in total:

p	f	t	th	ch	s	sh	k	b	v	d	dz
z	g	gue	h	m	n	gn	r	l	w	j	th

Important! The notorious sound "th" can sound differently, depending on the position in the word.

Practicing sounds and words

Practicing sounds cannot be accompanied only by a theoretical review. Since no English sound is similar to Russian, you can learn how to pronounce it correctly only under the guidance of an experienced mentor. An independent attempt may turn out to be a failure.

Standard development occurs step by step, from simple variants to more complex ones. More than half of all sounds belong to the last category, since their pronunciation is a difficulty for the Russian speech apparatus.

Attention! The role of the teacher in the process of mastering English phonetics is difficult to overestimate. It provides an opportunity to avoid mistakes at the initial stage. Without prior preparation, the student runs the risk of becoming an object of misunderstanding in an English-speaking environment or in an authentic setting.

Consider how the word knight is read in English. Not every beginner will be able to read a given word in English without errors, relying only on the spelling component. The word "knight" has six letters, but the word is pronounced differently, out of correspondence with the letter combination. In this case, there is only one syllable. In Russian, it sounds like "night". What is the cause of this dissonance? It's all about the historical development of the British dialect. This is important to understand for both a simple layman and an experienced linguist.

British today is considered one of the oldest dialects in Europe. Over the 1000 years of its existence, there have been major changes in the norms of pronunciation. Today we have the opportunity to see it as it became in the middle of the nineteenth century. A deep understanding of the changes in the field of phonetics and vocabulary became possible thanks to the work of the reformers of the literary form.

Words with significant differences in principles and pronunciation can be identified more than one hundred. Only a good knowledge of transcription makes it possible to learn how to pronounce any British words.

Useful video: one of their English reading lessons from scratch

Conclusion

Now the reader understands how important correct pronunciation is. Without such an important aspect, further study may become meaningless. High-quality study of the material, translation and transcription of words is required. Now you know how to learn a language in a short time and read either syllables without errors.

Did you know that the English alphabet consists of 26 letters and 46 different sounds? The same letter can convey several sounds at the same time. Just don't panic! We will tell you how easy it is to remember English sounds without boring tables and cramming.

As a rule, in English lessons, the child keeps a separate dictionary, in which the pages are divided into three columns: “word”, “transcription”, “translation”. New words are written there, which then need to be learned. And if everything is clear with the columns "word" and "translation", then with "transcription" there are often difficulties.

What is transcription? This is a kind of instruction on how to read the word. Usually it is written in square brackets. For example: . The characters that are inside square brackets are the sounds of the English language. One character = one sound. Only these characters are not always similar to the letters of the alphabet. . Let's look at the English sounds that are most difficult for a child and how to learn them:

We select associations

It's no secret that complex things are easier to remember by association. This rule works especially well for children.

ʊ - short [y] - very similar to the icon "horseshoe"
æ - wide [e] - open your mouth wide and say "e". We call this symbol "bug icon" 🐞
ŋ - [n] - a funny sound that is similar to how the Baby Elephant spoke in the cartoon "38 Parrots" 🐘. You need to say "n", but a little "on the nose", like you have a runny nose. Try pinching your nose with your fingers, open your mouth and say "n". Happened?

ð - interdental [z]
θ - interdental [s]

To remember this pair of sounds, the child can be told a whole fairy tale: “There was a little bunny (our tongue). But he was very shy, so he sat in a mink (in his mouth) all the time. But one day he dared to stick the very tip of his nose out of the mink (we put the tip of the tongue between the teeth). At first he said softly [θ], and then loudly [ð].

s, d, n, t- [s], [d], [n], [t] - remember the Yeralash series about English pronunciation? “You need to talk like you have a hot potato in your mouth,” is the best explanation for the baby. When you make these sounds the tongue touches the hard palate and alveoli, a little further than in Russian.
r- [r] - the English "r" is not like ours. In Russian, the tongue seems to tremble in the mouth. In English, language "wraps up" tip back to the soft palate.
w- [y] / [v] - there is no such sound in Russian either. First, we stretch our lips, trying to say "y", but then the lips should, as it were, "spring" without closing and returning to a smile. Remember how you say "Wow!".
e- narrow [e] - similar to the Russian "e" without "th". When pronunciation, open your mouth quite a bit.
ə - deaf [e] - a deaf, slightly "stifled" sound, very short and almost indistinguishable. When you say the word "m about loco", then you pronounce this sound in place of the first "o". The symbol is called funny– "seam".
ɜ - middle [e] - reads like the letter ё in the word "ice".
j- [th] - very important not to be confused with the letter Jj ("jay")! In transcription, this symbol does not mean at all what the letter means.

To make things even easier, we have drawn the main characters of the English transcription with the appropriate sounds of the Russian language.

Tip site: tell your child that he can handle sounds brilliantly. Indeed, at this stage, the baby should feel relaxed and not be shy to experiment. Otherwise, the child will think it looks funny and will refuse to continue.

If lessons at home do not bring the desired results, come to us. Educators of the site will always find an easy way to even the most complex knowledge 📚 free!