pronounced as /notice/English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Like the orthography of most world languages, English orthography has a broad degree of standardisation. This standardisation began to develop when movable type spread to England in the late 15th century. However, unlike with most languages, there are multiple ways to spell every phoneme, and most letters also represent multiple pronunciations depending on their position in a word and the context.
This is partly due to the large number of words that have been borrowed from a large number of other languages throughout the history of English, without successful attempts at complete spelling reforms, and partly due to accidents of history, such as some of the earliest mass-produced English publications being typeset by highly trained, multilingual printing compositors, who occasionally used a spelling pattern more typical for another language. For example, the word ghost was spelled gost in Middle English, until the Flemish spelling pattern was unintentionally substituted, and happened to be accepted. Most of the spelling conventions in Modern English were derived from the phonemic spelling of a variety of Middle English, and generally do not reflect the sound changes that have occurred since the late 15th century (such as the Great Vowel Shift).[1] As a result of this, many words are spelled the way that they were pronounced more than 600 years ago, instead of being spelled like they are pronounced in the 21st century.
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most recognised variations being British and American spelling, and its overall uniformity helps facilitate international communication. On the other hand, it also adds to the discrepancy between the way English is written and spoken in any given location.
Letters in English orthography positioned at one location within a specific word usually represent a particular phoneme. For example, at consists of 2 letters and, which represent pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, respectively.
Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in thrash, the digraph (two letters) represents pronounced as //θ//. In hatch, the trigraph represents pronounced as //tʃ//.
Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is, which normally represents the consonant cluster pronounced as //ks// (for example, in tax).
The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced differently when occurring in different positions within a word. For instance, represents pronounced as //f// at the end of some words (tough) but not in others (plough). At the beginning of syllables, is pronounced pronounced as //ɡ//, as in ghost . Conversely, (gh) is never pronounced pronounced as //f// in syllable onsets other than in inflected forms, and is almost never pronounced pronounced as //ɡ// in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburgh is an exception).
Some words contain silent letters, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the in talk, half, calf, etc., the in two and sword, as mentioned above in numerous words such as though, daughter, night, brought, and the commonly encountered silent (discussed further below).
See also: Hard and soft C, Hard and soft G, Silent k and Palatalization (phonetics).
Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, represents the sound pronounced as /link/ in some words borrowed from Greek (reflecting an original upsilon), whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter . Thus, myth is of Greek origin, while pith is a Germanic word. However, a large number of Germanic words have in word-final position.
Some other examples are pronounced pronounced as /link/ (which is most commonly (f)), and pronounced pronounced as /link/ (which is most commonly or). The use of these spellings for these sounds often marks words that have been borrowed from Greek.
Some researchers, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level of style or register in a given text, although Rollings (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of these spellings, such as for pronounced as /link/ (like telephone), could occur in an informal text.
Spelling may also be useful to distinguish in written language between homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), and thus resolve potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise. However in most cases the reason for the difference is historical, and it was not introduced to resolve amibiguity.
Nevertheless, many homophones remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different meanings).
See also: Silent e.
Some letters in English provide information about the pronunciation of other letters in the word. Rollings (2004) uses the term "markers" for such letters. Letters may mark different types of information.
For instance, in once indicates that the preceding is pronounced pronounced as /link/, rather than the more common value of in word-final position as the sound pronounced as /link/, such as in attic .
also often marks an altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the pair mat and mate, the of mat has the value pronounced as /link/, whereas the of mate is marked by the as having the value pronounced as //eɪ//. In this context, the is not pronounced, and is referred to as a "silent e".
A single letter may even fill multiple pronunciation-marking roles simultaneously. For example, in the word ace, marks not only the change of from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as //eɪ//, but also of from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/. In the word vague, marks the long sound, but keeps the hard rather than soft.
Doubled consonants usually indicate that the preceding vowel is pronounced short. For example, the doubled in batted indicates that the is pronounced pronounced as /link/, while the single of bated gives pronounced as //eɪ//. Doubled consonants only indicate any lengthening or gemination of the consonant sound itself when they come from different morphemes, as with the in unnamed (un+named).
Any given letters may have dual functions. For example, in statue has a sound-representing function (representing the sound pronounced as /link/) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the as having the value pronounced as /link/ opposed to the value pronounced as /link/).
Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, minor differences in pronunciation which are not used to distinguish between different words).
Although the letter is pronounced by most speakers with aspiration pronounced as /[tʰ]/ at the beginning of words, this is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in phonetics.
However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlying representation (or morphophonemic form) of English words.
In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e., a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words. An example is the past tense suffix -, which may be pronounced variously as pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //d//, or pronounced as //ᵻd// (for example, pay, payed, hate, hated). As it happens, these different pronunciations of - can be predicted by a few phonological rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.
Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, photographer is derived from photograph by adding the derivational suffix -. When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change largely owing to the moveable stress:
| Spelling | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
| photograph | or | |
| photographer | ||
| photographical |
Other examples of this type are the - suffix (as in agile vs. agility, acid vs. acidity, divine vs. divinity, sane vs. sanity). See also: Trisyllabic laxing.
Another example includes words like mean and meant, where is pronounced differently in the two related words. Thus, again, the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.
English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation between the underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of the regular plural morpheme, which is written as either - (as in tat, tats and hat, hats) or - (as in glass, glasses). Here, the spelling - is pronounced either pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ (depending on the environment, e.g., tats and tails) while - is usually pronounced pronounced as //ᵻz// (e.g. classes pronounced as //ˈklæsᵻz//). Thus, there are two different spellings that correspond to the single underlying representation |pronounced as /z/| of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates the insertion of pronounced as //ᵻ// before the pronounced as //z// in the spelling -, but does not indicate the devoiced pronounced as //s// distinctly from the unaffected pronounced as //z// in the spelling -.
The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological relationships more apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient. However, very abstract underlying representations, such as that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to accurately reflect the communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more "psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.
See main article: English terms with diacritical marks.
See also: British and American keyboards.
Some English words can be written with diacritics; these are mostly loanwords, usually from French.[2] As vocabulary becomes naturalised, there is an increasing tendency to omit the accent marks, even in formal writing. For example, rôle and hôtel originally had accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accents are almost never used. The words were originally considered foreign—and some people considered that English alternatives were preferable—but today their foreign origin is largely forgotten. Words most likely to retain the accent are those atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For example, café and pâté both have a pronounced final, which would otherwise be silent under the normal English pronunciation rules. Moreover, in pâté, the acute accent is helpful to distinguish it from pate.
Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in English are: ångström—partly because its symbol is (Å)—appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-brac, Brötchen, cliché, crème, crêpe, façade, fiancé(e), flambé, jalapeño, naïve, naïveté, né(e), papier-mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, résumé, risqué, and voilà. Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, , , crème brûlée, , , and .
It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis to indicate a hiatus, e.g. coöperate, daïs, and reëlect. The New Yorker and Technology Review magazines still use it for this purpose, even as general use became much rarer. Instead, modern orthography generally prefers no mark (cooperate) or a hyphen (co-operate) for a hiatus is between two morphemes in a compound word. By contrast, use of diaereses in monomorphemic loanwords such as naïve and Noël remains relatively common.
In poetry and performance arts, accent marks are occasionally used to indicate typically unstressed syllables that should be stressed when read for dramatic or prosodic effect. This is frequently seen with the -ed suffix in archaic and pseudoarchaic writing, e.g. cursèd indicates the should be fully pronounced. The grave being to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided syllable is pronounced (warnèd, parlìament).
In certain older texts (typically British), the use of the ligatures and is common in words such as archæology, diarrhœa, and encyclopædia, all of Latin or Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced by the digraphs (ae) and (oe) (encyclopaedia, diarrhoea) in British English or just (encyclopedia, diarrhea) in American English, though both spell some words with only (economy, ecology) and others with and (paean, amoeba, oedipal, Caesar). In some cases, usage may vary; for instance, both encyclopedia and encyclopaedia are current in the UK.
See also: English spelling reform.
Partly because English has never had any official regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish, the French, and the German Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung, English spelling, compared to many other languages, is quite irregular and complex. Although French, among other languages, presents a similar degree of difficulty when encoding (writing), English is more difficult when decoding (reading), as there are clearly many more possible pronunciations of a group of letters. For example, in French, pronounced as //u// (as in "true", but short), can be spelled (ou, nous, tout, choux), but the pronunciation of each of those sequences is always the same. In English, pronounced as //uː// can be spelled in up to 24 different ways, including (spook, truth, suit, blues, to, shoe, group, through, few) (see Sound-to-spelling correspondences below), but all of these have other pronunciations as well (e.g., as in foot, us, build, bluest, so, toe, grout, plough, sew) (See the Spelling-to-sound correspondences below). Thus, in unfamiliar words and proper nouns, the pronunciation of some sequences, being the prime example, is unpredictable to even educated native English speakers.
Attempts to regularise or reform the spelling of English have usually failed. However, Noah Webster popularised more phonetic spellings in the United States, such as flavor for British flavour, fiber for fibre, defense for defence, analyze for analyse, catalog for catalogue, and so forth. These spellings already existed as alternatives, but Webster's dictionaries helped standardise them in the US. (See American and British English spelling differences for details.)
Besides the quirks the English spelling system has inherited from its past, there are other irregularities in spelling that make it tricky to learn. English contains, depending on dialect, 24–27 consonant phonemes and 13–20 vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English alphabet, so there is not a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled using different letters or multiple letters, and for those words whose pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by the letters depend on the surrounding letters. For example, represents two different sounds (the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar sibilant can be represented by or .
It is, however, not (solely) the shortage of letters which makes English spelling irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainly by the use of many different spellings for some of its sounds, such as pronounced as //uː/, /iː// and pronounced as //oʊ// (too, true, shoe, flew, through; sleeve, leave, even, seize, siege; stole, coal, bowl, roll, old, mould), and the use of identical sequences for spelling different sounds (over, oven, move).
Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the spellings of loanwords, but preserves the foreign spellings, even when they do not follow English spelling conventions like the Polish in Czech (rather than *Check) or the Norwegian in fjord (although fiord was formerly the most common spelling). In early Middle English, until roughly 1400, most imports from French were respelled according to English rules (e.g. bataille–battle, bouton–button, but not double, or trouble). Instead of loans being respelled to conform to English spelling standards, sometimes the pronunciation changes as a result of pressure from the spelling, e.g. ski, adopted from Norwegian in the mid-18th century. It used to be pronounced pronounced as //ʃiː//, similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the mid-20th century helped the pronounced as //skiː// pronunciation replace it.
There was also a period when the spelling of a small number of words was altered to make them conform to their perceived etymological origins. For example, was added to debt (originally dette) to link it to the Latin, and in island to link it to Latin instead of its true origin, the Old English word īġland. in ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking to show Greek origin despite being a Gaelic word.
The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from languages where the pronunciation of vowels corresponds to the way they were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or Spanish pronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols have in the International Phonetic Alphabet. As a result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign" words in English, and some borrowed words have had their spelling changed to conform to this system. For example, Hindu used to be spelled Hindoo, and the name Maria used to be pronounced like the name Mariah, but was changed to conform to this system. This only further complicates the spelling, however. On the one hand, words that retained anglicised spellings may be misread in a hyperforeign way. On the other hand, words that are respelled in a 'foreign' way may be misread as if they are English words, e.g. Muslim was formerly spelled Mooslim because of its original pronunciation.
Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They introduced new or simplified spellings like lite instead of light, thru instead of through, and rucsac instead of rucksack. The spellings of personal names have also been a source of spelling innovations: diminutive versions of women's names that sound the same as men's names have been spelled differently: Nikki and Nicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe. The differentiation in between names that are spelled differently but have the same phonetic sound may come from modernisation or different countries of origin. For example, Isabelle and Isabel sound the same but are spelled differently; these versions are from France and Spain respectively.[3]
As an example of the irregular nature of English spelling, can be pronounced at least nine different ways: pronounced as //aʊ// in out, pronounced as //oʊ// in soul, pronounced as /link/ in soup, pronounced as /link/ in touch, pronounced as /link/ in could, pronounced as /link/ in four, pronounced as /link/ in journal, pronounced as /link/ in cough, and pronounced as /link/ in famous (See Spelling-to-sound correspondences). In the other direction, pronounced as /link/ can be spelled in at least 18~21 different ways: be (cede), ski (machine), bologna (GA), algae, quay, beach, bee, deceit, people, key, keyed, field (hygiene), amoeba, chamois (GA), dengue (GA), beguine, guyot, and ynambu (See Sound-to-spelling correspondences). (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British English accent. Other accents will vary.)
Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a counterintuitive spelling simply because it is counterintuitive. Changes like this are not usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used enough. An example is the word miniscule, which still competes with its original spelling of minuscule, though this might also be because of analogy with the word mini.[4] [5]
Inconsistencies and irregularities in English pronunciation and spelling have gradually increased in number throughout the history of the English language. There are a number of contributing factors. First, gradual changes in pronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account for a tremendous number of irregularities. Second, relatively recent loan words generally carry their original spellings, which are often not phonetic in English. The Romanization of languages (e.g., Chinese) has further complicated this problem, for example when pronouncing Chinese proper names (of people or places).
The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was supplanted in some spheres by Norman French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from French, and kept their French spellings. The spelling of Middle English is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in different ways, sometimes even in the same sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to the then-pronunciation than modern English spelling is.
For example, pronounced as /link/, normally written, is spelled with an in one, some, love, etc., due to Norman spelling conventions which prohibited writing before due to the graphical confusion that would result. (were written identically with two minims in Norman handwriting; was written as two letters; was written with three minims, hence looked like, etc.). Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited final . Hence the identical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, move, and cove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling system, not sound change.
In 1417, Henry V began using English, which had no standardised spelling, for official correspondence instead of Latin or French which had standardised spelling, e.g. Latin had one spelling for right (rectus), Old French as used in English law had six and Middle English had 77. This motivated writers to standardise English spelling, an effort which lasted about 500 years.
There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the in ate, for example, changing from a pure vowel to a diphthong. These changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling system; but, in some cases, they introduced confusing inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations of (tough, through, though, cough, plough, etc.). Most of these changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However, the arrival of the modern printing press in 1476 froze the current system, rather than providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries. For example, the (h) in ghost was influenced by Flemish. The addition and deletion of a silent e at the ends of words was also sometimes used to make the right-hand margin line up more neatly.
By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid-17th century, the spelling system of English had started to stabilise. By the 19th century, most words had set spellings, though it took some time before they diffused throughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), English novelist George Eliot satirised the attitude of the English rural gentry of the 1820s towards orthography:
The modern English spelling system, with its national variants, spread together with the expansion of public education later in the 19th century.
See main article: Ough (tetragraph).
The tetragraph can be pronounced in at least ten different ways, six of which are illustrated in the construct, Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through, which is quoted by Robert A. Heinlein in The Door into Summer to illustrate the difficulties facing automated speech transcription and reading. Ough itself is a word, an exclamation of disgust similar to ugh, though rarely known or used. The following are typical pronunciations of this string of letters:
The following pronunciations are found in uncommon single words:
The place name Loughborough uses two different pronunciations of : the first has the sound as in cuff and the second rhymes with thorough.
Notes:
| Spelling | Major value (IPA) | Examples of major value | Other values | Examples of other values | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b, bb | morpheme final after | ∅ | climber, numbing, bombed | pronounced as //b// | iamb, nimb | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //b// | bit, ebb, limber, bombe, obtain, blood, bring | ∅ | combe, bdellium, debtor, doubt | ||
| c | before | pronounced as //s// | cellar, city, cyst, face, prince, nicer caesium, coelacanth | pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //k// pronounced as //ts// | cello, vermicelli special, liquorice coercion Celts, chicer, syncing letovicite | |
| word initial before | ∅ | cnidarian, ctenoid | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //k// | cat, cross, predict, opuscule, picture | ∅ | blancmange, indict, muscle, victual | ||
| cc | before | pronounced as //ks// | accept, eccentric, occidental | pronounced as //k// pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //s// | soccer, recce, siccing bocce, breccia, cappuccino flaccid | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //k// | account, accrue, occur, yucca | ||||
| ch | after | pronounced as //(t)ʃ// | branch, truncheon, franchise, trenchant | pronounced as //k// pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //ʃ// | inchoate, synchronise, elasmobranch enchant, enchilada, chinchilla penchant | |
| in words of Greek origin | pronounced as //k// | chasm, chimera, chord, lichen | ∅ | drachm | ||
| in words of Modern French origin | pronounced as //ʃ// | chaise, machine, cached, parachute | pronounced as //k// pronounced as //tʃ// | chemist, choir, machination chassis (GA), cheque, chowder, niche (GA) | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //tʃ// | chase, chin, attached, chore | pronounced as //k// pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //h// pronounced as //dʒ// pronounced as //x// ∅ | ached, anchor, leprechaun machete, pistachio, welch chutzpah (also with pronounced as //x//) sandwich, Greenwich loch yacht, Crichton | ||
| ck | pronounced as //k// | tack, ticket | ||||
| d, dd, dh | pronounced as //d// | dive, ladder, jodhpurs | pronounced as //t// pronounced as //dʒ// pronounced as //ð// ∅ | ached, creased, iced, puffed, raked graduate, gradual (both also pronounced as //dj// in RP) gorsedd, edh Wednesday, handsome, sandwich, ceilidh | ||
| dg | before or a suffix | pronounced as //dʒ// | lodger, pidgin, edgy, abridgment, acknowledgment, judgment, lodgment, fledgling | pronounced as //dɡ// | headgear | |
| f, ff | pronounced as //f// | fine, off, affinity | pronounced as //v// | of | ||
| g | before | pronounced as //ɡ// pronounced as //dʒ// | get, eager, algae (RP), gig gel, pager, algae (GA), gin gentle, rage, gigantic, regimen | pronounced as //ʒ// | genre, barrage, gigue, regime | |
| before | ∅ | phlegmy, diaphragm gnome, signed, poignant, reign | pronounced as //ɡ// pronounced as //ʒ// | pigmy, signet, indignant judgment | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɡ// | go, great, leg, margaric | pronounced as //dʒ// pronounced as //x// | margarine, gaol witgat | ||
| gg | pronounced as //ɡ// | dagger, smuggest, staggerring | pronounced as //dʒ// pronounced as //ɡdʒ// | agger, suggest, exaggerate suggest (GA) | ||
| gh | word-initial | pronounced as //ɡ// | ghost, ghastly, ghetto | |||
| elsewhere | ∅ | daughter, through, fraught, brougham eight, higher, straight, sighed | pronounced as //ə// pronounced as //oʊ// pronounced as //x// pronounced as //k// pronounced as //k// pronounced as //f// pronounced as //ɡ// pronounced as //ɡh// pronounced as //p// | burgh lough, saugh hough laughter, trough, draught, rough burgher, ogham, yogh leghorn, pigheaded hiccough | ||
| h | word-final or after | ∅ | oh, rhubarb, rhyme, exhibit, exhaust | pronounced as //h// | exhale, exhume (in RP) | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //h// | honey, heist, house, manhandle doohickey, vehicular | j w ∅ | posthumous (in RP) Nahuatl honest, heir, hours, piranha annihilate, vehicle, dinghy | ||
| j | pronounced as //dʒ// | jump, ajar jonquil, Julian jalap, cajole bijugate | pronounced as //j// pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //h// ∅ | Hallelujah, fjord jongleur, julienne, bijou jalapeno, fajita marijuana | ||
| k, kk, kh | word-initial before | ∅ | knee, knife, knock | pronounced as //k// | knish, Knoebel | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //k// | key, bake, trekking, sheikh, weeknight | ∅ | beknave, camiknickers | ||
| l, ll | pronounced as //l// | valve, balcony, almost, valley, flotilla, line, colony | ∅ pronounced as //j// pronounced as //r// | halve, balk, salmon tortilla colonel (in rhotic accents) | ||
| m, mm | word-initial before | ∅ | mnemonic | |||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //m// | mine, hammer | ||||
| n, nn | word-final after | ∅ | hymn, autumn, damningly | |||
| before pronounced as //k, g// | pronounced as //ŋ// | inkling, bangle, anchor, minx | pronounced as //n// | incline, vanguard, mankind | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //n// | nice, funny, enzyme monsignor, damnable, tin | pronounced as //ŋ// ∅ | anxiety monsieur | ||
| ng | word-final non-silent letter | pronounced as //ŋ// | long, tongue, kingly, singer, clingy | pronounced as //ŋɡ// pronounced as //ndʒ// pronounced as //ŋ(k)// | longer, strongest stingy (ungenerous) strength, amongst | |
| medially otherwise | pronounced as //ŋɡ// pronounced as //ndʒ// | congress, singly, finger, language binging, wharfinger, dingy, engaol | pronounced as //nɡ// pronounced as //ŋ// pronounced as //nʒ// | congrats, engage, vanguard hangar, lingonberry, angst ingenue, lingerie | ||
| word-initial | pronounced as //əŋɡ// | ngana, ngultrum, Nguni | pronounced as //n// | ngaio, Ngati | ||
| p, pp | word-initial before | ∅ | pneumonia, psyche, ptomaine | pronounced as //p// | psst | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //p// | pill, happy, soup, corpse, script | ∅ | coup, corps, receipt, raspberry | ||
| ph, pph | pronounced as //f// | photograph, sapphire | pronounced as //v// pronounced as //p// pronounced as //ph// ∅ | nephew (RP), Stephen shepherd, kniphofia, drophead apophthegm | ||
| q | in words of Chinese origin | pronounced as //tʃ// | qi, qigong, guqin | |||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //k// | Iraq, waqf, yaqona, mbaqanga, qiviut | ||||
| r, rr, rh, rrh |
| cart, hurt fir, walker, tear, burr, myrrh care | ∅ | sarsaparilla, forecastle | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //r// | ray, parrot, rhyme, diarrhoea | ∅ | iron, croissant (RP), hors d'oeuvre (some pronunciations) | ||
| See below for combinations of vowel letters and | ||||||
| s | word-final - morpheme after a fortis sound | pronounced as //s// | pets, shops | |||
| word-final - morpheme after a lenis sound | pronounced as //z// | beds, magazines | ||||
| between vowels | pronounced as //z// | phrases, prison, pleasing | pronounced as //s// pronounced as //ʒ// | bases, bison, leasing vision, closure | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //s// | song, ask, misled | pronounced as //z// pronounced as //ʃ// ∅ | is, lens, raspberry sugar, tension island, aisle, debris, mesne | ||
| sc | before | pronounced as //s// | scene, scepter, scissors, scythe | pronounced as //sk// pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //z// | sceptic, scirrhus fascism crescent (RP), discern | |
| sch | pronounced as //ʃ// | schedule (RP), schist, eschalot | pronounced as //sk// pronounced as //s// pronounced as //s tʃ// | school, scheme, schizoid, ischemia, eschar schism (RP) mischief, eschew | ||
| sh | pronounced as //ʃ// | shin, fashion, wish, Lewisham, foreshore, kinship | pronounced as //s h// pronounced as //z h// pronounced as //s ʃ// pronounced as //ʃ h// pronounced as //s// | mishap, mishit hogshead tranship threshold dishonour | ||
| ss | pronounced as //s// | boss, assign, narcissus dissert, posses, brassier, finesse, cesspool, missout | pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //z// pronounced as //s s// | tissue, passion rescission, scissure dessert, possess, brassiere, scissor disseat, misspell, missort | ||
| sw | pronounced as //sw// | swore, swan, swift | pronounced as //s// pronounced as //zw// ∅ | sword, answer menswear coxswain | ||
| t, tt | in - | ∅ | hasten, listens, rustling, thistles | pronounced as //t// | tungsten, listless | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //t// | ten, bitter, etiology, nastier, attune, piteous, cation, softer, wallet, gristmill, haste, dishearten | pronounced as //ʃ// pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //d// ∅ | ration, martial, cautious bastion, nature, fortune, righteous equation, transition (RP) kindergarten (GA) soften, ballet, Christmas, mortgage | ||
| tch | pronounced as //tʃ// | batch, kitchen | ||||
| th | pronounced as //θ// pronounced as //ð// | absinthe bother, soothe | pronounced as //t// pronounced as //tθ// pronounced as //th// pronounced as //tʃ// ∅ | thyme eighth outhouse, potherb (RP) posthumous (GA) asthma | ||
| v, vv | pronounced as //v// | vine, heavy, savvy, reveled, revved | ||||
| w | before | pronounced as //∅// | wrong, wrist, awry | |||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //w// | sward, swerve, wale | ∅ pronounced as //v// | two, sword, answer, gunwale Weltanschauung, witgat | ||
| wh- | before | pronounced as //h// | who, whole | pronounced as //w// | whopping, whorl | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //w// | wheel | pronounced as //f// | whew (RP), whanau | ||
| x | word-initial | pronounced as //z// | xylophone, xenon, xenophobia | |||
| after -, and before a vowel | pronounced as //ɡz// | example, exist, exotic, exult existential, exultation, exit | pronounced as //ks// pronounced as //z// | exogenous, exercise | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ks// | boxes, mixes, expect, taxation, tuxedo, proximity, jinxed, next, six, taxi | pronounced as //ɡz// pronounced as //ɡʒ// pronounced as //kʃ// pronounced as //z// ∅ | Alexander, auxiliary luxury (GA) anxiety anxious, luxury, sexual (GA) luxurious plateaux, chateaux faux-pas, roux | ||
| xc | before | pronounced as //ks// | excellent, except, excited | |||
| xh | pronounced as //ksh// | exhale, exhume, foxhole | pronounced as //ks// pronounced as //gz// | exhibition, Vauxhall exhaust, exhibit exhilarating, exhortation | ||
| y- | pronounced as //j// | yes, young | pronounced as //ð// | ye (mock archaic) | ||
| z, zz | pronounced as //z// | gazump, seized, crazier, rhizoophagous, pizzazz, zoo, quiz | pronounced as //ʒ// pronounced as //ts// ∅ | azure, seizure, brazier (GA) schizophrenic, pizzas rendezvous | ||
In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollings (2004) identifies twenty main orthographic vowels of stressed syllables that are grouped into four main categories: "Lax", "Tense", "Heavy", "Tense-R".
| Letter | Lax | Tense | Heavy | Tense-R | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | example | IPA | example | IPA | example | IPA | example | |
| a | /æ/ | man | /eɪ/ | mane | /ɑːr/ | mar | /ɛər/ | mare |
| e | /ɛ/ | met | /iː/ | mete | /ɜːr/ | her | here | |
| i | /ɪ/ | win | /aɪ/ | wine | /ɜːr/ | fir | /aɪər/ | fire |
| o | /ɒ/ | mop | /oʊ/ | mope | /ɔːr/ | for | /ɔːr/ | fore |
| u | /ʌ/ | hug | /juː/ | huge | /ɜːr/ | cur | /jʊər/ | cure |
| /ʊ/ | push | /uː/ | rude | /ʊər/ | sure | |||
| Digraph | Lax | Tense | Heavy | Tense-R | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | example | IPA | example | IPA | example | IPA | example | |
| ai, ay | – | /eɪ/ | bait | colspan="2" rowspan="2" | - | /ɛər/ | air | |
| essay | Ayr | |||||||
| au, aw | – | /ɔː/ | audio | – | /ɔːr/ | aura | ||
| draw | rawr | |||||||
| ea | /ɛ/ | dreamt | /iː/ | dream | /ɜːr/ | learn | /ɪər/ | hear |
| ee | – | /iː/ | see | colspan="2" | - | /ɪər/ | beer | |
| eu, ew | – | /juː/ | feudal | – | /jʊ(ə)r/ | neurotic | ||
| few | Newry | |||||||
| oa | – | /oʊ/ | boat | – | /ɔːr/ | soar | ||
| oo | /ʊ/ | foot | /uː/ | goose | colspan="2" | - | /ʊər/ | poor |
| ou, ow | /ʌ/ | southern | /aʊ/ | south | /ɜːr/ | scourge | /aʊər/ | hour |
| – | now | – | dowry | |||||
| – | /oʊ/ | soul | – | /ɔːr/ | four | |||
| /ɒ/ | knowledge | know | – | |||||
| oi, oy | – | /ɔɪ/ | point | – | /ɔɪər/ | coir | ||
| boy | Moyra | |||||||
For instance, can represent the lax vowel pronounced as //æ//, tense pronounced as //eɪ//, heavy pronounced as //ɑː//, or tense-r pronounced as //ɛə//. Heavy and tense-r vowels are the respective lax and tense counterparts followed by .
Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a "silent" that is added at the end of words. Thus, in hat is lax pronounced as //æ//, but when is added in the word hate is tense pronounced as //eɪ//. Heavy and tense-r vowels follow a similar pattern, e.g. in car is heavy pronounced as //ɑːr//, followed by silent in care is pronounced as //ɛər//. represents two different vowel patterns, one being pronounced as //ʌ/, /juː/, /ɜː/, /jʊə//, the other pronounced as //ʊ/, /uː/, /ʊə//. There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r, and in the pronounced as //ʊ/, /uː/, /ʊə// pattern does not have a heavy vowel.
Besides silent, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph. In this case, the first vowel is usually the main vowel while the second vowel is the "marking" vowel. For example, man has a lax (pronounced as //æ//), but the addition of (as the digraph) in main marks the as tense (pronounced as //eɪ//). These two strategies produce words that are spelled differently but pronounced identically, which helps differentiate words that would otherwise be homonyms, as in mane (silent strategy), main (digraph strategy) and Maine (both strategies).
Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds pronounced as //ə, ɪ//) and a miscellaneous category (representing the sounds pronounced as //ɔɪ, aʊ, aɪ// and pronounced as //j//+V, pronounced as //w//+V, V+V).
To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at . This table includes when they represent vowel sounds. If no information is given, it is assumed that the vowel is in a stressed syllable.
Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many exceptions, but also:
The pronunciation of vowel letters when followed by (r) is covered in a separate table below.
| Spelling | Major value (IPA) | Examples of major value | Minor values | Examples of minor value | Exceptions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //æ// | hatchet, banner, tally acrobat, cat | pronounced as //eɪ// | ancient, chamber, pastry, bass |
| ||
| pronounced as //ɑː// (RP), pronounced as //æ// (GA) | aft, ask, dance, past | |||||||
| pronounced as //æ// | national, camera, reality acid, granite, palace | pronounced as //eɪ// | nationhood, scathingly basis, aphasic | ∅ sarsaparilla | |||
in open syllables or before cons. +
| pronounced as //eɪ// | ache, gave, opaque, savor, status table, hatred, April chaos, aorta, mosaic | pronounced as //æ// | have, plaque, manor, statue macle, sacrifice, theatrical | pronounced as //ɛ// many, any, ate (RP) pronounced as //aɪ// naive (also with pronounced as //ɑː//) pronounced as //ʌ// sati | |||
| pronounced as //ɑː// | debacle gala, lava, slalom, sonata | |||||||
| before final - | pronounced as //eɪ// | range, exchange, haste | pronounced as //æ// | flange, caste (GA) | ||||
| pronounced as //ɑː// | melange | |||||||
after pronounced as //w// except before pronounced as //k, g, ŋ//
| want, watch, swamp, swastika, wallet | pronounced as //ɔː// pronounced as //eɪ// | squash, wasp, wash wall, walnut, walrus wastage | pronounced as //ɑː// qualm (also pronounced as //ɔː//), suave, swami pronounced as //æ// swam, aquatic (RP) pronounced as //ʌ// was (GA), what (GA) | ||||
after pronounced as //w// except before pronounced as //k, g, ŋ//
| pronounced as //eɪ// | persuade, swathe | pronounced as //ɔː// | quality water | ||||
| word-final | pronounced as //ɑː// | bra, cha-cha, schwa, spa | ||||||
| unstressed | in - (except verbs) | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// | palace, damage, forage, garbage, pirate, private | pronounced as //ɑː// pronounced as //ɪ// | RP: garage, barrage chocolate, purchase, solace | pronounced as //eɪ// rampage, primate | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ə// | about, an, salary, woman, blancmange, opera, via | pronounced as //ə// to ∅ pronounced as //eɪ// | artistically, ordinary, necessary probate, folate, kinase | pronounced as //i// karaoke, bologna (GA) pronounced as //ɑː// retard (n), canard (RP) pronounced as //æ// Assam pronounced as //ʌ// chaprassi | |||
| aa, ah | pronounced as //ɑː// | baa, naan, blah | pronounced as //ə// | Isaac, bar mitzvah | pronounced as //eɪ// Quaalude | |||
| ae | pronounced as //iː// | encyclopaedia, paediatrician | pronounced as //ɛ// | aesthetic | pronounced as //eɪ// reggae, sundae, Gael pronounced as //ə// Michael, polkaed pronounced as //aɪ// maestro pronounced as //aɪ.ɛ// paella pronounced as //æ// Scottish Gaelic | |||
| ai | stressed | pronounced as //eɪ// | daisy, laid, paisley, regain, waif | pronounced as //aɪ// pronounced as //ɛ// pronounced as //eɪ.ɪ// | aisle, bonsai, daimon, krait said, again, against dais, laic, mosaic, papain | pronounced as //æ// plaid, plaited, daiquiri pronounced as //aɪˈiː// naif, caique pronounced as //i.ɪ// archaism (RP) | ||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// | bargain, mountain, portrait | pronounced as //ə// | certain, coxswain, spritsail | ||||
| ao | pronounced as //aʊ// | manoao, miaow, Maoism, cacao (GA) | pronounced as //eɪ// pronounced as //eɪ.ɒ// pronounced as //eɪə// pronounced as //iˈoʊ// pronounced as //ɑːoʊ// | gaol kaon, chaos kaolin karaoke baobab | ||||
| au | pronounced as //ɔː// | cause, fraud, haul, sauce, slaughter | pronounced as //ɒ// pronounced as //aʊ// pronounced as //oʊ// | because (RP), sausage (RP), leprechaun (GA) aunt, draught, laughter degauss, graupel, trauma (GA) chauffeur, gauche, mauve | pronounced as //eɪ// gauge pronounced as //ʌ// because (GA) pronounced as //ə// meerschaum ∅ restaurant | |||
| aw | pronounced as //ɔː// | awed, flaw, hawk, tawny | pronounced as //aʊ// Mawlid | |||||
| ay | pronounced as //eɪ// | bayonet, essays, grayer, hayride | pronounced as //aɪ// pronounced as //ɛ// | aye, bayou, kayak, papaya mayor, prayer, says | pronounced as //iː// cay, quay, parlay pronounced as //əj// gayal | |||
| e | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //ɛ// | petty, lethargy, trebleget, watershed | pronounced as //iː// | axes (plural of axis) | pronounced as //ɪ// pretty, English pronounced as //ɒ// ennui, entourage, genre pronounced as //eɪ// eh pronounced as //ʌ// feng shui | ||
| pronounced as //ɛ// | legacy, elegant, delicate, metric, crevice, epic | pronounced as //iː// | lethal, reflex, Stephen, feces, legally, devious, premium, evil, scenic, strategic | ||||
in open syllables
| -- besides Keble, a proper name, there are no common words to follow the "rule" that ending with e+cons.+le should be pronounced /iː/ "Treble" is common, but an "exception". -->
| pronounced as //iː// | even, demon, fetal, recombine metre, secret, egret, secretion be, she museum, neon, theater (GA) | pronounced as //ɛ// | ever, lemon, petal, recollect petrol, debris (RP), discretion | pronounced as //eɪ// crepe, suede, ukulele | ||
| pronounced as //eɪ// | abbe, cafe (GA), saute, seance, rodeo, deity (RP) | pronounced as //ɛ// yeah (GA) | ||||||
| unstressed | word-final | ∅ | e, recites, smile, limitrophe | pronounced as //iː// | recipes, simile, apostrophe, deled | pronounced as //eɪ// latte, mores, protege | ||
| before heterosyllabic vowel | pronounced as //i// | create, area, atheism, video | pronounced as //eɪ// | fideism, realpolitik | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// | market, ticket, honest, college, boxes, perfect, express, believe | pronounced as //ə// | taken, decency, moment | pronounced as //ɛ// contest, alphabet, princess | |||
| ea | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //ɛ// | dreamt, cleanse | pronounced as //iə// | realty, fealty | pronounced as //ɔː// ealderman, pronounced as //æ// poleax, pronounced as //eɪ.ɑː// seance | ||
in open syllables
| --besides Keble, a proper name, there are no common words to follow the "rule" that ending with + cons. + le should be pronounced /iː/ "Treble" is common, but an "exception".-->
| pronounced as //iː// | read (infinitive), leaf, zeal, dreams, cleans | pronounced as //ɛ// pronounced as //eɪ// pronounced as //ə// pronounced as //iːə, ɪə// pronounced as //ɪə// pronounced as //iːə// pronounced as //iːeɪ// | read (past simple), deaf, zealot break, great, eagre, yea hydrangea, likeable, ocean ideal, real, cereal idea urea, laureate creating, protease, reagent | pronounced as //ɑː// orgeat pronounced as //ɛə// yeah pronounced as //æ// whereas pronounced as //iːæ// caveat pronounced as //ɪ// mileage pronounced as //iː.ɪ// lineage pronounced as //iːæ// beatify, reality pronounced as //eɪˈɑː// real | ||
| eau | pronounced as //oʊ// | bureau, plateau, tableau | pronounced as //juː// | beauty | pronounced as //ɒ// bureaucracy pronounced as //ə// bureaucrat | |||
| ee | pronounced as //iː// | bee, breech, feed, trainee | pronounced as //ɪ// | breeches, been (GA) | pronounced as //eɪ// matinee, fiancees, nee pronounced as //i// bungee, coffee pronounced as //iː.ə// freest, weest pronounced as //iː.ɛ// reecho, pronounced as //iː.ɪ// reelect pronounced as //ɛ// threepence (also pronounced as //ɪ// or pronounced as //ʌ//) | |||
| eh | pronounced as //eɪ// | eh, prehnite, tempeh | pronounced as //ɛə// | yeh | pronounced as //ɛ// feh pronounced as //ə//, keffiyeh | |||
| ei, ey | usually | pronounced as //eɪ// | veil, weight, heinous, obey | pronounced as //iː// pronounced as //aɪ// pronounced as //iːɪ// | caffeine, seize, key, geyser either, height, heist, heinie, eye albeit, being, cysteine, deist | pronounced as //ɛ// heifer, leisure, seigneur pronounced as //æ// reveille | -->, serein pronounced as //eɪ.ɪ// fideist, pronounced as //iˈaɪ// deice | |
| after | pronounced as //iː// | deceive, ceiling, conceit | pronounced as //æ// ceinture, enceinte pronounced as //eɪ.ɪ// glaceing, pronounced as //iːɪ// haecceity | |||||
| unstressed | word-final | pronounced as //i// pronounced as //iː// | monkey, volley, curtsey, jersey | pronounced as //eɪ// survey (n) | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// | foreign, counterfeit, forfeit | pronounced as //ə// | mullein, villein | pronounced as //ɪ// ageist, herein, ogreish | |||
| eo | usually bisyllabic | pronounced as //iːɒ// pronounced as //iːoʊ// pronounced as //iːə// | eon, geology, reoffer, teleost creole, geode, leonine, video galleon, leotard, peon, theory | pronounced as //ɛ// pronounced as //iː// pronounced as //ə// | feoffee, jeopardy, leopard feoff, people luncheon, pigeon, embraceor | pronounced as //oʊ// yeoman, pronounced as //ɛə// ceorl pronounced as //juː// feodary, pronounced as //uːi// geoduck pronounced as //eɪoʊ// rodeo, teosinte pronounced as //ɒ// thereon pronounced as //ʌ// whereof pronounced as //wʌ// someone | ||
| eu, ew (ieu, iew) | usually | pronounced as //juː// | deuce, feudal, queue, dew, ewe, view | pronounced as //ɜː// pronounced as //iːə// | berceuse, danseuse museum | pronounced as //oʊ// sew ∅ fauteuil | ||
| after pronounced as //r, ʃ, ʒ, dʒ, l// | pronounced as //uː// | rheumatism, sleuth, jewel, blew, leukemia, lewd, lieu | pronounced as //iːə// | nucleus, pileus | pronounced as //oʊ// shew pronounced as //ɛf// lieutenant (RP)pronounced as //jɜː// milieu (RP) pronounced as //iːˈjuː// reuse pronounced as //iːʌ// reutters pronounced as //ʌ// pileup pronounced as //ɔɪ// Freudian | |||
| i | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //ɪ// | dissent, mislaid, slither kiss, sic, bit, inflict, hint, plinth | pronounced as //aɪ// | dissect, island, indict, pint, ninth | pronounced as //æ// meringue, timbre, absinthe (also pronounced as //ɪ//) pronounced as //iː// artiste, chenille, skis, chic, ambergris | ||
| pronounced as //ɪ// | litany, liberal, chivalry, misery finish, limit, minute (n) hideous, position, Sirius | pronounced as //aɪ// | blithely, irony, libelous, rivalry, miserly, whitish, writing, shinier, tidied | ||||
in open syllables
| pronounced as //aɪ// | cited, dive, mica, rise, polite, shine idle, trifle, nitrous, mitres sighed, signage alumni, alibi, radii vial, quiet, prior, pious | pronounced as //ɪ// | city, give, vicar, risen triple, citrus, giblets pighead, signal | ||||
| pronounced as //iː// | ski, police, elite, machine, litres, in vitro, chignon, Monsignor clientele, fiat, lien, skiing | |||||||
| before - | pronounced as //aɪ// | wilder, remind | pronounced as //ɪ// | bewilder, rescind | ||||
| unstressed | before heterosyllabic vowel | pronounced as //j// | onion, minion | pronounced as //aɪ// | biology, diameter | ∅ parliament, lieu, nostalgia pronounced as //i// liaison, alien, radii, idiot | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// | divide, permit (n), livid, typical | pronounced as //ə// | giraffe, pencil, cousin, Cheshire | ∅ business pronounced as //aɪ// director, minute (adj) pronounced as //aɪə// sapphire | |||
| word-finally | pronounced as //aɪ// | belie, die, untie, vie | pronounced as //i// | goalie, oldie, auntie, movie | pronounced as //eɪ// lingerie (GA), pronounced as //ieɪ// kyrie | |||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //iː// | field, siege, rabies, skied | pronounced as //aɪ// pronounced as //aɪə// pronounced as //iə// to pronounced as //jə// pronounced as //iˈɛ// | allied, pied, skies client, diet, science, sliest ambient, alien, oriel, ugliest orient (v), acquiesce | pronounced as //ɪ// sieve, mischief, kerchief pronounced as //ɛ// friend, hygienic (GA) pronounced as //aɪˈɛ// biennial pronounced as //aɪiː// diene pronounced as //iːɒ// clientele pronounced as //iˈiː// medieval pronounced as //iːə// lien | |||
| o | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //ɒ// | doctor, bother, donkey dot, bomb, wonk, font | pronounced as //ʌ// pronounced as //oʊ// | won, monkey, front gross, comb, wonted, both | pronounced as //uː// tomb, womb pronounced as //ʊ// wolf pronounced as //wʌ// once pronounced as //ɔː// (GA) long, broth | ||
| pronounced as //ɒ// | opera, colonise, botany topic, solid, promise | pronounced as //oʊ// | brokenly, probity, diplomacy meiosis, aerobic | ||||
in open syllables
| pronounced as //oʊ// | omen, grove, total noble, cobra banjo, go boa, poet, stoic cooperate, proactive | pronounced as //ɒ// pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //ʌ// pronounced as //ə// | proper, gone, shone (RP) to, who, move, doable come, love, done, colander purpose, Europe | pronounced as //ʊ// woman, bosom pronounced as //ɪ// women pronounced as //wʌ// one ∅ colonel, chocolate | |||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ə// | eloquent, wanton | pronounced as //ɒ// neuron, proton pronounced as //ɪ, ə// hydrogen | |||||
| oa | pronounced as //oʊ// | boat, coal, load, coaxing | pronounced as //oʊə// pronounced as //oʊæ// pronounced as //oʊˈeɪ// | boa, inchoate coaxial, ogdoad oasis, cloaca | pronounced as //ɔː// broad pronounced as //uːə// doable pronounced as //oʊˈɑː// koala pronounced as //wɑː// quinoa | |||
| oe | usually | pronounced as //iː// | amoeba, coelacanth, foetal, phoenix | pronounced as //oʊ// pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //oʊˈɛ// | doeskin, woeful shoelace, canoeing poetic, soever, orthoepic | pronounced as //ɛ// foetid, roentgen pronounced as //oʊˈiː// coeval, noesis pronounced as //oʊˈɜː// coerce pronounced as //oʊə// poetry, orthoepy | ||
| last vowel in word | pronounced as //oʊ// | foe, goes, toed, woe | pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //oʊɛ// pronounced as //oʊə// pronounced as //oʊɪ, oʊə// | shoes, canoe coed, noel, phloem goer loess, poem | pronounced as //ʌ// does pronounced as //uːə// doeth, doer pronounced as //ɜː// foehn pronounced as //oʊiː// diploe, kalanchoe | |||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ɪ// | oedema, oesophagus | pronounced as //oʊ// | aloe, echoed, oboes, soloed | pronounced as //uː// hoopoe | |||
| oeu | pronounced as //uː// | manoeuvre | pronounced as //ɜː(r)// hors d'oeuvre | |||||
| oh | final or before a consonant | pronounced as //oʊ// | oh, kohlrabi, ohm, pharaoh | pronounced as //ɒ// | John, johnny | pronounced as //ɔː// bohrium pronounced as //ə// matzoh | ||
| oi | pronounced as //ɔɪ// | boing, moist, coin, envoi | pronounced as //oʊɪ// pronounced as //wɑː// pronounced as //ə// | going, egoist, heroin, stoic bourgeois, coiffeur, patois connoisseur, porpoise, tortoise | pronounced as //uːɪ// doing pronounced as //wæ// croissant (RP) pronounced as //i// chamois pronounced as //oʊaɪ// ghettoise, oroide | |||
| oo | usually | pronounced as //uː// | cool, sooth, boot, goosebumps | pronounced as //ʊ// | wool, soot, foot, gooseberry | pronounced as //oʊ// brooch pronounced as //oʊ ɒ// coopt, zoology | ||
| before | pronounced as //ʊ// | cook, shook, wood, stood | pronounced as //uː// | kook, spook, food, brood | pronounced as //ʌ// flood, blood | |||
| ou |
| pronounced as //aʊ// | out, aloud, bough | pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //ʌ// pronounced as //oʊ// | soup, you, through touch soul, dough | pronounced as //juː// (GA): ampoule, coupon | ||
| pronounced as //ʊ// | could, should | pronounced as //ʌ// pronounced as //oʊ// | trouble, country boulder | pronounced as //ɒ// cough, fount (printing) | |||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ə// | camouflage, labour, nervous | pronounced as //ʊ// pronounced as //ʊə// | bivouac, bedouin, potpourri detour, fourchette | pronounced as //ʌ// hiccough pronounced as //w// ratatouille, ouabaine | |||
| ow | stressed | pronounced as //aʊ// | owl, bow, row, sow, allow | pronounced as //oʊ// | own, bow, row, sow, alow | pronounced as //ɒ// acknowledge pronounced as //ɒ// or pronounced as //ʌ// rowlock | ||
| unstressed | pronounced as //oʊ// | yellow, teabowl, landowner | pronounced as //aʊ// | peafowl, sundowner | pronounced as //əw// cassowary, toward (RP) | |||
| oy | pronounced as //ɔɪ// | boy, doyenne, foyer, voyage | pronounced as //waɪ// | voyeur, noyade | pronounced as //oʊj// oyez pronounced as //aɪ// coyote (GA) pronounced as //i// buoy (GA) | |||
| u | in closed syllables
| pronounced as //ʌ// | budding, cuckold, mullet but, gull, fuss | pronounced as //ʊ// | pudding, cuckoo, bullet, put, full, puss | pronounced as //uː// ruthless, brut pronounced as //juː// butte, debut, fuchsia, tulle | ||
in open syllables
| pronounced as //juː// | mute, student, puny, union, fuses bugle, hubris, nutrient (RP) duo, nuance, pursuant, ensuing menu, emu, impromptu (RP) | pronounced as //ʌ// pronounced as //uː// | study, punish, bunion, buses butler, cutlery, subrogate super, lunar, absolute, revolution suet, lucrative, lugubrious hindu, tutu, tofu, truth | pronounced as //ɪ// busy, business | |||
in open syllables after pronounced as //r, ʃ, ʒ, j//, or cons. + pronounced as //l//
| pronounced as //uː// | rule, chute, June, recluses scruples, rubric truant, fluent, cruelty flu, guru | pronounced as //juː// | overuse, underused | pronounced as //ʌ// runaway, truculent, clubroom pronounced as //ʊ// sugar | |||
| after | before | ∅ | guest, guide, vaguer | pronounced as //w// | segue, distinguish | pronounced as //juː// ambiguity | ||
| before | pronounced as //w// | language | ∅ | guard, languor | pronounced as //juː// jaguar (RP) | |||
| after | pronounced as //w// | quail, conquest, banquet, quite | ∅ | quay, conquer, bouquet, mosquito | ||||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ə// | support, industry, useful, medium | pronounced as //juː// pronounced as //ʌ// | debut guffaw, unruly, upend, vulgarity | pronounced as //ɪ, ə// minute, lettuce | |||
| ue | after | word final | ∅ | league, tongue | pronounced as //juː// | ague | pronounced as //eɪ// merengue, pronounced as //i// dengue | |
| word medial | pronounced as //ɛ// pronounced as //ə// | guest, guessed, baguette guerrilla, beleaguered | ∅pronounced as //juː// | vaguely, intriguedargued | pronounced as //weɪ// segued, pronounced as //wɛ// guenon pronounced as //wə// unguent, pronounced as //wiː// ungues pronounced as //juːə// arguer pronounced as //iː// Portuguese | |||
| after, or cons. + | pronounced as //uː// | true, clue, gruesome, blues | pronounced as //uːə// | influence, cruel, fluent, bluest | pronounced as //uː.ɪ// cruet, pronounced as //uːɛ// influential | |||
| elsewhere (except after) | pronounced as //juː// | virtue, cue, valued, hue, muesli | pronounced as //juːə// pronounced as //juːɛ// pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //uːə// | fuel, constituent, rescuer innuendo, statuesque, minuet Sue, snafued (GA: due, revenue) GA: duel, pursuer | pronounced as //uː.ɪ// suet, pronounced as //uːɛ// muezzin pronounced as //juːiː// tenues, pronounced as //juːeɪ// habitue pronounced as //jʊə// puerile, pronounced as //ʊ// muenster pronounced as //weɪ// suede, Venezuelan pronounced as //wɛ// pueblo, pronounced as //wɪ// desuetude | |||
| ui | after | pronounced as //ɪ// pronounced as //aɪ// | guild, guitar, intriguing, roguishguide, guise, beguile | pronounced as //wɪ// | anguish, penguin, linguist, sanguine | pronounced as //iː// beguine, pronounced as //wiː// linguine pronounced as //juːɪ// arguing, aguish pronounced as //juːə// contiguity | ||
| after or cons. + | pronounced as //uː// | juice, cruise, sluice, fruiting | pronounced as //uːɪ// | fruition, fluid, ruin, druid, truism | pronounced as //uːə// incongruity, pronounced as //uː.j// alleluia pronounced as //ʊ// Cruickshank | |||
| elsewhere (except after) | pronounced as //juːɪ// pronounced as //ɪ// | conduit, cuing, genuine, Buick, circuitous, Jesuit build, circuit, biscuit, pursuivant | pronounced as //uː// pronounced as //juːə// pronounced as //juː// pronounced as //uːɪ// | suit, suitable, nuisance (GA) intuitive (RP), promiscuity nuisance (RP), puisne suicide, tui, Inuit, Hinduism | pronounced as //aɪ// duiker, pronounced as //ə// circuitry pronounced as //wɪ// cuisine, suint pronounced as //wiː// suite, ennui, tuille pronounced as //uːaɪ// sui generis pronounced as //weɪ// feng shui | |||
| uu | pronounced as //juə// | continuum, residuum | pronounced as //uə// | menstruum | pronounced as //(j)uːʌ// duumvir pronounced as //juː// vacuum pronounced as //uː// muumuu | |||
| uy | pronounced as //aɪ// | buy, buyout, guyed | pronounced as //iː// pronounced as //wi// | guyot, cliquy, plaguy obsequy, soliloquy | pronounced as //jʊɪ// toluyl pronounced as //uːj// thuya, gruyere pronounced as //wiː// puy pronounced as //wiːj// tuyere | |||
| w | pronounced as //uː// | cwm | ||||||
| y |
| pronounced as //ɪ// | myth, cryptic, system, symbol cylinder, typical, pyramid, dynasty cynic, lyric, lytic, syringe | pronounced as //aɪ// | cyclone, hyphen, psyche, python hydrogen, dynasty (GA) cyclist, hybrid, psychic, typist | |||
| pronounced as //aɪ// | typing, style, paralyze, nylon cycle, cypress, hydrate, lycra awry, by, deny, sky, supply | pronounced as //ɪ// | byzantine, synod, synagogue, Cypriote, sycophantic | ||||
| unstressed | word-final | pronounced as //i// | any, city, happy, only, supply (adv) | pronounced as //aɪ// ally (n) | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɪ// | bicycle, oxygen, polymer, dyslexia, physique, synonymous | pronounced as //ə// pronounced as //aɪ// pronounced as //i// | sibyl, martyr, pyjamas dynamics, hypothesis, typhoon anyway, everything | ||||
| Spelling | Major value (IPA) | Examples of major value | Minor values (IPA) | Examples of minor value | Exceptions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ar | before a vowel | next syllable contains | pronounced as //ær// | apparent, arid, guarantee, mariners, parish | pronounced as //ɛər// | parent, garish | |
| followed by a morpheme boundary | pronounced as //ɛər// | carer, scary, sharing, rarity | pronounced as //ær// pronounced as //ɑːr// | comparable, comparitive faraway, tsarist | |||
| otherwise | pronounced as //ɛər// | area, care, pharoah, vary, wariness | pronounced as //ɑːr// | aria, are, safaris, | pronounced as //ɒr// quarantine, waratah | ||
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɑːr// | argyle, car, farce | pronounced as //ɛər// scarce pronounced as //ær// sarsaparilla (GA) pronounced as //ɜːr// dharna | |||
| after pronounced as //w// | pronounced as //ɔːr// | war, award, dwarf, warning, quarter | |||||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | circular, pillar | |||||
| arr | before a spoken vowel | pronounced as //ær// | marry, barrel, arrow, barren, carrot | pronounced as //ɑːr// | starry, barring | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɑːr// | scarred, Parr | |||||
| aer | pronounced as //ɛər// | aerial, aeroplane | pronounced as //ɪər// | chimaera | pronounced as //ər// anaerobe | ||
| air | pronounced as //ɛər// | cairn, millionaire, dairy | pronounced as //aɪər// hetaira pronounced as //aɪ'ɪər// zaire | ||||
| aor | pronounced as //eɪ'ɔːr// | aorta | pronounced as //aʊ.r// pronounced as //ɔːr// | Maori extraordinary | |||
| aur | pronounced as //ɔːr// | dinosaur, aural, aura, Laura | pronounced as //ɒr// | laurel, Laurence | |||
| awer | pronounced as //ɔː.ər// | gnawer, rawer, thawer | pronounced as //ɔːr// drawer | ||||
| ayer, ayor | pronounced as //eɪər// | layer, mayor, soothsayer | |||||
| er | before a vowel | pronounced as //ɪər// | here, series, reremice | pronounced as //ɛər// pronounced as //ɛr// pronounced as //iː'r// | compere, there, werewolf derelict, heresy, perish, very derail, reremind | pronounced as //ɜːr// were, weregild | |
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɜːr// | her, jerk, coerced, merchant | pronounced as //ɛər// | berceuse | pronounced as //ɑːr// clerk, sergeant | |
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | starter, fewer, Berber, arguer, shower | |||||
| err | before a spoken vowel | pronounced as //ɛr// | error, merry, terrible, herring, ferret | pronounced as //ɜːr// | referring | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɜːr// | err, preferred | |||||
| ear | before a consonant | pronounced as //ɜːr// | pearly, hearse, yearning, earth | pronounced as //ɑːr// | hearken, hearty, hearth | pronounced as //ɪər// beard, peart pronounced as //eɪər// bearnaise pronounced as //i'ɑːr// rearm | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɪər// | dearly, hears, yearling, tear | pronounced as //ɛər// pronounced as //iː.ər// | tear, bears, wearing linear, nuclear, stearin | pronounced as //ɜːr// heard pronounced as //iː'r// tearoom | ||
| eer | pronounced as //ɪər// | cheering, beer, eer | pronounced as //iːər// | freer, seers | |||
| eir | pronounced as //ɛər// | heir, madeira, their | pronounced as //ɪər// | weird, weir, eyrie | pronounced as //aɪər// oneiric, eirenic | ||
| eor | pronounced as //iɔːr// | deorbit, reorganise | pronounced as //ɪər// | theory | |||
| eur | after pronounced as //r, ʃ, ʒ, j//, cons. + pronounced as //l// | pronounced as //ʊər// | pleurisy | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //jʊər// | euro, liqueur, neural | pronounced as //ɜːr// | masseur, voyeur | pronounced as //iː.ɜːr// theurgy | ||
| ir | before a spoken vowel | usually | pronounced as //aɪr// | pirate, virus, iris, spiral | pronounced as //ɪr// | mirage, virile, iridescent, spirit | |
| derived from a word with silent (e) following | pronounced as //aɪər// | wirable, aspiring | |||||
| before silent (e) | pronounced as //aɪər// | hire, fires, mired | |||||
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɜːr// | bird, fir | pronounced as //ɪər// menhir | |||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | elixir, kefir, triumvir | |||||
| irr | before a spoken vowel | pronounced as //ɪr// | mirror, squirrel, cirrus, tirret | pronounced as //ɜːr// | stirrer | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɜːr// | whirred | |||||
| ier | pronounced as //ɪər// | cashier, fierce, frontier, pier | pronounced as //aɪər// pronounced as //iər// | shier, fiery, hierarchy, plier busier, rapier, glacier, hosiery | pronounced as //iɛər// concierge, premiere pronounced as //ieɪ// atelier, bustier, dossier pronounced as //iːər// skier | ||
| or | after | pronounced as //ɜːr// | word, work, worst | pronounced as //ɔːr// | worn, sword, swore | ||
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɔːr// | ford, boring, more | pronounced as //ɒr// | forest, moral | pronounced as //ɜːr// whorl pronounced as //ʌr// borough ∅ comfortable | |
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | gladiator, major, equator | |||||
| orr | after | pronounced as //ʌr// | worry | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɒr// | borrow, horrid, sorry, torrent | |||||
| oar | pronounced as //ɔːr// | boar, coarse, keyboard, soaring | pronounced as //ər// cupboard, starboard pronounced as //oʊˈɑːr// coarctate | ||||
| oer | pronounced as //oʊ.ər// | partygoer, forgoer | pronounced as //uː.ər// | undoer, canoer | pronounced as //ɜːr// oersted | ||
| oir | pronounced as //wɑːr// | reservoir, memoir, moire, soiree | pronounced as //ɔɪər// | coir, loir, Moira | pronounced as //waɪər// choir pronounced as //ər// avoirdupois | ||
| oor | pronounced as //ʊər// | poor, moor, boorish, roorback | pronounced as //ɔːr// | door, flooring | pronounced as //ər// whippoorwill pronounced as //oʊ'ɔːr// coordinate | ||
| our | stressed | pronounced as //ɔːr// | four, courtesan, discourse | pronounced as //aʊər// pronounced as //ɜːr// pronounced as //ʊər// | hour, flour, scours journey, courtesy, scourge tour, courier, gourd, velour | pronounced as //ʌr// courage, flourish | |
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | labour, colourful | pronounced as //ʊr// pronounced as //ʊər// | entourage, potpourri detour, fourchette | |||
| oyer | pronounced as //ɔɪər// | foyer, destroyer | |||||
| ur | before a vowel | elsewhere | pronounced as //jʊər// | lure, purity, curing | pronounced as //ʊər// | allure, guru, Silurian | pronounced as //ɛr// bury, burial |
| after pronounced as //r, ʃ, ʒ, j//, cons. + pronounced as //l// | pronounced as //ʊər// | rural, jury, plural, sure, assurance, allure | |||||
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɜːr// | turn, occur, curdle | pronounced as //ʌr// | pronounced as //ʊər// langur | ||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | sulphur, jodhpur, bulgur, murmur | |||||
| urr | before a spoken vowel | pronounced as //ʌr// | current, hurry, flurry, burrow, turret | pronounced as //ɜːr// | furry, blurring | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɜːr// | burr, blurred | |||||
| uer | after pronounced as //r, ʃ, ʒ, j//, cons. + pronounced as //l// | pronounced as //uː.ər// | bluer, truer | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //juː.ər// | arguer, | |||||
| yr |
| pronounced as //ɪr// | syrup, Pyrenees, lyric, pyramid, Syria, myriad, syringe, tyranny, pyrrhic | ||||
| before a spoken vowel | pronounced as //aɪr// | tyrant, gyrate, pyrotechnic, thyroid | |||||
| before silent (e) | pronounced as //aɪər// | lyre, pyre, tyres, gyred | |||||
| elsewhere | stressed | pronounced as //ɜːr// | myrtle, myrrh | ||||
| unstressed | pronounced as //ər// | martyr | |||||
| Spelling | Major value (IPA) | Examples of major value | Minor values (IPA) | Examples of minor value | Exceptions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| al | pronounced as //æl// | pal, talcum, algae, alp | pronounced as //ɔːl// | bald, Nepal, false (also pronounced as //ɒl// in RP), withal | pronounced as //ɔː// falcon (also with pronounced as //ɔːl// or pronounced as //æl//) | ||
| alf | before a vowel | pronounced as //ælf// | alfalfa, malfeasance | ||||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɑːf// (RP) pronounced as //æf// (GA) | calf, half | pronounced as //ɔːlf// palfrey | ||||
| alk | before a vowel | pronounced as //ælk// | alkaline, grimalkin | pronounced as //ɔːlk// | balkanise | ||
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɔːk// | walk | |||||
| all | pronounced as //ɔːl// pronounced as //æl// | call, fallout, smaller shall, callus, fallow | pronounced as //ɒl// pronounced as //(ə)l// | wallet, swallow allow, dialled | pronounced as //ɛl// marshmallow (GA), pall-mall (GA) | ||
| alm | before a vowel | /ælm/ | palmate, salmonella, talmud | /ɔːlm/ | almanac, almost, instalment | pronounced as //æm// salmon pronounced as //ɑːlm// almond (GA) pronounced as //əlm// signalment pronounced as //ɑːm// almond (RP), balmy, palmistry. | |
| elsewhere | pronounced as //ɑː(l)m// | alms, calm | pronounced as //ɔːm// halm | ||||
| alt | pronounced as //ɔːlt// (also pronounced as //ɒlt// in RP) | alter, malt, salty, basalt | pronounced as //ælt// | alto, shalt, saltation, asphalt (RP) | pronounced as //ɑːlt// gestalt (GA) pronounced as //əlt// royalty, penalty | ||
| ange | word final | pronounced as //eɪndʒ// | arrange, change, mange, strange | pronounced as //ændʒ// | flange, phalange | pronounced as //ɑːnʒ// melange pronounced as //ɒndʒ// blancmange pronounced as //ɪndʒ// orange | |
| aste | word final | pronounced as //eɪst// | chaste, lambaste, paste, taste | pronounced as //æst// | cineaste, caste (GA), pleonaste | pronounced as //ɑːst// (out)caste (RP) pronounced as //əsteɪ// namaste | |
| -ci | unstressed before vowel | pronounced as //ʃ// | special, gracious | pronounced as //si// (also pronounced as //ʃ//) | species | ||
| -cqu | pronounced as //kw// | acquaint, acquire | pronounced as //k// | lacquer, racquet | |||
| ed | word final after pronounced as //t// or pronounced as //d// | pronounced as //ɪd, əd// | loaded, waited | ||||
| word final after a voiceless sound | pronounced as //t// | piped, enserfed, snaked | pronounced as //ɛd// | biped, underfed | pronounced as //ɪd, əd// naked | ||
| word final after a lenis sound | pronounced as //d// | limbed, enisled, unfeared | pronounced as //ɛd// | imbed, misled, infrared | /ɪd, əd/ beloved | ||
| es | pronounced as //ɪz, əz// | mazes, washes, axes, bases, pieces | pronounced as //iːz// | axes, bases, feces, oases | |||
| ex- | unstressed before or a vowel | pronounced as //ɪɡz, əɡz// | exist, examine, exhaust | pronounced as //ɛks// | exhale | ||
| gu- | before | pronounced as //ɡw// | bilingual, guano, language | pronounced as //ɡ// | guard, guarantee | ||
| (a)isle | word final | pronounced as //aɪl// | aisle, isle, enisle, lisle | ||||
| le | word final after non cons. | pronounced as //əl// | little, table | pronounced as //l// | orle, isle | pronounced as //leɪ// boucle | |
| ngue | word final | pronounced as //ŋ// | tongue, harangue, meringue | pronounced as //ŋɡeɪ// | merengue, gué | pronounced as //ŋɡi// dengue | |
| old | pronounced as //oʊld// | blindfold, older, bold | pronounced as //əld// | scaffold, kobold (also pronounced as //ɒld//) | |||
| olk | pronounced as //oʊk// | yolk, folklore | pronounced as //ɒlk// | polka (RP), kolkhoz | pronounced as //oʊlk// polka (GA) | ||
| oll | pronounced as //ɒl// | dollhouse, pollen, trolley, holly | pronounced as //oʊl// | tollhouse, swollen, troller, wholly | pronounced as //ɔː// atoll (GA) pronounced as //ɔɪ// cholla pronounced as //əl// caroller, collide | ||
| olm | pronounced as //ɒlm// | olm, dolmen | pronounced as //oʊlm// | enrolment, holmium | pronounced as //oʊm// holm (oak) | ||
| ong | pronounced as //ɒŋ// (RP), pronounced as //ɔːŋ// (GA) pronounced as //ɒŋɡ// | songstress, along, strong, wronger congress, jongleur, bongo, conger, ongoing, nongraded | pronounced as //ɒndʒ// pronounced as //ɒŋ// pronounced as //ɒŋg// (RP), pronounced as //ɔːŋg// (GA) pronounced as //ʌŋɡ// pronounced as //ʌndʒ// | congeries, longevity, pongee tonger, bong, dugong, tongs longer, strongest, elongate monger, humongous, mongrel sponger, longe, spongy | pronounced as //ʌŋ// among, tongue pronounced as //ənɡ// congratulate, lemongrass pronounced as //əndʒ// congeal, congestion pronounced as //ɒnʒ// allonge pronounced as //oʊnʒ// congé (GA) | ||
| ought | pronounced as //ɔːt// | bought, brought, fought, nought, ought, sought, thought, wrought | pronounced as //aʊt// | doughty, drought | |||
| qu- | pronounced as //kw// | queen, quick | pronounced as //k// | liquor, mosquito | |||
| que | word final | pronounced as //k// | mosque, bisque | pronounced as //keɪ// | manque, risqué | pronounced as //kjuː// barbeque pronounced as //ki// pulque | |
| re | word final after non cons. | pronounced as //ər// | timbre, acre, ogre, centre | pronounced as //reɪ//, pronounced as //ri// pronounced as //rə// | cadre (GA), compadre, emigre genre, oeuvre, fiacre | ||
| ron | word final after vowel | pronounced as //rɒn// | neuron, moron, interferon, aileron | pronounced as //rən// | baron, heron, environ | pronounced as //ə(r)n// iron pronounced as //roʊn// chaperon | |
| sci- | unstressed before a vowel | pronounced as //ʃ// | conscience, luscious, prosciutto | pronounced as //saɪ// | sciatica, sciamachy, sciential | pronounced as //ʃi// conscientious, fasciated pronounced as //sɪ// (RP) omniscient, prescience | |
| scle | word final | pronounced as //səl// | corpuscle, muscle | pronounced as //skəl// | mascle | ||
| -se | word final after vowel (noun) | pronounced as //s// | house, excuse, moose, anise, geese | pronounced as //z// | prose, nose, tease, guise, compromise | pronounced as //zeɪ// marchese | |
| word final after vowel (verb) | pronounced as //z// | house, excuse, choose, arise, please | pronounced as //s// | grouse, dose, lease, chase, promise | |||
| -si | unstressed after a vowel | pronounced as //ʒ// | vision, occasion, explosion, illusion | pronounced as //zi// | easier, enthusiasm, physiological | ||
| unstressed after a cons. | /ʃ/ | pension, controversial, compulsion | /si/ tarsier, Celsius | ||||
| -ssi | unstressed before a vowel | pronounced as //ʃ// | mission, passion, Russia, session | pronounced as //si// | potassium, dossier, messier | ||
| -sti | unstressed before a vowel | pronounced as //stʃ// | question, Christian, suggestion | ||||
| -sure | unstressed after a vowel | pronounced as //ʒər// | leisure, treasure | ||||
| unstressed after a cons. | pronounced as //ʃər// | tonsure, censure | |||||
| -the | unstressed | pronounced as //ð// | scathe, spathe | ||||
| -ti | unstressed before a vowel | pronounced as //ʃ// | cautious, patient, inertia, initial, ration | pronounced as //ti// pronounced as //ʃi// | patios, consortia, fiftieth, courtier ratios, minutia, initiate, negotiate | pronounced as //taɪ// cation, cationic pronounced as //ʒ// equation pronounced as //tj// rentier (GA) | |
| -ture | unstressed | pronounced as //tʃər// | nature, picture | ||||
| -zure | unstressed | pronounced as //ʒər// | seizure, azure | ||||
The following table shows for each sound the various spelling patterns used to denote it, starting with the prototypical pattern(s) followed by others in alphabetical order. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique (such as for pronounced as //p//, for pronounced as //v//, for pronounced as //ɑː//). An ellipsis stands for an intervening consonant.
Arranged in the order of the IPA consonant tables.
| Consonants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Spelling | Examples | ||
| pronounced as //m// | m, mm, chm, gm, lm, mb, mbe, me, mh, mme, mn, mp, sme, tm | mine, hammer, drachm, phlegm, salmon, climb, combe, forme, mho, femme, autumn, assumption, disme, tmesipteris | |
| pronounced as //n// | n, nn, cn, dn, gn, gne, kn, mn, mp, nd, ne, ng, nh, nne, nt, pn, sn, sne | nice, inn, cnidarian, Wednesday, gnome, coigne, knee, mnemonic, comptroller, handsome, borne, ngaio, piranha, tonne, topgallant-sail, pneumonia, puisne, mesne | |
| pronounced as //ŋ// | ng, n, nc, nd, ngh, ngue | sing, link, charabanc, handkerchief, sangh, tongue | |
| pronounced as //p// | p, pp, gh, pe, (ph), ppe, lfp | pill, apps, hiccough, thorpe, diphthong (RP), steppe, halfpenny | |
| pronounced as //b// | b, bb, be, bh, pb, gb | bit, ebb, barbe, bhang, cupboard, Igbo | |
| pronounced as //t// | t, tt, bt, cht, ct, d, dt, ed, ght, kt, pt, phth, st, te, th, tte | ten, sett, doubt, yacht, victual, iced, veldt, dressed, lighter, ktypeite, ptarmigan, phthisical, cestui, forte, thyme, cigarette | |
| pronounced as //d// | d, dd, ddh, bd, de, dh, ed, ld | dive, odd, Buddhism, bdellium, horde, dharma, abandoned, solder, | |
| pronounced as //k// | c, k, cc, cch, ch, ck, cq, cqu, cque, cu, ke, kh, kk, lk, q, qh, qu, que, x, (g) | cat, key, account, zucchini, chord, tack, acquire, lacquer, sacque, biscuit, burke, khaki, trekker, polka-dotted, quorum, fiqh, liquor, mosque, excite, (strength) | |
| pronounced as //ɡ// | g, gg, ckg, gge, gh, gu, gue | gig, egg, blackguard, pogge, ghost, guard, catalogue | |
| pronounced as //f// | f, ff, fe, ffe, ft, gh, lf, ph, phe, pph, v, ve, (u) | fine, chaff, carafe, gaffe, soften, laugh, half, physical, ouphe, sapphire, sovkhoz, fivepence, lieutenant (RP) | |
| pronounced as //v// | v, vv, f, lve, ph, u, ve, w, zv, b, bh, mh | vine, savvy, of, halve, Stephen, quetsch, have, weltanschauung, rendezvous, Habdalah, kethibh, ollamh | |
| pronounced as //θ// | th, the, chth, phth, tth, h | thin, absinthe, chthonic, apophthegm, eighth | |
| pronounced as //ð// | th, the, dd, dh, y | them, breathe, gorsedd, edh, ye (mock archaic) | |
| pronounced as //s// | s, ss, c, cc, ce, ps, sc, sce, sch, se, sh, sse, sses, st, (sth), sw, t, th, ti, (ts), tsw, tzs, tz, (z) | song, mess, city, flaccid, ounce, psalm, scene, coalesce, schism (RP), horse, dishonest, finesse, chausses, listen, asthma (RP), sword, tzitzit, zizith, Kiribati, tsunami (GA), boatswain, britzska, waltz (RP), quartz | |
| pronounced as //z// | z, zz, cz, s, (sc), se, sh, sp, ss, (sth), ts, tz, x, ze, zh, zs (one pronunciation), c (some dialects) | zoo, fuzz, czar, has, crescent (RP), tease, déshabillé, raspberry, dissolve, asthma (GA), tsarina, tzar, xylophone, breeze, zho, (vizsla), (electricity) | |
| pronounced as //ʃ// | sh, c, ce, ch, che, chi, chsi, ci, s, sc, sch, sche, schsch, sci, sesh, she, shh, shi, si, sj, ss, ssi, ti, psh, zh, x | shin, speciality, ocean, machine, quiche, marchioness, fuchsia, special, sugar, crescendo, schmooze, schottische, eschscholtzia, conscience, tortoiseshell, galoshe, shh, cushion, expansion, sjambok, tissue, mission, nation, pshaw, pirozhki, paxiuba | |
| pronounced as //ʒ// | (ci), g, ge, j, s, si, ssi, ti, z, zh, zhe, (zi), zs (one pronunciation) | coercion (GA), genre, beige, bijou, leisure, division, abscission, equation, seizure, muzhik, uzhe, brazier (GA), (vizsla) | |
| pronounced as //x// | ch (in Scottish English), gh (in Irish English) | loch, lough | |
| pronounced as //h// | h, wh, j, ch | he, who, fajita, chutzpah | |
| pronounced as //r// | r, rh, wr | run, rhyme, wrong | |
| pronounced as //l// | l, ll, le, lh, lle, gl, sle, ln (some dialects) | line, shall, tale, pelham, gazelle, imbroglio, aisle, (kiln) | |
| pronounced as //j// | y, h, i, j, l, ll, z, r (one pronunciation) | yes, vinho verde, onion, hallelujah, llano, tortilla, capercailzie, February | |
| pronounced as /link/ | wh (in some dialects) | which | |
| pronounced as //w// | w, u, h, ou, ju, wh (in most dialects) | we, persuade, choir, marijuana, what | |
| pronounced as //ts// | ts, tz, zz | nuts, quartz, pizza | |
| pronounced as //dz// | ds, dz | pads, podzol | |
| pronounced as //tʃ// | ch, tch, c, cc, cch, (che), chi, cs, cz, t, tche, te, (th), (ti), ts, tsch, tz, tzs, tzsch | chop, batch, cello, bocce, kaccha, niche (GA), falchion, csardas, Czech, nature, escutcheon, righteous, posthumous (GA), bastion (GA), britska (US), putsch, britz(s)ka (US), Nietzschean | |
| pronounced as //dʒ// | g, j, (ch), d, dg, dge, di, dj, dzh, ge, gg, gi, jj, t | magic, jump, sandwich (RP), graduate, judgment, bridge, soldier, adjust, Tadzhik, barge, veggies, Belgian, hajj, congratulate (US) | |
| pronounced as //ks// | x, xx, cast, cc, chs, cks, cques, cs, cz, kes, ks, lks, ques, xc, xe, xs, xsc, xsw | sax, doxxing, forecastle, accent, tachs, backs, sacques, sacs, eczema, burkes, yaks, caulks, toques, excel, axe, exsert, exscind, coxswain | |
| pronounced as //gz// | x, ggs, gs | exam, eggs, bags | |
Nasal vowels used by some speakers in words of French origin such as enceinte (