International phonetic chart

Learning the sounds 

(note: to get the sound use the link at the end of this article)

These are the symbols for the sounds of English. Clicking on a symbol will take you to another page where you can watch a video about that particular sound.

The sounds are organised into the following different groups:

Short vowels

Long vowels

Diphthongs (double vowel sounds)

Voiceless consonants

Voiced consonants

Other consonants

Download this chart (144 K)

To listen to the sounds of English you can also try our audio chart. The chart will open in a pop-up window.

Listen to the sounds of English

Please note:
To watch the videos in the page you will need the free Flash Player software for your computer. You can get Flash here.*

*The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

About the videos

The videos in the Pronunciation Tips section of this site are presented by Alex Bellem.

Alex has an undergraduate degree in Arabic and Turkish. She followed this with an MA in (Theoretical) Linguistics at University College London (UCL) and a PhD in Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where she focused on Arabic phonology and phonetics.

She's also a CELTA-qualified English language teacher and spent a few years teaching English as a Foreign Language. At the time these videos were made in early 2008 Alex was lecturing part-time in the Linguistics Department at SOAS and was working as a Pronunciation Linguist in the BBC's Pronunciation Unit.

The videos were shot by J-P Newman and many thanks to Matt Cleghorn for his enormous contribution to their editing.

Thanks also to Professor J C Wells for his insights. 

 

Link to get the soun:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/

Link to practice: The flatmates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAyPyaZcLoQ

Radio programmes... Innovations in Teaching

For teachers - Radio programmes

Innovations in Teaching

A six part radio series from the BBC World Service. This series was produced and broadcast in 2004. What is meant by innovation in teaching? Are there some genuinely new ways of teaching language? Are there new technologies - e.g.: the interactive white board - that have revolutionised how we learn and the way we teach? What innovative methodologies are of interest to the classroom teacher or educationalist working around the world?
Innovations in Teaching comes up with the answers as we look at challenges and changes in the world of ELT and find ideas for teachers to take away.
Copyright information - Please Read
These programmes are copyright British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
You may download these programmes for your own personal or classroom use only. They may not be copied, distributed or made available to other websites. For any questions relating to the use of these programmes please email: learningenglish@bbc.co.uk  
and to get more information and the radio programs go to this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teachingenglish/radio/innovations.shtml