source: English Word Pronunciation: Improve that Accent!
Another good link: Telfpedia
List of Lessons
The International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA in short, will help you learn how to pronounce correctly each and every word in English! But first, you need to learn what it is, and how to use it. Read the following explanation, and watch the videos.
The English language may have only 26 letters, but it has over 40 different sounds! You need to be familiar with each sound, and its proper pronunciation in order for you to speak natural English.
Phonetic means “using special signs to represent the sounds of speech”.
It comes from the Greek word phone which means “sound”.
Vowel is a sound we make when the breath flows out through the mouth freely, without being blocked. The English letters a, e, i, o, u are called vowels, because they represent such sounds.
It comes from the Latin word vox which means “voice”.
Diphthong is a vowel sound made by pronouncing two vowels quickly one after the other. For example, the vowel sound in “loud” is a diphthong.
It comes from the Latin word diphthongus which means “two sounds”.
Consonant is a sound we make that is not a vowel. The breath is somehow blocked on its way out of the mouth. For example, the sound B is made when breath flow is stopped with the lips. All the English letters which are not vowels are called consonants. These are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.
Watch the following video to learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet. It also gives a quick review of the sounds we will learn later.
another good youtube channels for pronunciation learning: English With Jennifer.
Phonemic Chart.
‘e’ is pronounced ‘e’ like in ‘egg’‘e’ is pronounced ‘i’ like in ‘eagle’ (igel)
‘gh’ sound is pronounced ‘f’ like in ‘cough‘ (cof), ‘laugh‘ (laf)
‘gh’ sound is pronounced ‘w’ like in ‘bough‘ (bow)
‘o’ sound is pronounced ‘i’ like in ‘women’ (wimen). different with ‘woman’ (wumen)
‘ti’ sound in pronounced ‘shh’ or ‘sy’ like in ‘station’ (stesyen). same with ‘s’ in ‘sugar’ (syugar)
please see the dictionary here (american english) and this tool (lingorado.com/ipa) to hear the pronunciation.
Some others charts:




Don’t forget that intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence stress, are also, of course, of vital importance in speaking better English.
See this youtube videos: Lesson 6a – WORD STRESS – English Pronunciation, Lesson 6b – WORD STRESS – English Pronunciation, Lesson 6c – WORD STRESS – English Pronunciation, Lesson 6d – WORD STRESS – English Pronunciation
Different stress give different meaning. For example:
These for nouns: PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble
These for adjectives: PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy
There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
Lesson 05: UH Sound (put, foot)Lesson 06: OO Sound (moon, blue)
Lesson 07: Short E sound (pen, bed)
Lesson 08: Schwa Sound (the, about)
Lesson 09: UR Sound (turn, learn)
Lesson 10: OH Sound (four, store)
Lesson 11: Short A Sound (cat, fat)
Lesson 12: UH Sound (but, luck)
Lesson 13: Soft A Sound (arm, father)
Lesson 14: Long O Sound (boat, know)
Lesson 15: Long A Sound (say, pain, make)
Lesson 16: Short O Sound (not, off, socks)
Lesson 17: Diphthong (a combination of two vowel sounds)
Lesson 18: P Sound (cup, punch, pull) and B sound (cub, bunch, bull)
Lesson 19: The Nasal Sounds (M, N, NG)
Lesson 20: F Sound (four, lift, graph, tough) and V Sound (love, knives, grave, vine)
Lesson 21: W Sound (wow, quit, where)
Lesson 22: R Sound (red, sorry, write)
Lesson 23: H Sound (he, behind, who)
Lesson 24: T Sound (top, it, later) and D Sound (do, had, made)
Lesson 25: S Sound (sit, box, cats) and Z Sound (zip, buzz, boys)
Lesson 26: K Sound (kid, talk, black) and G Sound (go, big, dog)
Lesson 27: L Sound: Light L & Dark L (tall, like, English)
Lesson 28: Y Consonant Sound (yes, you, beyond)
Lesson 29: CH Sound (China, century, watch) and J Sound (Germany, educate , judge)
Lesson 31: SH (shop, chef, special) and ZH (usual, massage, Asia)