Those who want to learn more about the phonetic structure of the English language can look for resources on the Internet, where they will tell you what sonorants, stops, fricatives and other consonants are.

If you just want to understand the pronunciation of English consonants and learn how to read transcription without unnecessary theory, then we recommend that you share everything consonants sounds into the following groups:

• The sounds that are pronounced almost the same as in Russian : this is the majority of consonants.
• The sounds that similar to those in Russian but are pronounced differently. There are only four of them.
• The sounds that not in Russian . There are only five of them and it is a mistake to pronounce them the same way as in Russian.

Pronunciation of sounds marked yellow, practically does not differ from Russian, only sounds [p, k, h] are pronounced with "aspiration".

green sounds- these are the sounds that need to be pronounced in the English manner, they are the cause of the accent. The sounds are alviolar (for sure, you heard this word from your school teacher), to pronounce them, you need to raise your tongue to the alviols, then you will sound "in English".

Sounds tagged red, are absent in Russian at all (although it seems to someone that this is not the case), so you should pay attention to their pronunciation. Do not confuse [θ] and [s], [ð] and [z], [w] and [v], [ŋ] and [n]. The [ r ] sound is less of a problem.

Another aspect of transcription is stress, which is marked with an apostrophe in transcription. If the word has more than two syllables, then the stress is always present:

Hotel -
police-
interesting - ["ɪntrəstɪŋ]

When a word is long, polysyllabic, then it may contain two accents, with one upper (main), and the second - lower. The lower stress is indicated by a comma-like sign and is pronounced weaker than the upper one:

disadvantaged - [ˌdɪsəd"vɑːntɪʤ]

When reading the transcription, you may notice that some sounds are presented in parentheses (). This means that the sound can be read in the word, but you can not pronounce it. Usually in brackets you can find a neutral sound [ə], sound [r] at the end of a word, and some others:

Information - [ˌɪnfə" meɪʃ (ə) n]
teacher - ["tiːʧə(r)]

Some words have two pronunciations:

Forehead ["fɔrɪd] or ["fɔːhed]
Monday ["mʌndeɪ] or ["mʌndɪ]

In this case, choose the option that you prefer, but remember that this word can be pronounced differently.

Many words in the English language have two variants of pronunciation (and, accordingly, transcription): in British English and in American English. In this situation, learn the pronunciation that corresponds to the variant of the language you are studying, try not to mix words from British English and American English in your speech:

Schedule - ["ʃedjuːl] (BrE) / ["skeʤuːl] (AmE)
neither - ["naɪðə] (BrE) / [ˈniːðə] (AmE)

Even if before that you couldn’t stand transcription, after reading this article you saw that reading and transcribing is not at all difficult! After all, you were able to read all the words recorded in the transcription, right? Apply this knowledge, use dictionaries and be sure to pay attention to transcription if you have a new word in front of you, so that you can memorize the correct pronunciation from the very beginning and not relearn later!

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It is extremely important to navigate and remember in this topic as much as possible. Without such a base, it is impossible to advance further in the study of phonetics. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. The same letter can mean one or several sounds, in addition, the letters influence each other's sound, so a number of letter combinations can form their sounds.

As a result, there are much more sounds in the English language than letters - 44. Is everything clear so far? We move on. In dictionaries and writing in general, transcription is used to convey the sound of words and letters of the English language - this is a series of special icons that allow you to clarify exactly what the sound of a particular letter (or letter combination) will be in a particular word with which you are dealing. Transcription of the word is usually enclosed in square brackets.

Please note: in the alphabet, most often there is also a transcription record of the sound of the letter. For example, b -, but this is not the sound that the letter gives in the word, but the name of the letter. It is not difficult to understand this by analogy with the Russian language, where when voicing the alphabet, they also say not “b”, but “be”, but when pronouncing words, you cannot say “be”, the letter sounds “b”.

Sounds and letters in English are divided into and consonants. With consonants in the phonetic sense, the situation is somewhat simpler than with vowels. Suffice it to say that sixteen of them can give only one sound in a sentence. One letter - one sound: b - [b], d - [d], f - [f], h - [h], j - , k - [k], l - [l], m - [m] , n - [n], p - [p], q - [k], r - [r], t - [t], v - [v], w - [w], z - [z]. Only four consonants can present particular difficulties - they can mean two or three sounds in different situations. details about consonants in our special article.

In English, there are as many as five consonants for which there is no special letter, they can only be formed from a combination of letters. These sounds are: [ŋ] - ng, - ch, tch, [ʃ] - sh, [θ], [ð] - th. In the case of the second type of sounds, there are even more different nuances.

Despite the fact that English has only five vowels: A, E, I, O, U (one so-called "semi-vowel" - "Y", - ed.) - together they can convey twenty different sounds in different situations. For example, the letter A can hide as many as eight: , [æ], [ɑ:], [ɛə], [ɔ:], [ɔ], [ə] and even [ı]. The specific sound depends on the stress, type of syllable, pronunciation tradition (exceptions - ed.) and a number of other factors, which we will discuss in detail in a special article on consonants and letters in English.

If you want to memorize and retain in memory the numerous details of phonetic rules, transcription signs and pronunciation features, pay attention to the transcription of new words that you memorize.

It would seem that it is impossible to put the correct pronunciation without outside help. Let's destroy this myth with our article workshop. With the help of a detailed analysis of each sound, comparison with our Russian “analogues”, training videos and tongue twisters, we will bring your pronunciation of English sounds as close as possible to the ideal.

The sounds that we will analyze today can often seem to us, Russian speakers, very similar to each other: / ɪ, i:, e, ǝ /. To “put in your head” the difference between them, go through each stage of the article in sequence and do all the tasks 🙂

1. Sound / ɪ / - pronunciation of vowels in English

Pronounced in words: kill, give, bit etc. The sound is short, front row pushed back, wide variety (I will explain the terms after watching the video).

How does it differ from the Russian version, and how does the speech apparatus work:

1. Russian / and / - front row. This means that the language is advanced as far as possible: pronounce the words peace, shooting range, strength and then just union And and track the position of the tongue. Do you feel that it rests on the lower teeth?

English sound /ɪ/ front pushed back row. Tip tongue while pronouncing located near the lower teeth(but does NOT apply to them).

2. Russian sound is more closed. This happens due to the fact that we raise the middle back of the tongue very high to the palate (say the union again And and track the position of the tongue).

To pronounce the English sound the back of the tongue does not rise as high, from this the sound turns out to be wider, more open, I would even say “relaxed”.

3. Another major difference: mouth position, which leads to the difference of these sounds. I would say that this sound should be pronounced like / and /, but with a more relaxed mouth, almost like for / e /.

For example, in Help:IPA for Russian, the unstressed sound in words is named similar to the English sound /ɪ/: t I yellow, h e tyre. In these words, the sound I E (I, prone to E) is pronounced. Such a sound in Russian is given before drums I, E: in l e soup I ti, t I go, p e neck, etc.

For clarity, let's compare the position of the mouth for Russian and English sounds in the pictures:

1. Mark Bernes sings a song "I love you life". In the picture, he says the word " sadnessand t".
2. Rachel from Rachel's English says the word “pr i nt".

Do you see the difference? Rachel doesn't have a "smile" like Mark does, but a more relaxed mouth position with a slightly lowered, relaxed jaw.

4. Last but not least, the English sound is shorter than our / and /.

Let's recap: take the tongue back a little, lift the middle back of the tongue below the hard palate, relax the mouth and reduce the sound. Watch one more video for proof.

Short vowel words /ɪ/ in English

Now, having put the articulatory apparatus in the right position, we begin training on a set of monosyllabic words. Do not forget that consonants before this sound in English do not soften!

Super! Now we fix on patter:

• Th i sb i g m i ll i s on the l i h i ll, and that l i ttle m i ll is on the b i g h i ll.
• M i ster Tw i ster daily v i s i ts a b u sy c i ty w i th many off i ceb ui ld i ngs. I s i t easy to l i ve i n a b u sy c i ty w i th many off i ceb ui ld i ngs?
• Ap i nks i nk i sb e hind a b i gfr i dge, the b i gfr i dge i s i n front of the p i nks i nk.

The last stage of our training- find a line from a famous song with this sound that will “sit down” in your auditory memory. I decided to stop at the song Pink Aerosmith bands (namely, on the very word pi nk).

Pink, it's my new obsession, yeah
Pink, it's not even a question
Pink on the lips of your lover
'Cause pink is the love you discover
Pink as the bing on your cherry
Pink, 'cause you are so very
Pink, it's the color of passion

Starting at 0:44 minutes

2. English sound / i: / - pronunciation, differences, longitude

Pronounced in words green, sleep, feel, beach(not to be confused with bitch in which the previous sound is pronounced). If for a short / ɪ / I called the characteristics: short, wide and pushed back, then this sound will have important for us:

• front row;
• narrow variety,
• long, diphthongoid (from “diphthong” = double sound).

Let's listen to how the sound is pronounced, and then we will deal with these concepts.

So you've heard the difference, but how do you learn to reproduce it? Let's figure it out. First, I will describe everything in text, and then I will summarize all the information in a comparative table so that nothing is confused.

1. Front row: remember we said that for a short /ɪ/, the tongue needs to be moved further away from the teeth than for ours? That the tip of the tongue should be at the lower teeth? So, for a long English / i: / language you need move forward stronger, than for short /ɪ/, but less than for Russian (the tip almost touches the lower teeth, but does not rest against them).

2. The narrow variety tells us that the position of the mouth is no longer as relaxed as for the previous sound: as for Russian / and /, for a long / i: / you need to put mouth to smile position. But at the same time, the Russian sound is more closed here, because we raise the middle back of the tongue higher to the palate.

3. Yes, this sound is long. But it's not just about "forcibly" stretching the sound and making it longer. It is not just called “diphthongoid”. This is one sound, but we hear in it the “overtone” of the second. To be more precise: the middle part of the tongue begins slip forward and up – from position for short /ɪ/ ⇒ and then rises to position for long /i:/. Therefore the word seat we hear as if / syit / (I apologize for this terrible Cyrillic transcription).

To finally fix the difference between English sounds, I suggest watching another cool video about pronunciation. From it, at the same time, you will learn about the rules of reading (what combinations of letters give these sounds).

Let's summarize: for a long / i: / lips take the position of a “smile”; take the tongue away from the teeth, but not as much as for the short / i / (the tip almost touches the lower teeth), the middle back of the tongue “slides” from bottom to top (from the position for short ɪ - to long), due to this, the sound is obtained, as it were “double” (diphthongoid) and doo-oolgim.

Practicing English vowels

Now it's time for words. “Adjust the mouth” to the desired position and proceed to practice. Again, I draw your attention to the fact that the consonants before this sound are hard.

people /ˈpiːpl/

breathe /briːð/

Fine! And now tongue twisters in English for the sound / i: / -

• St e ve and P e te ea t l ea n m ea t and gr ee nb ea ns.
• Sl ee p, sl ee p, beauty bright. Dr ea ming o'er the joys of night. Sl ee p, sl ee p: in the sl ee p little sorrows sit and w ee p.
• Fift ee n t ee ns ea t fift ee n sw ee ts, sixth ee n t ee ns ea t sixt ee n sw ee ts.

And, of course, song example: Robbie Williams Feel(you can clearly hear both the longitude and the “double overtone”):

I just wanna feel
real love feel the home that I live in
'Cause I got too much life
running through my veins
going to waste
And I need to feel
Real love and the love ever after
I cannot get enough

From 1:45 to 2:18

3. Sound / e / - how vowels are pronounced in English

Pronounced in words spent, help, ten etc. This is the sound of the front row, medium rise, narrow variety. In fact, it is very similar to our / e / sound, but:

1. The Russian sound is more open (the back of the tongue rises lower than for the English version) ⇒ hence the English sound is more closed (thanks, cap). Raise the middle back of the tongue even higher towards the palate, and put the jaws closer together.
2. For the Russian sound, the tongue is more pushed back ⇒ for the English sound, the middle back of the tongue moves forward more.
3. The English sound is shorter.

Let's summarize: in order not to replace the English sound / e / with the Russian “analog”: raise the middle part of the tongue higher and move it forward a little (say Russian jam, and then follow the link and listen to the pronunciation of English gem, to hear the difference). Make the sound shorter.

Now watch a video about the pronunciation of this vowel. Notice how the /e/ sound is compared to the short /ɪ/ in the second part (in case the two sounds get mixed up in your head).

Vowel pronunciation exercises in English

Now we start training on a set of words. Don't forget that consonants don't soften before /e/.

English tongue twisters for the vowel / e /

• J e nsp e nt t e np e nce on a dr e ss, J e m sp e nts e ven p e nce on a sw ea ter.
• Fr e sh br ea d sm e lls b e ter than fr e sh e ggs, fr e sh e ggs sm e llb e ter than fr e sh l e mons.
• B e ter to dow e ll than to say w e ll.

Song example more than memorable: The Beatles Help.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down. And I do appreciate you being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me.

By the way, I suggest you “check out” another song example that combines and helps to see the difference between all 3 sounds that we studied above, and in the same order:

Linkin Park "In the End"/ɪnði:end/.

From 1:40 to 1:45

4. Meet the "seam" sound. Vowels and sounds in English

“Shva”, denoted in transcriptions as an inverted “e” / ə /, is a neutral and always unstressed sound. Pronounced in words a bout, fathe r, to day.

This sound is the most common sound in the English language, because it appears in almost any word that has more than 2 syllables + it replaces sounds in words that are in a weak position (that is, they do not have a logical stress in a sentence):

Example: The conjunction “and” is pronounced /ænd/ in a strong position, but in the sentence You and I it is /ən/, since it is not logically distinguished here.

How are vowels pronounced in English?

I did not just include this sound in an article about the “analogues” of Russian / e /. Oh, how many times have I met with Cyrillic transcriptions like /tichEr, fazEr, About/. Yes, I did it myself as a child. That is, for us, Russian speakers, this sound is heard similar to ours / e /. But it's not!

The most interesting thing is that our phonetic system has a similar, even identical sound:

• This after stressed A or O, as in the word "korov a” (on transcription, it is indicated by a solid sign - kʌrov b),
• or 2nd before stressed A or O, as in the word "m" about loco” (m b lʌko),
• post-stress or 2nd pre-stress E after hard consonants, as in the word “ts e face" (c b face)

Just don't say you say these words: carova and malako (or milk). If you DO NOT belong to any dialect (like Okoha Vologda), then you “chew” this sound and pronounce it very relaxed, without straining either your tongue or your lips at all. As something in between, between O, A and E.

The same is true in English: the mouth and tongue are relaxed. No need to move the tongue to the front of the mouth (as for Russian E), keep it in a neutral middle position. The sound is rather short and weak.

I think you've got that sound right. Let's move on to verbal training. Since this sound is never stressed, there are almost no monosyllabic words with it. Therefore, I offer you a small number of words with him, and then we will immediately move on to tongue twisters:

a bout /əˈbaʊt/

fath e r /ˈfɑːðər/

teach e r /ˈtiːtʃər/

comm o n /ˈkɒmən/

c o ntrol /kənˈtrəʊl/

stand a rd /ˈstændəd/

butt e r /ˈbʌtər/

s u pply /səˈplaɪ/

t o day /təˈdeɪ/

a round /əˈraʊnd/

t o geth e r /təˈɡeðər/

Sat u rday /ˈsætədeɪ/

both e r /ˈbɒðər/

want e d /ˈwɒntɪd/

moth e r /ˈmʌðər/

stol e n /ˈstəʊlən/

English tongue twisters for the sound /ə/

Watch this video before practicing tongue twisters. Remember, at the beginning of this section of the article, I wrote that so many sounds are replaced by the sound “seam” when the word is in a weak position? It is this feature of speech that creates the effect of native speaker. After watching the video, try to apply this knowledge in tongue twisters.

• Can a d a is cold e rth a n Korea a, Korea a is hott e r than Can a d a.
• Debor a's fam i ly is h e r-fath e r a nd moth e r, Hel e n a's fam i ly is h e r sist e r a n.d. brother e r.
• John a th a n a dresses his lett e rs t o Nich o l a s, Nich o l a s a dresses his lett e rs t o John a th a n.

And the last song example for today. For the /ə/ sound, a well-known line from a David Bowie song is perfect "Space Oddity"– Ground Co control to Majo rTom.

Because, firstly, this sound occurs there 3 times and is heard clearly (as far as possible for a faceless “seam”), and secondly, syllables with it are in a weak unstressed position in relation to rhythm songs:

Ground C o ntrol t o Maj o r Tom.

From 0:33 minutes. But listen to the whole song: it's a masterpiece!

Summing up: how to improve English pronunciation on your own

1. Short /ɪ/ wider than ours: the tongue is retracted more strongly, the back of the tongue rises, but lower; the mouth is more relaxed (almost like our E); the sound is shorter. A bit like the Russian sound I E, as in the word h e tyre.
2. The long /i:/ is also wider than ours (but not as wide as the short ɪ), and longer than ours. Mouth in the “smile” position. This is a diphthongoid sound: the back of the tongue slides forward and upward during pronunciation, so an “overtone of two sounds” is heard.
3. The sound / e / is shorter and more closed than ours: the middle back of the tongue rises higher towards the palate and moves forward more strongly, the jaws are placed closer to each other.
4. The unstressed neutral sound “shva” does not need to be pronounced like Russian / e /. It is pronounced in a completely relaxed position: the tongue is in the middle, the mouth is not tense. The analogue in Russian is post-stress and 2nd pre-stress A, O or E.

I don't say goodbye, I say goodbye

So this training has come to an end. Let's count how many sounds we have already studied. After that, we were left with 28 English sounds. 28 - 4 \u003d 24. Next time we will take on the consonants. See you! 🙂