This document provides a summary of the English phonetic alphabet and typical spellings for vowels and consonant sounds in English. It lists each vowel and consonant sound, and examples of letters or letter combinations that are commonly used to represent each sound in spelling. For example, it notes that the vowel sound /i:/ is typically spelled with the letters 'ee', 'ea', 'e', 'ie', and 'ei' as in 'meet', 'meat', 'people', 'sea', and 'see'. The document serves as a reference for the complex relationships between sounds and spellings in English.

1. The English pphhoonneettiicc aallpphhaabbeett EEnngglliisshh DDeeppaarrttmmeenntt
CCPPII TTiinnoo GGrraannddííoo
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vowels
symbol Typical spellings examples
/i:/ ee, ea, e, ie, ei, i, eo meet, meat, people, sea, see, Peter, field
// i, y twenty, it, is, happy, his, village
/e/ e, ea, a bed, went, head, many
/æ/ a cat, bad, calculator
/:/ a, ar, ear, er, al, au after, pass, car, heart, Derby, half, calm, aunt
// u, o, ou, oo , oe Sun, come, Monday, cousin, blood, does
// o, a,ou, ow, au dog, sorry, gone, was, what, cough, Austria, because
/:/ or, aw, ou, au, a, ore, oor,
our
horse, born, saw, bought, daughter, all, water, before, door, board,
four
// u, o, oo, ou full, butcher, put, woman, good, book, look, could
/u:/ oo, o, ou, u, oe, ue food, spoon, do, who, group, Susan, blue, shoe
// vowel+ r bird, girl, her, church, world, work, journey
// er, most vowels in a weak
position
city, waiter, possible, mother, woman, famous, suppose
/e / ai, ay, ei, ey, a, ea day, May, rain, eight, they, late, make, great
/a/ i, y, igh, eigh, ie, ei time, write, try, by, light, might, buy, eye
// oi, oy boy, toy, noise, voice, point
/a/ ou, ow house, sound, cow, town
// o, oa, oe, ou, ow so, old, road, soap, toe, soul, know
/e/ air, ear, are pair, air, chair, pear, wear, care
// eer, ear, ere, ea, ia, eu deer, dear, tear, here, hear, idea, Ian, museum
consonants
/d/ d, dd day, dog, rapid, road
/t/ t, tt, th talk, looked, late, cotton, Thomas,
/b/ b, bb bubble, big, beautiful, Bob
/p/ p, pp pay, Spain, cheap, up, apple
/g/ g, gg, gh, gu go, girl, big, guess , grass, ago, begin, bigger
/k/ k, c, cc, qu, ck cake, car, come, bank, clean, kick, quick
// sh, ch, s, ss shoe, machine, sure, nation
// ch, tch, t + ure, ion chair, watch, nature, question
// -si-, s, z, ge (French) vision, beige, usual, leisure,
// j, g, dg, gg, d, gym, James, suggest, danger, large, soldier,
/f/ f, ff, ph, gh feet, fat, off, photo, laugh, enough
/v/ v, f, ph ever, give, voice, silver, of, nephew,
/ð/ th there, this, father, mother, with, mouth
/q/ th three, month, thumb
/s/ s, ss, c, sc, x six, son, pass, niece, ice, face, science, fox /ks/
/ŋ/ ng, n before /k/or/g/ sing, tongue, uncle, England, monkey, playing
/j/ y, i, u, ew, yes, yard, young, union, Europe
/z/ s, ss, z, zz, x roses, legs, scissors, zoo, dizzy, exact
/h/ h, wh how, hat, who, hate, hello, perhaps
/m/ m, mm, mb, mn move, make, summer, comb, autumn
/n/ n, nn, kn now, funny, know, name
/l/ l, ll fill, light, fly, slow, silly, yellow, apple, table
/r/ r, rr, wr, rh red, very, arrive, carry, write, rhythm,
/w/ w, wh, u after q, g which, where, quick, language, one,