A phonetic transcription ( /trænskrɪpʃən/ ) is a conventional way of representing the pronunciation of a word using symbols. To create a transcription here just click on the appropriate symbols in the transcription window and it will show in the yellow box.

Inserting transcriptions

When you finish making your transcription in this Transcription Box, just move your mouse over it and then, on your computer's keyboard, press the keys Control + C at the same time (or right-click on it and then choose "copy"). The transcription will be copied to your clipboard, so you can close the window. Then, to insert your transcription into a text box simply click on the place where you want your transcription to show and then press simultaneously the keys Control + V on your keyboard to paste it (or right-click there and choose "paste"). Then you must select it and change its colour to red by using the letter colour icon you can find at the top of every editable text window in M-E (you don't need to change colour if you're making an interactive activity in our site, it will be automatically changed to red when saving).

Warning: If you are using Firefox you may find a problem when you try to insert more than one transcription in the same paragraph. The first transcription is alright, but when you insert the second transcription you may find that it appears on a second line. If that happens then you should first write all the text in the paragraph and then copy the transcriptions inside the text. If you do it like that everything will be alright.

Creating transcriptions

Do not use the standard symbol slash ( / ) to mark the beginning and end of a phonetic transcription because slashes are added automatically when you finish, so you do not have to worry about that.

To create the transcription simply click on the phonetic symbols you want to use. The first row of black characters contains the letters in the Latin alphabet. The other three rows are specific symbols of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) for the English language, including some markers or extra symbols in green.

(Here you can see all the phonetic symbols and hear their sound: Phonetic Chart. There is a complete Phonetics Section if you need to learn more about this.) If you are a webmaster you can take this transcription box to your website using with url:

http://www.multimedia-english.com/transcription-box

Let's see the functioning of the keys:

SPACE = Creates a blank space between symbols, in case you need to transcribe more than one word in one go.

CLEAR = Deletes everything and leaves the transcription field (red box) blank.

STRESS = When you want to stress a vowel first you must click on this button, then you can click on the stressed vowel or diphthong you need and it will be marked as stressed (bold and underlined). Remember that all the words with two or more syllables need to mark the stress. For words with a secondary stress use the ( , ) key at the end of the bottom row and place it before the syllable with the secondary stress.

<=  (LEFT ARROW) = Deletes the last symbol introduced.

The light and dark red keys represent all the standard symbols to transcribe the English language.

The green keys are as followed:

ʊə = This diphthong has mostly disappeared but if you need or want to use, it we include it here for your convenience (in modern pronunciation it has been replaced by /ɔ:/, as in "poor")

ʔ = This symbol represents a glottal stop, a common way to pronounce the sound of /t/ in certain positions (for instance in the word "written"), especially in British English. This is not standard pronunciation so use it only when you want to mark this peculiar variety, otherwise simply use /t/.

D = This is another non-standard symbol, used here to represent the flap-variety of /t/ or /d/ when they happen between two vowels (as in "water"). Use it only if you want to mark a contrast between the usual pronunciation of T ( /t/ ) and this special variety, which is the standard pronunciation for intervocalic T in America but the colloquial version in British English, otherwise simply use /t/. Example: BrE /wɔ:tə/ vs  AmE /wɑDər/ .

ɑ = Use this only if you need to mark the difference between the short British pronunciation of O as in ( /ɒ/ ), for example in "got", and the American pronunciation ( /ɑ/ ), otherwise always use /ɒ/ for both varieties.

↗ = This is a mark for rising intonation.
↘ = This is a mark for falling intonation.

( , ) = Just use the brackets if you want to.

: = In IPA alphabet this means the vowel is long, you probably do not need it, since long vowels already come with this length mark, as in /ɑ:/.

* = Use this symbol to mark an R which may or may not be pronounced, that is, when it is pronounced in American English but not in British English, so “car” is transcribed /kɑ:*/, meaning that they pronounce /kɑ:r/ or /kɑr/ in American English and /kɑ:/ in British English.

' = It is often used to mark a primary accent, but here we use the more clear way of marking the stress by underlining the vowel, so use the button STRESS for that.

, = Use this symbol to mark the secondary stress for long words using both a primary and secondary stress, for example /ɪˌmædʒɪneɪʃən/. If you are not very sure about secondary stress, just use the primary one (with the STRESS button)