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Phonetics Menu |
USUAL SPELLING |
English has no rules for spelling or pronunciation, but there are some strong tendencies that may help us guess what is the most probable pronunciation of a word. I will tell you here the most important ones, but don't forget that you will find many exceptions to these rules, so don't try to memorize this list.
SYMBOL | Usual Spelling | EXAMPLES | less common | EXAMPLES |
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ee / ea | seat, bean, cheek, sheep, teen | e (stressed) | be, these, complete |
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i | sit, bin, chick, lip, tin | e (unstressed) | English, pretty, before |
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e | set, neck, ten, fell, men | ea | bread, health, ready |
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a | sat, ban, lack, pan, hat | - | - |
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u | cut, bun, luck, much, cup | o | son, brother, love, month |
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ar | cart, barn, cast, march, part | a | father, dance, bath |
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o | cot, lock, posh, fox, cod | - | - |
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or / au / aw | caught, port, forks, cord, born | - | - |
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oo | book, took, good, look, foot | u | pull, put, butcher |
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oo | fool, shook, soon, boom, mood | u | Luke, brute, flute |
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stressed: er / ir / ur | bird, turn, perch, shirt, learn | wor | work, word, worse |
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any vowel or vowel combination | Barbara, Photograph, a house, the sun, station | - | - |
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a, ai/ay | station, face, Katy, day, May, stay, rain, paid | - | - |
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i/y | fine, my, mine, pile, shine, pilot, five | - | - |
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oi/oy | boy, boil, joy, toy, voice | - | - |
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ou/ow | house, out, ground, how, town, allow | - | - |
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o | phone, so, ago, home, alone, cold, both, post | ou/ow | soul, though, low, snow |
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eer, ear | beer, cheer, steer, near, ear, dear, fear | - | - |
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ear | chair, stair, fair, hair, fairy | - | - |
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our/owr | hour, our, sour, flower, power | - | - |
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ire | fire, admire, hire, tired | i+vowel | liar, science, giant |