All of the Sounds of American English

Pronunciation and IPA Symbols

When it comes to learning general American pronunciation in English, I encourage all English learners to go back to the start and get a clear understanding of all of the sounds used in American English. Even highly advanced and fluent English speakers sometimes have points of confusion with at least some of the vowel and consonant sounds in American English.

Commonly confused vowels in American English include the different ‘oo’ sounds such as in “moon” and “book” or the short i and long e such as in “sit” vs. “seat.” Of course, there is also the schwa which is actually the most used vowel in English, but rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Difficult consonant sounds in American English include the two ‘th’ sounds as well as the various different pronunciations of the ‘t’ sound, especially the flap ‘t’.

I have a video lesson on this and more here: All of the Sounds of American English… Made Simple, if you prefer to watch a video, but I wanted to create this text and audio lesson below as a reference guide for you to be able to quickly return to when you need clarification on the various sounds of American English.

Bookmark it and review it from time to time to review. Let’s go!

How to Pronounce the Vowels Sounds of American English:

The short vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:

short a /æ/

Examples: cat, apple, bat, bad, mat

short e /ɛ/

Examples: ten, elephant, men, pen, met, red

short i /ɪ/

Examples: sit, igloo, in, is, him, chin

short o /ɑː/

Examples: dog, octopus, father, call, hot, bought

short u /ʌ/

Examples: cup, umbrella, sun, cut, duck

The long vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:

long a /eɪ/

Examples: cake, acorn, name, day, rain, eight

long e /iː/ or /i/

Examples: see, free, seat, many, believe, she, babies

long i /aɪ/

Examples: bike, ice, five, idea, night, sign, try, cries

long o /oʊ/

Examples: bone, nose, go, boat, slow, though

long u /uː/

Examples: tube, use, moon, soup, blue, new

y + long u /juː/

Examples: cube, music, few, mute, value, feud

The other vowel sounds in American English pronunciation:

u/ou/oo /ʊ/

Examples: book, foot, good, look, put, pull, would

ou/ow /aʊ/

Examples: cow, how, now, town, loud, out, mouse

oi/oy /oɪ/ (if the word ends in l sound like oil: /ojəl/)

Examples: boy, toy, loyal, annoy, oil, coin, choice

schwa /ə/

Examples: about, a, the, review, carrot, item

The r-controlled vowels (also called r-colored vowels) in American English pronunciation:

er/ir/ur /ɚ/

Examples: bird, girl, birthday, nurse, teacher, doctor

or /oɚ/

Examples: door, for, poor, store, more, warm

ear /iɚ/

Examples: ear, fear, rear, deer, here, career

ar /ɑɚ/

Examples: car, star, bar, far, hard, alarm

air /eɚ/

Examples: bear, air, hair, there, fair, stairs

How to Pronounce the Consonants Sounds of American English:

b /b/

Examples: bat, ball, cab, baby, because, bike

d /d/

Examples: dog, dark, bad, dad, ended, dear

f (or ph) /f/

Examples: face, fun, phone, stuff, feel, effort

h /h/

Examples: hand, hill, happy, hip, hard, history

m /m/

Examples: man, make, them, ham, imitate, mark

n /n/

Examples: no, nurse, then, ten, enter, inner

p /p/

Examples: paint, pen, app, tip, accept, happy

s (or soft c) /s/

Examples: sun, eraser, caps, mice, history, insist

z (or s) /z/

Examples: zebra, zippers, days, was, razor, lizard

regular t /t/ (initial) + stop t /t/ (ending)

Examples: time, ten, cat, pit, list, stop

v /v/

Examples: van, very, alive, knives, ever, eve

w /w/

Examples: water, wait, away, awake, west, well

r /r/

Examples: river, red, rent, tree, green, brush

c (or k or ck) /k/

Examples: cake, call, kite, duck, pack, think, create

l /l/ *a dark l sound will come at the end of syllables and does not have a different symbol

Examples: leaf, light, lift, hill, full, eleven

g /g/

Examples: go, give, bag, big, glass, grammar

j (or soft g) /ʤ/ *You will also hear this instead of d in the cases of: “dr” or “du”

Examples: judge, jam, age, large, dream, education

y /j/ *This sound is sometimes before a vowel though it’s not written

Examples: yes, year, yesterday, cube (“cyube”), onion, beyond

ng (or n before k) /ŋ/

Examples: sing, ring, pink, hungry, sinking, young

s(ion) s(ure) s(ual) /ʒ/

Examples: vision, measure, confusion, decision, visual, usually

voiceless th /θ/

Examples: think, moth, thing, math, with, thanks

voiced th /ð/

Examples: this, mother, the, there, they, weather

sh or t(ion) /ʃ/

Examples: she, shark, fish, communication, national, sure

ch (or tch) /tʃ/ *You will also hear this instead of d in the cases of: “tr” or “tu”, however the IPA will still say “t”

Examples: child, charge, watch, catch, true, nature

qu /kw/

Examples: queen, quick, quarter, squash, request, equal

x /ks/

Examples: fox, box, X-ray, mixture, taxes, text

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