Exploring Sounds of English

Hello, if we want to master the English language and able to speak English fluently, we have to master the sounds of English first. Before that, let's take a look at the definition of sound itself. Sound is something can be heard when we force air out of our mouth and we make our mouth move. So, if our pronunciation is bad, our listeners cannot understand what we mean when we're speaking.

Well, let's go to the main points. In writing English, we use 26 of the alphabets but in speaking English, there are over 26 sounds of English. In fact, there are give or take 44 sounds of English. So, let's go learning them out!

Like I said before, English has more than 40 sounds where international-standard English has 44 sounds. They consist of 20 vowels and 24 consonants. Let's take a look the vowels first.

The vowels consist of short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds and diphthongs.

1. There are 7 short vowel sounds. They are sounds produced by making vibration on the vocal cord. It can be felt by putting our one hand on the middle of the neck while we're speaking.
2. The second one is long vowel sounds. There are 5 sounds. They are produced the same as the short vowel sounds are produced but try to pronounce it a little bit longer.
3. Diphthong is the third one. There are 8 diphthongs in English. The production of them is the same as the previous two kinds of vowel.

Look at these following pictures to make it clear for you. :)

picture 1 Short and Long Vowel Symbols

 picture 2 Diphthong Symbols

Have you understood about these? :)

Keep calm, I'm gonna share the details to you.

• The first picture stands for short and long vowel sounds where the purple ones are the shorts and the blue ones are the longs. Each symbol has an example. Could you see the bold letters of each example there? Great, they, the letters, stand for the symbols above, therefore, you should pronounce them as the symbols of them.

• The second one exactly stands for diphthong symbols. Wait a minute, have you known what the definition of it is? Upss...well, just to remind you that diphthongs are the double vowel sounds. When we're speaking words standing for them (diphthongs), our mouth shape should make a change. Hey, we're out of our main topic LOL :D Well, look at back to the picture. Let's take one example of it...let's take the word "price" standing for the /aI/ symbol. Now, pronounce the word correctly in front of a mirror. Could you see the movement of your mouth? If so, you make it perfectly, well done !

By the way, which do you prefer...

three  bars of chocolate?

a package of junk food?

Upss, I don't mean to tempt you to eat those :D

See the bold letters above (b, ch, p, j, and f)? Yap, they are consonant letters and stand for consonant sounds, too. In English, there are 24 consonant sounds consisted of voiceless and voiced consonants as well as other consonant ones. Some of them are the same as the letters (e.g. b, p, f, etc) and some others are very different from the letters (e.g. ch, th, j etc). Come on, recognise these ones!

1. Voiceless consonants. There are 8 sounds. This kind of consonant is pronounced by letting the air out of our mouth smoothly or pushing big puff of air out of our mouth explosively but don't make any vibration on the vocal cord. Still confused? Good, now, try to pronounce the sound /p/ and place your fingers on the middle of your neck. Is there any vibration in it? If not so, very good. You've done that :)
2. Voiced consonants. There are 8 sounds, too. This one is pronounced opposite from the voiceless ones. It means that we force the air out of our mouth and there is vibration on the vocal cord while pronouncing them. Try to pronounce the sound /z/ and do like the previous one. Could you feel your neck vibrates? Well done for you :)
3. Other consonants. Yap, there are 8 sounds, too, of course. This one is different from the two kinds because these sounds have different airflow when you pronounce them. 

I know that you're being really confused right now LOL :D

Well, this is the following picture of each kind of consonants along with the examples, too. So...just go straight :)

picture 3 consonants symbols

Still confused?

Well, don't worry, you. I've provided videos for each and every single symbol "at the bottom of the earth" (at the lowest part) so you can easily and more deeply enjoy learning the sounds of English right :)

Hurraaay...we almost arrive at the finish gate LOL :D

Now, there are several tips for you in practising and mastering the sounds. Look at these..!

1. DO NOT be afraid of not being able to pronounce the sounds well. Remember, you're not the natives right. Even, the native speakers themselves still have a difficulty to pronounce some of them so, keep calm. :)
2. DO practise as often as possible. Remember that practice makes perfect. Although at the start, you have a great confusion and difficulties to pronounce them, but gradually, if you're not lazy to practise more and more than before, it's gonna be something easy for you and maybe you're gonna be like natives, too. Keep practising. :)
3. DO NOT only be fixed on this blog for you to learn and master the sounds of English. lol :D Try to search more all about them to improve your pronunciation skill, too. So, keep learning. :)
4. Oh ya, I almost forget. Remember that when you're writing the phonetic symbols, use double slashes like this: pet => /pet/, between => /'bItwi:n/.

Those are several tips for you that might help you to understand what sounds of English are, to be able to pronounce them well, and to be more confident when you're speaking English everywhere. 

Alright then, that's all from me, see you in another chance with some other interesting topics about English, so, TA-TA from now (Good bye).

Below is the link of the videos of each sound of English for you to further understand them. Just click the link below and happy practising. :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/