American English Sounds
  • Home
  • Vowels
    • VOWEL CHART
    • Front >
      • /iy/ (see, keep)
      • /ɪ/ (sit, pick)
      • /ey/ (take, name)
      • /ɛ/ (pet, tell)
      • /æ/ (sat, past)
    • Central >
      • /ɜr/ (church, nurse)
      • /ər/ (mother, surprise)
      • /ʌ/ (cup, must)
      • /ə/ (about, undo)
      • /ɑ/ (stop, job)
    • Back >
      • /ʊ/ (good, put)
      • /uw/ (food, soon)
      • /ɔ/ (bought, lost)
      • /ow/ (low, coat)
    • Diphthongs >
      • /ɑɪ/ (light, pie)
      • /ɑʊ/ (cow, loud)
      • /ɔɪ/ (boy, voice)
  • Consonants
    • CONSONANT CHART
    • Lips (Bilabial) >
      • /p/ (peace, price)
      • /b/ (buy, brain)
      • /m/ (map, time)
      • /w/ (wait, win)
    • Lips-Teeth (Labio-dental) >
      • /f/ (fix, friend)
      • /v/ (vase, love)
    • Tongue-Teeth (Dental) >
      • /θ/ (thank, bath)
      • /ð/ (this, breathe)
    • Tongue-Gum Ridge (Alveolar) >
      • /t/ (take, stand)
      • /d/ (day, drive)
      • /s/ (sit, race)
      • /z/ (zoo, these)
      • /l/ (less, sleep)
      • /n/ (nice, man)
    • Tongue-Palate (Palatal) >
      • /ʃ/ (push, show)
      • /ʒ/ (measure, vision)
      • /tʃ/ (choose, match)
      • /dʒ/ (juice, edge)
      • /r/ (rose, borrow)
      • /y/ (yes, young)
    • Tongue-Soft Palate (Velar) >
      • /k/ (kiss, cat)
      • /g/ (gas, green)
      • /ŋ/ (hang, long)
    • Throat (Glottal) >
      • /h/ (help, hand)
  • Resources
    • Pronunciation Vocabulary
    • For Students
    • For Instructors

Pronunciation Vocabulary

TYPES OF SOUNDS

  • Consonant  - a sound made by partially or completely blocking air in the mouth with the teeth, tongue, or lips
  • Vowel - a sound made with an open mouth, with no air blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips

WORDS TO DESCRIBE VOWELS

  • Back – made with the tongue pulled towards the back of the mouth 
  • Central – made with the tongue in the center of the mouth, not pulled forward or backward 
  • Diphthong – made by combining two vowels into one syllable
  • Front – made with your tongue pulled towards the front of your mouth and with your lips spread out 
  • High - made with your tongue raised near the roof of your mouth 
  • Lax  – made with a relaxed tongue 
  • Low – made with your tongue lowered in your mouth and with your jaw lowered 
  • Mid - made with your tongue in the middle of your mouth, neither raised nor lowered 
  • Reduced - changed to become an unstressed vowel, often Schwa (/ə/)
  • Round – made with the lips forming a circle 
  • Stressed - longer, louder, and higher-pitched than other vowels in a word
  • Tense – made with a tightened tongue 
  • Unstressed - shorter, quieter, and lower-pitched than the stressed vowel 

WORDS TO DESCRIBE CONSONANTS

  • Affricate – made by combining a stop consonant with a fricative consonant in the same part of the mouth 
  • Alveolar – made with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth near the front teeth
  • Bilabial  – made using both lips
  • Fricative – made by partially stopping the flow of air in your mouth but allowing some air to escape
  • Glide - pronounced like a vowel sound, but occurs at a syllable boundary next to a vowel
  • ​Glottal - made by blocking air in the vocal tract
  • Labiodental - made with your upper front teeth touching your lower lip
  • Liquid - a sound made with the tongue near a specific place in the mouth, changing but not blocking the flow of air
  • Nasal - made with air flowing out through your nose, but not through your mouth
  • Palatal - made with your tongue touching the hard palate (the hard spot in the middle of the roof of your mouth)
  • Stop – a sound made by completely stopping the flow of air in your mouth, then suddenly releasing the air
  • Velar – made by touching the velum (the soft part of the back of the roof of your mouth) with the back of your tongue        ​
  • Voiced - made by vibrating the vocal cords
  • Voiceless - made without vibrating the vocal cords

OTHER WORDS

  • Consonant cluster - two or more consonants pronounced together in a syllable, without being separated by a vowel
  • Enunciate – pronounce clearly and distinctly
  • Syllable - a unit of sound that has one vowel, with or without consonants
  • Prefix - a unit of sound added to the beginning of a word, which changes the meaning of the word 
  • Suffix - a unit of sound added to the end of a word, which changes the meaning of the word
​
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  • Home
  • Vowels
    • VOWEL CHART
    • Front >
      • /iy/ (see, keep)
      • /ɪ/ (sit, pick)
      • /ey/ (take, name)
      • /ɛ/ (pet, tell)
      • /æ/ (sat, past)
    • Central >
      • /ɜr/ (church, nurse)
      • /ər/ (mother, surprise)
      • /ʌ/ (cup, must)
      • /ə/ (about, undo)
      • /ɑ/ (stop, job)
    • Back >
      • /ʊ/ (good, put)
      • /uw/ (food, soon)
      • /ɔ/ (bought, lost)
      • /ow/ (low, coat)
    • Diphthongs >
      • /ɑɪ/ (light, pie)
      • /ɑʊ/ (cow, loud)
      • /ɔɪ/ (boy, voice)
  • Consonants
    • CONSONANT CHART
    • Lips (Bilabial) >
      • /p/ (peace, price)
      • /b/ (buy, brain)
      • /m/ (map, time)
      • /w/ (wait, win)
    • Lips-Teeth (Labio-dental) >
      • /f/ (fix, friend)
      • /v/ (vase, love)
    • Tongue-Teeth (Dental) >
      • /θ/ (thank, bath)
      • /ð/ (this, breathe)
    • Tongue-Gum Ridge (Alveolar) >
      • /t/ (take, stand)
      • /d/ (day, drive)
      • /s/ (sit, race)
      • /z/ (zoo, these)
      • /l/ (less, sleep)
      • /n/ (nice, man)
    • Tongue-Palate (Palatal) >
      • /ʃ/ (push, show)
      • /ʒ/ (measure, vision)
      • /tʃ/ (choose, match)
      • /dʒ/ (juice, edge)
      • /r/ (rose, borrow)
      • /y/ (yes, young)
    • Tongue-Soft Palate (Velar) >
      • /k/ (kiss, cat)
      • /g/ (gas, green)
      • /ŋ/ (hang, long)
    • Throat (Glottal) >
      • /h/ (help, hand)
  • Resources
    • Pronunciation Vocabulary
    • For Students
    • For Instructors