Stressed vowels in English. Vowels of the English alphabet with transcription and Russian pronunciation

Today on English language 1.5 billion people speak. Not surprisingly, knowing English is useful in many areas of life. It is better to study this international language, like any other, from the basics, in other words, from the alphabet.

English, like most European languages, based on the Latin alphabet of 26 letters. What are the features of the use of letters and sounds in English speech today?

How many vowels are there in English?

The English use 5 vowels in writing: A, E, I, O, U.

The pronunciation of vowels has its own secrets. If in a word the name of the letters coincides with the sound in a separate word, it is customary to talk about long vowels. If the sound changes due to proximity to other letters, the vowel becomes short. English vowels may or may not carry any sound.

How many consonants are in the English letter?

By subtracting 5 vowels from 26 letters, you can decide that there are 21 consonants in the British alphabet: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z. A logical assumption, but not entirely correct.

Like any other language, English speech has its own nuances. Thus, a number of consonants become "mute" due to the proximity to certain letters, like the letter W in the word "wrong".

10 features of the English alphabet and pronunciation

1. The example with consonants mentioned above is not completely correct, because the letter Y, which was originally called a consonant, is sometimes used as a vowel sound: type, gym.
2. English writing and pronunciation are characterized by monophthongs and diphthongs from vowels, for example: AE, OO.
3. Consonants can form digraphs: sh, zh, ch, kh, th.
4. There are triphthongs in English writing. These are vowels that are pronounced without delay in one stressed syllable.
5. The letters W and R are sometimes included in digraphs to represent vowel sounds, such as AR as a long "a" sound.
6. When the same letter appears twice in an English word, it can either be pronounced the same way, or it will sound completely different, for example, as in the word "clock".
7. Features of English provide ample opportunity for language maneuver. So, out of 26 letters, 44 sounds were created for pronunciation by native speakers: 19 of them are vowels, and 25 are consonants.
8. The letter J was the last to enter the alphabet.
9. The most popular letter in English words is E, the rarest is Z.
10. The English alphabet acquired its final form in the 17th century.

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The English language is becoming more and more widespread every day. Today he speaks most of population of the planet, which automatically makes it international language communication. Apart from American continents it is studied in Europe and Asia. Australia, being part of the former British Empire, has long recognized English as its official language. If in Western Europe American and British English are studied by children from the very early age, then in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries it is treated very mediocrely. School program passing through the most frequency words, while children are not really explained the rules for their use. All this makes people learn on their own, which is much more difficult. Today we will look at how vowels are used. English alphabet in words. They affect the quality of pronunciation and perception of the language.

American word building

The consonants of the English alphabet are the basis of all words. The total number of letters is 26, of which 20 are consonants, and there are only 6 vowels in English. Despite such a meager number, they can take on various forms of pronunciation, as a result, about 20-24 sounds are obtained from 6 letters. All vowels and consonants are listed in the table below:

As you can see in the picture, the vowels in the English alphabet are highlighted yellow. A transcription is written next to each letter, thanks to which you can learn how to pronounce this or that letter correctly. The need for transcription has always been due to the fact that to explain correct pronunciation on the example of the Russian language is simply impossible. If in Russian one letter is equated to one sound, then most of the vowels in the English alphabet are pronounced using a combination of two phonemes.

The last letter "Yy" can be a vowel or a consonant, depending on the type of syllable. This should be taken into account when reading and morphemic analysis of words. Which sound will determine this or that letter depends on its position in the word and syllable.

Types of syllables in the English alphabet

At the lessons of the Russian language, everyone studied an unshakable rule: how many vowels in a word, so many syllables in it. This also applies to the English language, which greatly simplifies its study. For example, take the word "octopus", which means "octopus". Oc-to-pus - three vowels and three syllables. The example is remarkable in that it has everything we need: open and closed syllables.

open syllable

This concept means a syllable that ends in a vowel or consists of one vowel:

1. A [hey] - indefinite article, consisting of one letter, is an open syllable. Therefore, the article is read as indicated in the transcription.
2. Rules (rules) - consists of two syllables, but only the first is open. Therefore, "u" is read as in transcription, and "e" practically disappears from the word during pronunciation.
3. Far (far) - the syllable is closed. Therefore, instead of [hey], a long [a] is pronounced.

Consonants and their combinations often change the phonetic meaning of vowels in the English alphabet, forming non-syllables of different types.

Closed syllable

Book, cook, root, meet, flat, and other words where a consonant closes a syllable are words with closed syllables. In the examples listed above, "oo" is read as Russian "u", "a" instead of [hey] is read as Russian "a".

Vowels of the English alphabet: reading features

You already know that there are far fewer vowels in the English alphabet than their sounds. What else can affect the quality of pronunciation of phonemes besides the type of syllable in a word? We will go over a few basic rules that will help you start pronouncing words correctly and improve your reading skills in a foreign language.

1. The presence of the letter "R" in the word. If the letter is present in open syllable, it is practically unreadable and merges with the adjacent vowel. This produces a sound similar to the Russian "e". If the letter is in closed syllable, then it affects the duration of the pronunciation of the vowel: long sounds become short and vice versa.
2. stress. If the accent falls on the letters "a", "o" or "u", then their pronunciation is practically not performed. They are read in passing, the duration of emphasis on these sounds is extremely short. The result is again a sound similar to the Russian "e". For example, the combination sofa-bed (sofa bed) is pronounced together, its transcription looks like [‘soufǝbǝd]. If the accent falls on "i", "e" or "y", they are pronounced like the Russian "i". For example: city, enemy.
3. Pronunciation speed. When speaking quickly, it may turn out that the stress in the word is not recognized at all. This results in the fact that a long vowel shortens the length of its pronunciation or disappears from the word altogether. All pronouns in English are pronounced with short vowels, although the rules are to speak with long phonemes.
4. Weak and strong forms. Short vowels are automatically considered weak, since they cannot take on stress, but in combination with other letters they can form new sounds. Weak short forms are mainly expressed in particles, articles and pronouns. In full-fledged words, strong long phonemes are much more common.

The most incomprehensible for a Russian-speaking person in the study of the vowels of the English alphabet is the analysis of diphthongs. The combination of two sounds for the pronunciation of one letter is new to the Russian language. For a general understanding, it is worth noting that all diphthongs are pronounced briefly, but their position in the word relative to consonants and the type of consonants themselves matter. Before deaf sounds like "f", "h", "s", "t" and others, diphthongs practically disappear from sound pronunciation and become very short.

For a better understanding of speech and the rules of its origin, it is recommended to read texts in English with automatic voice acting. Special courses or films with subtitles will do.

Study of any foreign language impossible without learning its alphabet. But memorizing letters without understanding how they sound and are used in words is meaningless. It is the knowledge of phonetics that is one of the most important stages in mastering the language. This is especially important when a person is only and the correct pronunciation of sounds, letters and, accordingly, words is a basic skill.

English letters and their sounds

In English - 26 letters:

6 vowels - a, e, i, o, u, y;

21 consonants - b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

“How so? - you say - twenty-one plus six equals twenty-seven! That's right, but the fact is that the letter "y" is both a vowel and a consonant. So decided the academicians who compile and edit the Oxford Dictionary - one of the most important dictionaries of the English language. Let's look at the English alphabet with transcription and pronunciation in Russian. Read!

How to read sounds correctly

First, to read sounds in English, you need to know how they are spelled. And they are written in square brackets - this is called phonetic transcription. In English there is vowels(vowel) and consonants(consonant) sounds. Just like in Russian, vowels are pronounced with open mouth, and consonants - with covered.

Table of pronunciation of English sounds

In some words, the number of letters and sounds may differ. For example, in the word help (help) - 4 letters and 4 sounds, but in the word six (six) - three letters, but 4 sounds. Each letter has its own sound, but in English there are such concepts as digraphs- these are two letters denoting one sound: gh [g] - ghost (ghost), ph [f] - photo ["foutou] (photo), sh [ʃ] - shine [ʃaɪn] (shine), th [ð] or [θ] - think [θɪŋk] (think), сh - chess (chess) and diphthongs- passing vowels from one to another: ea - bread (bread), ie - friend (friend), ai - again [əˈɡen] (again), au - autumn [ˈɔːtəm] (autumn), etc.

It is worth noting that digraphs and diphthongs are read differently depending on which part of the word they are in. For example, gh in the middle of a word is not pronounced: light (light), and at the end it sometimes sounds like “f”: enough [ı "nʌf] (enough); oo can be pronounced as a long [ʋ:], “y” in Russian : moon (moon), short [ʋ]: good (good), like short [ʌ], similar to “a” in Russian: blood (blood), but together with “r” it’s completely different, like [ʋə] : poor (poor).

It is also interesting that there are such words in English, the pronunciation of which is the same, but the spelling is completely different: know - no (know - no), leave - live (leave - live), feel - fill (feel - fill), etc. Here another reason to learn how to pronounce correctly English letters and sounds!

Syllables in English

Let's define what a syllable is. A syllable is the smallest spoken unit of speech, consisting of a sound (one vowel or in combination with a consonant), pronounced, one might say, in one breath. Considering that vowels are read differently depending on the type of syllable, let's consider what those syllables are like. In English, syllables are:

1. Open: the ending of the syllable is a vowel: go, toy, my.

2. Conditionally open: the ending of the syllable is a dumb "e" after the consonant: take, smoke, lime.

3. Closed: the end of the syllable is a consonant: get, sun, red.

How to distinguish syllables in a word in English? It must be remembered: how many vowels in a word - so many syllables.

Basic rules for dividing words into syllables:

1. If there is one consonant on the border of syllables, then it goes to the right: stu-dent (student), pu-pil (student).

2. If there is only one consonant in a word, but there are sonorous (nasal) sounds [m], [n], [l], [w], [r], [j], there can be several syllables: mi-ld (soft), fi-nd (to find).

3. If there are two consonant letters on the word boundary, one of which is the consonant l, it is included in the next syllable together with the consonant letter that precedes it: ta-ble (table), sta-ble (stable).

4. If there are more than two consonants on the border of syllables, then one of them closes the syllable, and the second opens the next one: lit-tle (small), sim-ple (simple).

The article provides only the basic rules for reading letters and sounds in English. The phonetics of the English language is a wide and interesting subject of study.

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