[General] Phenotics

Please tell me an easy way to understand and learn English Phenotics. Suggest some good websites or material that I can look in for.

Few questions:

How many vowel and consonant sounds are there in English language?

How many Alphabets are there?
I was told by my Trainer that there is only one.
Explanation: English language consists of 26 letters. A- Z is an Alphabet.
Please tell me if the above explanation is true.

Thank you in advance!

2010 said:

Please tell me an easy way to understand and learn English Phenotics. Suggest some good websites or material that I can look in for.

Few questions:

How many vowel and consonant sounds are there in English language?

How many Alphabets are there?
I was told by my Trainer that there is only one.
Explanation: English language consists of 26 letters. A- Z is an Alphabet.
Please tell me if the above explanation is true.

Thank you in advance!

Click to expand...

1) The word is "phonetics"
2) There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
3) There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
4) There are 21 consonants.
5) We only have one standard alphabet in English, and it consists of those 26 letters, from A to Z.

emsr2d2 said:

1) The word is "phonetics"
2) There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
3) There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
4) There are 21 consonants.
5) We only have one standard alphabet in English, and it consists of those 26 letters, from A to Z.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply emsr2d2!

I would appreciate if you could tell me how many consonant and vowel sounds are there?

2010 said:

Thanks for your reply emsr2d2!

I would appreciate if you could tell me how many consonant and vowel sounds are there?

Click to expand...

Does this help with vowel sounds?

English Vowel Sounds

emsr2d2 said:

1) The word is "phonetics"
2) There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
3) There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
4) There are 21 consonants.
5) We only have one standard alphabet in English, and it consists of those 26 letters, from A to Z.

Click to expand...

Oops, sorry about the spelling error. :shock:

emsr2d2 said:

Does this help with vowel sounds?

English Vowel Sounds

Click to expand...

It does to an extent, but does not answer my question though :-(

If you have something else to suggest, that would be appreciated. Meantime, I will try to find my way through.

Thank you for your continued support.

2010 said:

Thanks for your reply emsr2d2!

I would appreciate if you could tell me how many consonant and vowel sounds are there?

Click to expand...

In Received British Pronunciation, 44. Have a play with the interactive table somewhere on the British Council site (it keeps moving; I've downloaded it, but I don't know it's latest location - anyone :?

Some dialects use more, and some teaching schemes prefer to use fewer; for example, New Cutting Edge (Upper Int.) comes with a CD that contains an interactive table that has only 43.

Am Eng is a whole nother thing. ;-) Most of the consonant sounds are similar, but few if any of the vowel sounds (which are close enough, but distinctive).

b

Is this the one?

Phonemic chart | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

emsr2d2 said:

Does this help with vowel sounds?

English Vowel Sounds

Click to expand...

This is American. It transcribes 'o' as /ah/ Stahp!
[Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a list of all English sounds]

Try here:
Wikipedia:IPA for English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This one has a printable pdf. chart:
The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet | Antimoon.com

IPA chart for English dialects - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raymott said:

This is American. It transcribes 'o' as /ah/ Stahp!
[Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a list of all English sounds]

Try here:
Wikipedia:IPA for English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IPA chart for English dialects - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click to expand...

How odd! I couldn't play with it due to a computer problem, but given that the top of the screen shows the British Council in conjunction with the BBC, I thought it was a safe bet that it would be British English pronunciation.

emsr2d2 said:

How odd! I couldn't play with it due to a computer problem, but given that the top of the screen shows the British Council in conjunction with the BBC, I thought it was a safe bet that it would be British English pronunciation.

Click to expand...

I was referring to the original link posted - the one I quoted in my post - not the subsequent BBC one.
Yes, the BBC site does have a comprehensive list of standard British English sounds, but not American and others.

Raymott said:

I was referring to the original link posted - the one I quoted in my post - not the subsequent BBC one.
Yes, the BBC site does have a comprehensive list of standard British English sounds, but not American and others.

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity: Is there anything wrong with the Ame pronunciation?

Is it good to learn both, British and American phonetics?

Any difference in the number of consonant and vowel sounds between these two accent.

Suggestion please.

2010 said:

Out of curiosity: Is there anything wrong with the Ame pronunciation?

Is it good to learn both, British and American phonetics?

Any difference in the number of consonant and vowel sounds between these two accent.

Suggestion please.

Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with learning both the BrE and AmE pronunciations of words that differ, as long as you're consistent when you're speaking. I would find it odd if half your words had American pronunciation, and half British. It's good to know the different sounds, though.

I'm afraid I have no idea how many consonant sounds there are in AmE, I'm sure one of our American friends will be able to help out.

emsr2d2 said:

Does this help with vowel sounds?

English Vowel Sounds

Click to expand...

As Raymott says, that's Am. Eng.

emsr2d2 said:

Is this the one?

Phonemic chart | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Click to expand...

Yup.

b

2010 said:

Out of curiosity: Is there anything wrong* with the Ame pronunciation?

Is it good to learn both, British and American phonetics?

Any difference in the number of consonant and vowel sounds between these two accent.

Suggestion please.

Click to expand...

* Not at all. In the 18th century a joke was current (in England) about the need to send young English men to America when they left school, to learn to speak English 'properly'. It's good to be aware of both, but learning to speak both would be hard.

As to suggestions, I'd choose one and stick to it. The one you choose will depend on your needs.

b