SPELLING INTO SOUND
Javier Santos Asensi, EOI Valencia VOWELS in UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES
o
o
o
In UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES all five vowels (a, e ,i ,o, u ) are pronounced weakly: / ə /; occasionally (e & i), / ɪ / Combination of vowels: OU, AU, OW, AW, AI, etc. are also pronounced weakly, usually / ə / , occasionally / ɪ / Y and W are semivowels. When they are the second element of a dypthong, they behave very much like I and U. VOWELS in STRESSED SYLLABLES: the silent –e rule
o In STRESSED SYLLABLES each of the letters a, e, i, o, u has two main sounds: the short sound and the long sound. o Silent –e rule applies to the pronunciation of vowels in one‐syllable stressed words which end in ONE consonant preceded by ONE vowel #VC (‐e). If the final –e is present, the vowel (V) will be pronounced using the long sound; but if we do not find a final –e in the monosyllable word, the vowel will be pronounced using the short sound. VOWELS
SHORT SOUND [latin]
A
E
I
O
U
LONG SOUND [anglo-saxon]
æ/
/ e/
/ɪ /
/ɒ /
/ ʊ / or / ʌ /
/ eɪ /
/ i: /
/ aɪ /
/əʊ /
/ ju:/ or /u:/
/
Examples
fat, made
pet, these
win, fine
stop, hope
bus, put, use,rude
VOWEL GROUPS AND DYPTHONGS in STRESSED SYLLABLES:
o
This is the logical pronunciation of the most common vowel groups in English when they are stressed. vowel group
OO
sound
examples
u:
food, room, roof, cool, school, moon, too, tooth
ʊ
good, wood, foot, took, cook, book, look, wool
OU
out, about, shout, count, mountain, sound
ɑ ʊ
OW
əʊ
OA
broad, abroad ɔ :
because, sausage
ɒ
ɑ :
aunt, laugh
OI, OY
ɔ ɪ
join, coin, point, oil, boil, spoil, voice, noise
joy, enjoy, employ, boy, destroy, annoy, royal
AI, AY
eɪ
main, pain, train, rain, paint, afraid, raise,wait
day, say, pay, away, play, tray, stay, delay
EE
i:
tree, free, agree, street, meet, sweet, green
great, break
eɪ
e
bread, head, dead, instead, ready, heavy, deaf
theatre
ɪ ə
eɪ
eight, rein, vein, neighbour, weight, they, obey
height
foreign
eye
friend
aɪ
ə
aɪ
e
ceiling, receive, receipt, either, key
EU, EW
ju:
niece, piece, chief, thief, believe, brief, field
neutral, pneumonia, new, knew, few, nephew
rheumatism, screw, grew, chew, jewel
UI
ɒ
eat, mean, please, easy, each, teach, team, cheap
i:
u:
ʌ
road, load, coal, goal, soap, boat, coat, toast
pause, sauce, caught, taught, cautious, autumn
jaw, raw, saw, straw law, drawer, awkward
IE
uə
tour,
tough, rough, touch
knowledge
ɔ :
EI, EY
blood, flood ʌ
ʊ ə
poor, moor
ɔ :
door, floor
now, how, cow, allow, town, crowd, flower
slow, grow, know, low, owe, show, own, yellow
AU, AW
EA
exceptions
bruise, cruise, fruit, juice, suit
CONSONANTS:
o Focus only on English consonants that are not pronounced the same way as in Spanish and those which may interfere with Spanish pronunciation. o Some consonants are not pronounced in certain context. You will find them at the end of the list. C
Y
•
•
/s/ followed by the vowels e, i, y.
/k/ followed by a consonant or a, o, u.
•
•
CH
•
tӃʃ / with the exception of foreign words.
/ ʃ / in words borrowed from French.
•
machine, chef, chic,champoo etc.
/k/
in Greek words. chemist, chorus,...
•
/
Z
/g/
before a, o, u.
/ dʒ / before e, i, y (but not always: get,
give...).
H
•
•
/ h /, aspirate, not like the Spanish /x/.
Silent in honour, hour, honest,...
J
/
Qu
/ kw /. The "q" , always followed by an "u".
R
In standard English it is not pronounced at
the end of the syllable or word, unless the
next word starts with a vowel.
•
•
V
/ s / Initial position (word or syllable), "SS" &
Morphemic -S (verbs, plurals, etc) after
a vowel or a voiced consonant.
/ z / Usually between vowels & Morphemic -S
after a voiceless consonant.
/v/
Always.
•
•
/w /
/h /
•
/
ʊ /
r/
Initial position ( word or syllable ).
Some interrogative words: Who,
whose, whom; an others: whole, etc.
Second element in a diphthong: row, cow
Wr
/
Wh
/ w/
Usually, silent "h". Whale, whee,
what, when.....
θ/
ð/
Thing, thigh, thorn,...
mostly in function words: the, this,
there,
Silent "w". Write, wrong,...
Th
•
•
dʒ/. Always.
S
/ z / Never pronounced like Spanish “zeta”.
W
G
•
•
/ j / Initial position. yes, yacht, young,
yellow
/ ɪ / Second element in a dyphthong. boy, say
/
/
Sh
/
Ph
/f/
Gh
•
•
ʃ / Always
Philosophy, phantom
Silent most frequently
/f/
In cough, tough, enough, laugh,
rough...
Kn
/n/
Silent "k", knife, kneel, knot, knight,...
Gn
/n/
Silent "g". foreign, gnome, reign,...
/s/
/sk/
Silent "c". Science, Scissors, Scene...
School, scrap, screw
Sc
X
•
•
/ks/
/gz/
explode, export, expect...
exam, exact, example...
•
•