The letters of the alphabet and the sounds of speech are not the same. There are 20 consonants in the English alphabet; however, there are 24 consonant sounds in the English language. Additionally, the English alphabet has six vowels when counting "y," but there are 20 vowel sounds for the average English speaker. Phonetic symbols are used to write words as they sound. These symbols are called phonemes. Translating words into phonemes is the best way to insure that words are pronounced properly.
- The Sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet Chart
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Instructions
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1
Select a word or words that you want to translate. For example, translate the word "cat."
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2
Refer to the Sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet Chart. This chart has example words listed for each phoneme to help you identify the correct phoneme to use for each sound.
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3
Write the phonemes that form the words in between back slashes. Back slashes are used in linguistics to indicate that a word is written in phonemes and not alphabet letters. The word "cat" is written in phonemes as /kæt/.