hey guys I know you're super keen to
improve your English pronunciation and
to do that you need two things a native
English speaker and a super amazing tool
called the IPA the international
phonetic alphabet huh
don't worry I'm going to tell you all
about it in just a minute
in lots of languages each letter
represents only one sound so it's easy
to try and pronounce words just by
looking at how the word is spelled but
English isn't like this no no no no no
no nope nope nope when you see letters
in an English word they won't always be
pronounced the same way take the letter
C for example in the word cup it's
pronounced cut but that's different to
the word place and when a c is next to a
hey CH it's often chip like in chocolate
but in the word ake it's pronounced like
a cut again here this is why the
International phonetic alphabet is such
a great tool for English students to
practice their pronunciation with and I
use it all the time when I'm teaching
pronunciation lessons in the IPA every
sound has a unique symbol so when you
read it you know exactly how to
pronounce the English word for example
the words though thought and cough all
have the same Oh ugh spelling but
actually they're pronounced very
differently though thought and cough now
these symbols might seem a little scary
to you especially if you haven't seen
the IPA before but actually they're so
helpful for you when you're learning
English pronunciation because it tells
you exactly how to say the word Oh
Koff so even if you've never heard of
these symbols before don't freak out in
today's lesson we're going to go through
the International phonetic alphabet
together now there's 26 letters in the
English alphabet right but there are 44
different sounds way more than there are
letters that's why I use the IPA to help
my students when they're studying
English pronunciation let's look at
vowels first there are five English
vowels aren't there a oh I oh and you
but there are way more English vowel
sounds some of them are long some of
them are short and some of them are just
lazy let's go through them e e o o
err
oh all ah ah are oh there's another
group of vowel sounds called diphthongs
now don't worry about remembering that
crazy name all you need to do is
remember the sounds diphthongs are
sounds that change from one vowel sound
to another but in the same syllable so
watch my mouth position change as I make
each of these sounds ear air or al Oh a
I we so we've been through valves and
diphthongs now we'll move on to
consonants the top row are unvoiced
consonant sounds which means that the
sound is made by air moving from the
back of your mouth through and out your
lips there is one extra letter that is
unvoiced down the bottom then all the
rest of the consonant sounds are voiced
which means that the sound is made here
with your vocal cords are you can feel
it here and unvoiced sounds use just air
you can't feel anything here
huh
tip
shit Shh
but mmm mmm Jim this is good what you
well that's it for this lesson
make sure you go to my website and
download the free worksheet to help you
practice the IPA sounds the link is in
the comments box below or right here
make sure you subscribe by clicking the
red button so that you get my next video
lesson which is all about English vowels
now
see you then