Phonetics

Figure 1: source

For whatever reason, I decided to be a little more rigorous in my understanding of the phonetical symbols used in English. I realised that this is a good way to help non-native speakers come to grips with the vagaries of pronunciation in the English language. Firstly I located a table (link) showing the most common symbols (see Figure 1).

How does a non-native speaker who is relatively new to the English language pronounce a word like theatre? I located an online keyboard that contains the phonetic symbols shown in Figure 1. Using this, it is then possible to represent the word in phonetic format as θɪətə (link). This is shown in Figure 2. Familiarity with the pronunciation of the phonetic symbols allows the word to be pronounced easily and accurately.

However, there are problems with relying on the keyboard symbols because mistakes can be made in selecting the correct symbols. For this reason, an online converter is an even better idea.

Figure 2: source

One such converter I found at toPhonetics. It has the added advantage of allowing the user to hear how the word is pronounced. Mercifully there is a choice between British and American spelling. This is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: source

Whole sentences and paragraphs can be copied, pasted, transcribed into IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols and read out aloud. See Figure 4.

Figure 4

The voice used (Daniel) does a very good job of reading the text. The voice sounds like it might be Jon Bailey, the EpicVoiceGuy.