Ìrànlọ́wọ́:IPA

Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any letter are placed at the end.

Symbol	Examples	Description
^ top A
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ a ]	Spanish casa, French patte, German Mann	For many English speakers, the first part of the ow sound in cow. Found in some dialects of English in cat or father.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ aː ]	German Aachen, French gare	Long [a].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɐ ]	RP cut, German Kaiserslautern	(With English, [ɐ] is normally written "[ʌ]".)
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɑ ]	Finnish Linna, Dutch bad
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɑː ]	RP father, French pâte	Long [ɑ].
[ ɑ̃ ]	French Caen, sans, temps	Nasalized [ɑ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɒ ]	RP cot	Like [ɑ], but with the lips slightly rounded.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʌ ]		Like [ɔ], but without the lips being rounded. (When "[ʌ]" is used for English, it may really be [ɐ] or [ɜ].)
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ æ ]	RP cat
^ top B
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ b ]	English babble
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɓ ]	Swahili bwana	Like a [b] said with a gulp.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʙ ]		Like the brrr sound made when cold.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ β ]	Spanish la Bamba	Like [b], but with the lips not quite touching.
^ top C
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ c ]	Turkish kebap "kebab", Czech stín "shadow"	Between English tune (RP) and cute. Sometimes used instead for [tʃ] in languages like Hindi.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ç ]	German Ich	More y-like than [x]. Some English speakers have a similar sound in huge. To produce this sound, try whispering loudly the word "ye" as in "Hear ye!".
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɕ ]	Mandarin Xi'an, Polish ściana	More y-like than [ʃ]; something like English she.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɔ ]	see under O
^ top D
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ d ]	English did
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɗ ]	Swahili Dodoma	Like [d] said with a gulp.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɖ ]	American English harder	Like [d] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ð ]	English the, bathe
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ dz ]¹	English adze, Italian zero
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ dʒ ]¹	English judge
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ dʑ ]¹	Polish niedźwiedź "bear"	Like [dʒ], but with more of a y-sound.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ dʐ ]¹	Polish dżem "jam"	Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top E
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ e ]	Spanish fe; French clé
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ eː ]	German Klee	Long [e]. Similar to English hey, before the y sets in.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ə ]	English above, Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	(Only occurs in English when not stressed.)
[ ɚ ]	American English runner
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɛ ]	English bet
[ ɛ̃ ]	French Agen, vin, main; Polish mięso	Nasalized [ɛ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɜ ]	RP bird (long)
[ ɝ ]	American English bird
^ top F
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ f ]	English fun
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɟ ]	see under J
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʄ ]	see under J
^ top G
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɡ ]	English gig	(Should look like . No different from a Latin "g")
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɠ ]	Swahili Uganda	Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɢ ]		Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Gaddafi.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʒ ]	see under Z	English beige.
^ top H
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ h ]	American English house
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɦ ]	English ahead, when said quickly.
[ ʰ ]		The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ħ ]	Arabic محمد Muhammad	Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɥ ]	see under U
[ ɮ ]	see under L
^ top I
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ i ]	French ville, Spanish Valladolid
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ iː ]	English sea	Long [i].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɪ ]	English sit
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɨ ]	Russian ты "you"	Often used for unstressed English roses.
^ top J
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ j ]	English yes, German Junge
[ ʲ ]	Russian Ленин [lʲeˈnʲɪn]	Indicates a sound is more y-like.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʝ ]	Spanish cayo (some dialects)	Like [j], but stronger.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɟ ]	Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole"	Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʄ ]	Swahili jambo	Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.
^ top K
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ k ]	English kick, skip
^ top L
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ l ]	English leaf
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɫ ]	English wool Russian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small"	"Dark" el.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɬ ]	Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey" Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit"	Rather like [l] and [ʃ] or [l] and [θ] said together. Found in Welsh names like Lloyd and Llywelyn and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɭ ]		Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɺ ]		A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɮ ]	Zulu dla "eat"	Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.
^ top M
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ m ]	English mime
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɱ ]	English symphony	Like [m], but lips touch teeth as they do in [f].
[ ɯ ]	see under W
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʍ ]	see under W
^ top N
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ n ]	English nun
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ŋ ]	English sing
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɲ ]	Spanish Peña, French champagne	Rather like English canyon.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɳ ]	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] "Varuna"	Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɴ ]	Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.
^ top O
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ o ]	Spanish no, French eau
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ oː ]	German Boden, French Vosges	Long [o]. Somewhat reminiscent of English no.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɔ ]	German Oldenburg, French Garonne
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɔː ]	RP law, French Limoges	Long [ɔ].
[ ɔ̃ ]	French Lyon, son; Polish wąż	Nasalized [ɔ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ø ]	French feu, bœufs	Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ øː ]	German Goethe, French Deûle, neutre	Long [ø].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɵ ]	Swedish dum	Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ œ ]	French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen	Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ œː ]	French œuvre, heure	Long [œ].
[ œ̃ ]	French brun, parfum	Nasalized [œ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ θ ]	English thigh, bath
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɸ ]	Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji	Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching
^ top P
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ p ]	English pip, spit
^ top Q
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ q ]	Arabic Qur’ān	Like [k], but further back, in the throat.
^ top R
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ r ]	Spanish perro, Scots borrow	"Rolled R". (Generally used for English [ɹ] when there's no need to be precise.)
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɾ ]	Spanish pero, Tagalog daliri, Malay kabar, American English kitty/kiddie	"Flapped R".
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʀ ]		A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɽ ]	Hindi साड़ी [sɑːɽiː] "sari"	Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɹ ]	RP borrow
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɻ ]	American English borrow, butter	Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʁ ]	French Paris, German Riemann	Said back in the throat, but not trilled.
^ top S
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ s ]	English sass
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʃ ]	English shoe
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʂ ]	Mandarin Shàolín, Russian Пушкин (Pushkin)	Acoustically similar to [ʃ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top T
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ t ]	English tot, stop
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʈ ]	Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ts ]²	English cats, Russian царь tsar
[ tʃ ] ²	English church
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ tɕ ]²	Mandarin 北京 ⁽ⁱ⁾ Běijīng, Polish ciebie "you"	Like [tʃ], but with more of a y-sound.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ tʂ ]²	Mandarin zh, Polish czas	Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .
^ top U
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ u ]	French vous "you"
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ uː ]	French Rocquencourt, German Schumacher, close to RP food	Long [u].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʊ ]	English foot, German Bundesrepublik
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʉ ]	Australian English food (long)	Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɥ ]	French lui	Like [j] and [w] said together.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɯ ]	see under W
^ top V
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ v ]	English verve
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʋ ]	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳə] "Varuna"	Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɣ ]	Arabic / Swahili ghali "expensive", Spanish suegro	Sounds rather like French [ʁ] or between [g] and [h].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɤ ]	Mandarin Hénán	Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
[ ʌ ]	see under A
^ top W
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ w ]	English wow
[ ʷ ]	English rain [ɹʷeɪn]	Indicates a sound has lip rounding, quick.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʍ ]	what (some dialects)	like [h] and [w] said together
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɯ ]	Turkish kayık "caïque"	Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɰ ]	Spanish agua
^ top X
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ x ]	Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good", Spanish joven	between [k] and [h]
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ χ ]	northern Standard Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [x], but further back , in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].
^ top Y
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ y ]	French rue	Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ yː ]	German Bülow, French sûr	Long [y].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʏ ]	German Eisenhüttenstadt	Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʎ ]	Spanish llama (Castilian)	More y-like than [l]. Rather like English volume.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɥ ]	see under U
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ɤ ]	see under V
[ ɣ ]	see under V
^ top Z
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ z ]	English zoos
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʒ ]	English vision, French journal
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʑ ]	formal Russian жжёшь [ʑːoʂ] "you burn", Polish źle	More y-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʐ ]	Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", Russian журнал "journal"	Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .
[ ɮ ]	see under L
^ top other
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʔ ]	English uh-oh, Hawai‘i, German die Angst	The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɨnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [ʌˈʔæpl̩].
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ʕ ]	Arabic عربي (^carabī) "Arabic"	A light sound deep in the throat.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ǀ ]	English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring"	(The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǀ ], [ ɡǀ ], [ ŋǀ ]. The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ǁ ]	English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog"	(The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǁ ], [ ɡǁ ], [ ŋǁ ]. Found in the name of the Xhosa.
⁽ⁱ⁾ [ ǃ ]	Zulu iqaqa "polecat"	(The English click used to imitate the trotting of a horse.) A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [ kǃ ], [ ɡǃ ], [ ŋǃ ].

^1 ^2 These symbols are officially written with a tie linking them (e.g. t͡ʃ), and are also sometimes written as single characters (e.g. ʧ) though the latter convention is no longer official. They are written without ligatures here to ensure correct display in all browsers.

Diacritic marks

All diacritics are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a.

Symbol	Example	Description
[ ˈa ]	pronunciation [pʰɹɜʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩]	Main stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ ˌa ]	pronunciation [pʰɹɜʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩]	Weaker stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ aː ]	English shh! [ʃː]	Long. Often used with English vowels or diphthongs: Mayo /ˈmeːoː/ for [ˈmeɪ̯ɜʊ̯], etc.
[ aˑ ]	RP caught [ˈkʰɔˑt]	Semi-long. (Although the vowel is different, this is also longer than cot [ˈkʰɒt].)
[ a̯ ]	English cow [kʰaʊ̯], koi [kʰɔɪ̯]	This vowel runs into the vowel next to it. (In English, the diacritic is generally left off: [kaʊ].)
[ ã ]	French vin blanc [vɛ̃blɑ̃] "white wine"	A nasal vowel, as with a Texas twang.
[ n̥ ]		Sounds like a loud whisper; [n̥] is like a whispered breath through the nose. [l̥] is found in Tibetan Lhasa.
[ n̩ ]	English button	A consonant without a vowel. (English [n̩] is often transcribed /ən/.)
[ d̪ ]	Spanish dos, French deux	The tongue touches the teeth more than it does in English.
[ kʰ ]	English come	Aspirated consonant, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [tʰ pʰ tsʰ tʃʰ tɕʰ].
[ k’ ]	Zulu ukuza "come"	Like a popped [k], pushed from the throat. Similarly [t’ p’ q’ tʃ’ ts’ tɬ’].
[ á ]	Mandarin 妈妈 [mámā] "mother"	High tone (Pinyin: mā)	Careful! The Pinyin Romanization used for Mandarin has these same diacritics, but with different values. However, Thai Romanization uses them the way the IPA does.
[ ā ]	Mandarin 妈妈 [mámā] "mother"	Mid tone.
[ à ]	Mandarin 马的 [màdɤ] "horse's"	Low tone (Pinyin: mă).
[ â ]	Mandarin 骂 [mâ] "scold"	Falling tone (Pinyin: mà).
[ ǎ ]	Mandarin 麻 [mǎ] "hemp"	Rising tone (Pinyin: má).
[ . ]	English courtship [ˈkɔrt.ʃɪp]	Syllable break. (this is often redundant and therefore left off)

Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:

[Square brackets] indicate the phonetic details of the pronunciation, regardless of whether they are actually meaningful to a native speaker. This is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear. For instance, the English word lulls is pronounced [ˈlɐɫz], with different el sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of other languages, though a native English speaker might not believe it. Likewise, Spanish la bomba has two different b sounds to foreign ears, [laˈβomba], though a Spaniard might not be able to hear it. Omitting such detail does not make any difference to the identity of the word.
/Slashes/ indicate meaningful sounds called phonemes. Changing the symbols between slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. Since there is no meaningful difference between the two el sounds in the word lulls, they need to be transcribed with the same symbol: /ˈlʌlz/. Similarly, Spanish la bomba is transcribed phonemically with a single b sound, /laˈbomba/. Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions.

A third kind of bracket is occasionally seen:

Either //double slashes// or |pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that aren't actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either /s/ in talks /tɔːks/ or as /z/ in lulls /lʌlz/, has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it //s// (or |s|) to claim that phonemic /tɔːks/ and /lʌlz/ are essentially //tɔːks// and //lʌls// underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, //z//, they would transcribe these words //tɔːkz// and //lʌlz//.

Lastly,

<Angle brackets> may be used to represent the original orthography: <lulls>, <la bomba>.

Rendering issues

Some fonts render certain IPA characters incorrectly.

Voiced velar plosive

These two characters should look similar:

ɡ

If in the box to the left you see a symbol resembling an upper-case Y rather than a lower-case open-tail g, you may be experiencing a well-known bug in the font MS Reference Sans Serif or other; switching to Lucida Sans Unicode or Arial Unicode should fix it.

On your current font: [ɡ].

Affricates and double articulation

The tie bar is intended to cover both letters of an affricate or doubly articulated consonant. However, if your browser uses Arial Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following incorrectly formed sequences may look better than the correct order (letter, tie bar, letter) due to a bug in that font:

ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡.

Here how the proper configuration displays in your default font:

t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m,

and in other several fonts:

Chrysanthi Unicode: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Doulos SIL: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Charis SIL: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Gentium: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
GentiumAlt: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Code2000: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
TITUS Cyberbit Basic: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
DejaVu Sans: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Bitstream Cyberbit: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Arial Unicode MS: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Lucida Sans Unicode: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Lucida Grande: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Matrix Unicode: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m
Times New Roman: t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m

Awon ijapo lode

IPA pronunciation chart
IPA Charts – pronunciation charts with an interactive chart of all IPA symbols with their sounds (Flash)
IPA Character Picker 7 - An easy-to-use web site for creating the complete set of IPA characters with any diacritic.

1

2