English letter combinations with pronunciation. Rules for reading transcriptions in English

Greetings, my dear readers.

Today we continue to talk about how to learn to read correctly, so the topic of today’s article is transcription English letters.

We have already introduced you to the concept and dealt with the pronunciation of sounds in English. Today we will figure out exactly how they are pronounced in various combinations.

I have a clear table for you. It contains letters English alphabet with transcription, Russian analogue letters and my notes, so that you can immediately put correct pronunciation. I also added examples of words with the sounds being studied and their translation.

What else can you find on the blog:

1. with letters and transcription (you can study them online, download, print and work with them);
2. for children I have a complete one.

Let `s start?

Features of English transcription:

• it is always formatted with square brackets. I can’t say exactly where it came from, but I think it’s just worth taking it for granted;
• to understand where the stress is, the transcription uses the sign [‘] before the stressed syllable;
• It is important to remember that transcription is about the sound, not the spelling of words. Sometimes the spelling can be 90% different from what we pronounce;
• to show that a sound is long we use a colon.

In general, I wrote about English transcription - please!

Letters of the English alphabet and their transcription in Russian and English:

But do you know what is the most interesting thing about English?

If different letters are combined, they are pronounced differently!

That's why I prepared for you

Examples of English letter combinations in Russian and English:

I know this table seems huge right now. Surely you think that remembering all this is unrealistic. I'll tell you this: at a certain point, when you have enough, you won't even pay attention to these combinations. Your brain will learn to quickly remember how exactly these letters sound. Moreover, even when you come across a word that is completely unfamiliar to you, you will be able to read it correctly. The only question is the amount of practice on your part.

How to remember combinations of letters?

1. Use cards. Visual perception is better developed in most people.
2. Read. Pay attention to combinations of letters when or just texts.
3. Don't get hung up. It is not necessary to immediately memorize these combinations and only then move directly to English. Learn as you go!
4. Buy paper or download a good one e-book in order to quickly learn to recognize combinations and pronounce them correctly. Even if you, an adult, need it, don’t hesitate to take books for children - everything there is explained in detail and is not without interest.
5. Take the course « English from scratch» . This will make your path easier.

That's all, my dears. I hope you found it useful and understandable. Even more similar materials I give it in the blog mailing list - subscribe and receive a dose of useful information regularly.

We have already mastered it. Today we have a difficult topic: rules for reading in English language. Why complicated? Yes, because in the English language there are open and closed syllables, several types of reading vowels, special rules for reading double letters and combinations of letters, and many other rules. And there are also exceptions to the rules. Sometimes it is not clear what is more, rules or exceptions. However, you still need to be able to read. First of all, let's look at reading vowels.

Dividing words into syllables

Since reading vowels depends on the type of stressed syllable, this is where you should start. If you understand the types of syllables, then everything will be much easier.

First, let's divide the word into syllables (this applies to polysyllabic words with multiple vowels). The number of syllables depends on the number of vowel sounds in the word. Find all the vowels in the word.

A) If a vowel is followed by one consonant (except – r), then this consonant belongs to the following syllable: сo-lour, fi-nish, e-le-ven.
There is an immediate exception: monosyllabic words with the final unpronounceable vowel e are not divided into syllables: rule, face, take.

B) If a vowel is followed by two consonants, then the first consonant will refer to the first syllable, and the second to the following: doc-tor, sis-ter, fac-to-ry.

C) If a word contains a sonant [l], [m], [n], [r], then the consonant in front of it belongs to the following syllable: ta-ble, cy-cle, no-ble.

D) Combinations of letters ld, nd form a separate syllable: frie-nd, mi-ld, spe-nd.

Syllable types

In English there are four types of stressed syllables.

1. Open syllable. This is a syllable that ends with a vowel: he, no, we.
This also includes words that end in silent - e: time, life, name.

2. Closed syllable. This is the name of a syllable that ends with one or more consonants (except – r):
mend, ten, best.

3. Syllable with letter r. In such a syllable, the letter r, as a rule, is not pronounced: car, mark, start.

4. Syllable with the combination r + e. In it, the letters r and e are also not pronounced: fire, where, cure.

Well, we've sorted out the syllables. Now we mentally divide the word into syllables and learn to read it.

Rules for reading vowels

Depending on the type of stressed syllable, four types of reading vowels are distinguished.

1. First type of reading. In an open syllable, vowels are read in the same way as they are called in the alphabet. This type of reading is also called alphabetic. Let's look at the examples in the table:

2. Second type of reading. Vowels in closed syllable read briefly.

3. Third type of reading. The letter r after a stressed vowel is not read, and the vowel sound becomes long.

4. The fourth type of reading. This combination is: stressed vowel + r + vowel

The letter y at the beginning of a word before a vowel is read as the sound [j], for example: yesterday - yesterday.

Reading unstressed vowels

In an unstressed position, vowels are read differently.

The letters e, i, y are read as the sound [i] – elastic elastic distort, distort, heavy [‘hevi] heavy.

The vowels a, o, u are read as the sound [ə] – amaze [ə’meiz] to amaze, develop to develop, successful successful

Combinations of vowels and vowels with consonants

Various combinations of vowel letters, as well as vowels and consonants, have their own reading rules. They will have to be learned separately.

• ee is read as a sound – meet
• ea is also read as – speak [‘spi:k] to speak
  Exception: head head, breakfast [‘brekfəst] breakfast, bread bread
• ai gives sound – main main
• ay is pronounced as a diphthong – day day
• oo before any consonant except k and r is read as – food [‘fu:d] food
  Exception: good good, room room
• oo before the letter k is pronounced as a short sound [u] – book book
• oi is read as [ɔi] – point
• oy also gives a diphthong [ɔi] – boy boy
• oa read as – coat [‘kout] coat
• ou reads like – house
• ou in some words of French origin is read as – group group
• ou before the letter r is pronounced [ɔ:] – four [‘fɔ:] four
  Exception: hour [‘auə] hour, our [‘auə] our
• ea before r gives a diphthong – near
• air sounds like [ɛə] – chair [‘ʧɛə] chair
• eer is read as a diphthong – engineer
• ew in most words is read as – new [‘nju:] new
• ow under stress in monosyllabic words and in the middle of polysyllabic words sounds like – now [‘nau] now, brown brown
• ow at the end of two-syllable words in unstressed position is read as – yellow [‘jelou] yellow
• w + or before a consonant sounds like [ə:] – work work
• wa is read as if it is followed by a final consonant (except r) or combinations of consonants – want [‘wɔnt] want
• al before k sounds like [ɔ:], while l is not pronounced – chalk [ʧɔ:k] chalk
• a + s before a consonant is read as – glass glass
• o before m and n is pronounced [ʌ] – son son
• o + th is read as [ʌ] – mother [‘mʌðə] mother
• ig h is read as , while gh is not pronounced – light light

As you can see, the rules for reading vowels in English are not complicated, but there are a lot of them. Do not forget that there are words - exceptions - that are read differently. There are quite a few of them too. We will look at reading consonant sounds another time.

The rules of reading in English cannot be called simple. But you have to understand them at the very beginning of training - otherwise you won’t be able to move forward. Therefore, the rules for reading English for beginners (and for children) are usually stated concisely and clearly - and thank you for that. Transcriptions with examples and others are very helpful auxiliary materials(tables, exercises) and, of course, constant practice (reading aloud and listening).

Transcription- is the transmission of sound in writing using special symbols. In transcription, each sound has its own special sign.

True, there are features of transcription of reading in English that are difficult for Russian-speaking students. These difficulties are due to objective differences in pronunciation in English and Russian. Our language has simply been “different” since childhood, and relearning is always difficult. Especially when you consider that sounds in English are often pronounced differently from how they are written. Historically, this happened due to large quantity dialects in which the same letters and combinations of letters were read differently. But this doesn’t make it any easier for us.

Rules for reading transcriptions in English

Different English teachers solve this difficult problem in different ways. For example, they use the so-called “ English transcription in Russian”, that is, the recording English words Russian letters. To be honest, we do not support this technique. Because it doesn't allow you to truly learn correctly English pronunciation. It is only possible to very approximately convey the pronunciation of English words in Russian letters. Well, not some English sounds in the Russian language, the seemingly similar pronunciation of English and Russian sounds is still different.

Therefore, we are in favor of trying and learning the phonetic symbols with which transcriptions are written from the very beginning. This will help you understand and remember the rules of reading English for beginners. And in the future, English lessons will be much easier. As for the transmission of English sounds in Russian letters, this technique is needed for transliteration (like), but not for training pronunciation.

Rules for reading vowels in English

As we have already noted, letters and sounds in English often do not match. Moreover, there are many more sounds: 44 sounds for only 26 letters. Linguists even joke about this:

“We write Liverpool and we read Manchester”

There is such a big difference between a written word and its pronunciation in English. Well, let's start in order. From syllables that affect the reading of vowels. Syllables in English (as in any other language) are open and closed:

• Open syllable ends with vowel. It can be in the middle of a word or be the last word. For example: age, blue, bye, fly, go, etc.
• Closed syllable ends with I agree. It can also stand in the middle of a word or be the last one in a word. For example: bed, big, box, hungry, stand, etc.

Here is a table that explains how the same letter is read differently in closed and open syllables and in different positions in a word:

Rules for reading consonants in English

Consonants in English are less challenging than vowels. Only some of them (C, S, T, X and G) are read differently depending on their position in the word and neighboring sounds. And for clarity, here is the table again:

How are letter combinations read in English?

So, after vowels and consonants, we get to letter combinations. Now we will talk about the rules for reading syllables, not individual letters. And this is correct - after all, in words, letters are combined, so we rarely have to read individual sounds. And in syllables, sounds influence each other, so the following table contains the basic rules for reading syllables and combinations of consonant letters:

Live and other rules of reading in English

All students have different language and listening abilities. If the rules of reading in English are difficult, use one of the following techniques:

• Living rules for reading English. This is a fairly well-known technique for teaching reading and pronunciation in English. It is intended mainly for children, and the rules English reading presented as accessible as possible. Memorization is made easier by funny poems and tongue twisters. It makes sense to try to get your child interested in English from the very beginning of learning.
• Applications for learning English. We recently discussed a whole series. In most of them you can not only read, but also listen to new words. The same function is available in online translators - use it more often.
• Exercises on reading rules. There are many of them, but they all come down to training the skill to distinguish different sounds. For example:

Given a list of words ( what, who, wrestling, when, why, whose, wrong, where, whom, write, white, which, whole, wrangler). You need to distribute these words into groups with the sound that is pronounced in them: [w], [h] or [r].

Or words from another list ( give, good, cage, ginger, girl, gypsy, gold, grey, grace, beige, gift, gymnastics) distribute into two groups: one with the sound [g], the second - with the sound .

The reading rules exercises may seem complicated, but don't try to do them by memorizing every rule. Better try to understand not the rules, but the principles of reading English sounds. Do several exercises on reading rules to know exactly how to read some of the same type of words. The more you read and listen in English, the easier it will be to remember the correct pronunciation.

So our main advice is universal: practice, practice and once again practice of communicating and reading in English will help you learn the language easily and effectively!

Reading is one of the most difficult parts of learning English. In my experience, children more or less begin to read only at the end of the second year of study, if we are talking about high school. However, it happens that even after graduating from school, many graduates still cannot read English words.

Unlike the Russian language, in which almost 99% of what we see is what we read (adjusted for reduction, assimilation, etc.), in the English language the situation is completely different. Historically, the same letter in different positions can be read differently.

Let's take it for comparison the following words: cat - cake - want - bath - sofa. The letter “a” in these words will correspond to the following sounds: [æ], , [ɒ], [ɑ:], [ə]. And it’s not just about the 4 types of reading vowels. There are also a bunch of rules for letter combinations that regulate the reading of the letter “A”.

In fact, the English language is made up of rules and exceptions. Therefore, you can memorize reading rules as much as you like, which may not work in a particular case. Why do you think the verb “to spell” is popular only in English?

To have an idea of ​​the rules of reading English, I recommend you the following manuals. You can download all of them for free using the links below;

• S.V. Shimansky “Reading Rules in English” - gives a general set of reading rules with a few examples; there are no exercises in the manual. Excellent as a cheat sheet, because... consists of only 15 pages.
• The “Reading Rules” poster is an excellent tool for visually memorizing the rules of reading English.
• Shuman S.E. "English language. Reading Rules" - a guide to reading rules for middle school students and adults. The publication contains rules for reading letters of the English alphabet, vowels and consonants, and articulation options in various language situations.
• Appendix Vasilyeva E.A. “Rules for Reading English Words for the Lazy” is a program for Windows that outlines the rules for reading one-syllable, two-syllable and polysyllabic words in the English language. The material is presented in the form of tables and models, which makes it easier to learn the rules of reading English words.
• Narrow A.F. “Rules for Reading English Words” - this book is convenient for use by teachers, students and their parents. Its goal is to develop readiness to understand spoken speech and correct reading skills.
• L.P. Bondarenko “Fundamentals of English Phonetics” is a complete textbook on phonetics for high school students. Contains many rules, examples and exercises for practicing the pronunciation of English sounds.

Reading rules in English: table

Reading rules in English are, rather, not even rules, but generalized recommendations that are not particularly accurate. Not only does, say, the letter “o” in different combinations and syllable types can be read in nine different ways, there are also exceptions. For example, in the words food, too it is read as , and in the words good, look - as [u]. There is no pattern here, you just need to remember this.

If you look in different books, it turns out that the rules of reading, and indeed phonetics in general, can be told differently by different authors with varying degrees of immersion in detail. I think that there is no point in delving into the jungle of phonetic science (you can dive into it ad infinitum), and the easiest way is to take as a basis the most simplified version of the reading rules, that isreading rules in English for children.

For this article I took as a basis the rules given in the textbook"English language. Grades 1 - 4 in diagrams and tables" N. Vakulenko . Believe me, this is more than enough for both children and adults!

What is an open and closed syllable?

In English, there are open and closed syllables; it also matters whether it ends with the letter “r” and whether it is stressed.

A syllable is called open if:

• the syllable ends with a vowel and is the last in the word,
• a vowel is followed by another vowel,
• a vowel is followed by a consonant, and followed by one or more vowels.

A syllable is closed if:

• it is the last in the word, and ends with a consonant,
• A vowel is followed by two or more consonants.

The most important reading rules

The table above looks very busy, even intimidating. From this we can highlight several of the most important rules, which have almost no exceptions.

Basic rules for reading consonants

• The combination ph is read as [f]: photo, Morpheus.
• The combination th is read as [ð] or [θ]: think there. These sounds do not exist in the Russian language; their pronunciation requires some practice. Do not confuse them with the sounds [s], [z].
• The combination ng at the end of a word is read as [ŋ] - this is a nasal (that is, pronounced as if in the nose) version of the sound [n]. A common mistake is to read it as . There is no “g” in this sound. Examples: strong, King Kong, wrong.
• The combination sh is read as [ʃ]: ship, show, shop.
• The letter “c” before i, e, y is read as [s]: celebrity, cent, pencil.
• The letter “g” before i, e, y is read as: age, magic, gym.
• The combination ch is read as: match, catch.

Basic rules for reading vowels

• In an open stressed syllable, vowels are usually read as inalphabet : no, go, name, face, pupil, he, five. These can be monophthongs and diphthongs.
• In a closed syllable, vowels are read as short monophthongs: nut, got, ten.

Reading rules do not need to be remembered by heart, you need to be able to use them.