Learn Phonetics - International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

The IPA - International Phonetic Alphabet.

An extremely useful tool for language learners, especially when it comes to learning English.

As our spellings do not inform the pronunciation.

Just take Thorough, Receipt,  Cough, Queue and Wednesday.

The problem is trying to learn  and remember the phonetic symbols.

Well, here are a few steps to  make learning the IPA super easy.

Let’s go!

Step 1: You need to know what you don’t know.

Many of the IPA symbols you  can probably already read.

For example, the sound of the letter  T written phonetically is /t/. 

And the sound of the letter P  -/p/ written phonetically is /p/.

Therefore once you learn that the  vowel sound O is written like this /ɒ/. 

Then you can easily read these words /tɒp/ and /pɒt/, top and pot.

So grab a blank sheet of paper and  draw line right down the middle.

At the top of one side write Confident  and on the other side Not Confident.

Then go through the 44 phonemes (24  consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds).

You can use one of my IPA videos linked  below or search Google for an IPA chart.

Then go through each of the sounds and if you  are confident that you know them place them into  

the “Confident” column. But if it’s unfamiliar to  you then place it in the “Not Confident” column.

Now you have a clear idea which  phonemes you need to work on.

Here I have listed the symbols that most  commonly appear in the “Not Confident” column.

Step 2: Create visual hooks.

For remembering the unfamiliar IPA symbols  I highly recommend the visual hook method.

This method requires you to connect  something you don’t know to something you do.

For the unfamiliar phonetic symbols,  we simply have to use our imagination.

Let’s take the /ʌ/ symbol. This  vowel is present in the word  

UP so we can think of the symbol  as the upward pointing arrow.

Or how about the /ɒ/ sound,  which is present in the word POT.

We could imagine a stick  man, very simple (no head,  

no legs, no arms) holding a big round pot - /ɒ/.

Or imagine a sad person who  has lost all their money. 

“Oh, no. No money.” And banged their head.  

They would be POOR and SORE.

And this poor/sore person needs to lie down. So I am going to draw  

a sad face on it’s side /ɔ:/. The /ɔ:/ sound. Poor. Sore.

Now, It does help to know  that the colon-like symbol  

is used after a vowel to  show that it is a long sound.

You will see this as dots or  triangles pointing towards each other.

Have you noticed that with all  my hooks I connected the image  

to a word that contains the target sound?

Up - /ʌ/, pot - /ɒ/, and poor/sore /ɔ:/.

Spend a few minutes creating your own visual hooks  

for each of the symbols on  your “Not Confident” list.

This method requires you to invest  time at the beginning but trust me,  

it is worth the investment as it makes memorising  the material so much faster in the long run.

Step 3: Work it

Right, so we know what we need to learn,  

we have our visual hooks, now  we need to do some groundwork.

Get your calendar and decide how much  time you can spend working on this  

each day over the next 7 days. It might be 5 minutes, 10 minutes,  

20 minutes, 30 minutes?

Plot the time you have into your diary  and set yourself a reminder each day.

Then divide your list of symbols  equally across those 7 days.

So, if you have 28 symbols, that  would be 4 symbols each day.

Now, this is your average!

Your guide.

If you have more time one day and  want to do more - then do more.

During your work sessions, you should  first practise writing your symbol  

(while making the sound out loud) repeatedly. /ʌ/, /ʌ/, /ʌ/ 

Do this for 30 to 60 seconds.

Then, write a sentence, any old sentence,  

trying to include words that contain  the sound you are working on.

Then head to a transcribing website,  I’ll link someone down below,  

where you can transcribe  the sentence into phonetics.

Then scan the sentence to find your symbols.

This is all about symbol recognition.

Finally, make another sentence  or take a passage from a book,  

or article and try to transcribe the  entire sentence into phonetics on your own.

If there are sounds you can’t remember how  

to write just leave a space  and come back to it later.

If this all feels like too  much effort – don’t worry!  

I have put together a full workbook for you,  the link can be found in the description below.

Step 4: Flash Ah-ah saviour of the universe!

This step is all about fast revision.

Flashcards are a highly effective study tool  to help you memorise all sorts of information.

What you want to do here is create  a deck of double-sided cards.

On the first side split the card face into two,  

in the top half write the symbol, and in  the bottom half draw your visual hook.

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t very  good at drawing, this is just for you.

Now, using a mixture of pictures and words is  a great recipe for remembering information.

Then turn the card over and on the back  

write several words that contain the  sound that your symbol represents.

So, I have drawn the schwa symbol  here, and my visual hook for this is  

a lower case ‘e’ that keeps turning  upside-down and confusing me so I say ’ER’?

On the back I will write  

water and underline ‘er’ as these letters  are pronounced as a schwa, /ˈwɔː - tə/.

I will also add letter,  doctor, account, and clever.

Now, handwriting your flashcards is good  because the act of writing helps your memory.

However, if you want a head start,  I have some pre-made flashcards  

for you to download. The link  is in the description for those.

Now, when using your flashcards go  both ways, try looking at the symbols  

and saying the sound out loud  with a few of your target words.

‘ER?’, ‘ER?’

- water, doctor, letter.

And also reverse it, look at your words  and then scribble down the symbol,  

trying to recall your visual hook if the  symbol doesn’t instantly spring to mind.

Now, being familiar with the IPA is really useful  

especially if you are interested  in accents and pronunciation.

In most online dictionaries you  will find a phonetic transcription  

underneath the word you are looking up, and  in some cases an audio file to listen to.

Now, don’t forget to download your Flashcards  and a sample of my IPA Workbook, linked below.

Then when you are ready, let’s go  through the IPA sounds together. 

I’ll see you next time. Bye