// 184 Comments

The rules of reading in English are extensive and complex, because... There is a huge discrepancy between letters and sounds: there are 26 letters and 44 sounds, so different letters in different positions produce different sounds, which are conveyed in English symbols, called transcription marks. In this post, to make it easier to learn the rules of reading, we denote them partially in Russian letters.

4 Basic Types of Vowel Reading

First, let's learn the 4 main types of reading vowels E, A, Y, U, O, I in stressed syllables in English

Google shortcode

I reading type - open syllable ( a syllable ending in a vowel is considered open, even if it is not pronounced)

Pay attention to the first row of the table. The words same, note, he, fine, my, cube, like all words of this category, end in a silent vowel, and the reading of the vowels in the root of the word coincides with the name of the letters according to the alphabet. Thus, words with silent vowels at the end, i.e. words of type 1 reading same, note, he, fine, my, cube, will sound like “seim, note, hee, fine, may, cube”

Let's consolidate the reading of vowels in a stressed syllable with the following exercise:

Note, lone, mice, rice, type, tune, shy, lay, say, he, hay, name, same, nine, nice, game, came, make, Kate, Pete, five, tie, life, eve, me, size, no, cope, smoke, rose, nose, spine, sly, cry, vine, maze, home, tube, made, fume, cube, pace, lace, sky, hale, spine.

II reading type – closed syllable (a syllable ending in a consonant is considered closed). This is the second row in the table. Pay attention to the words rat, hot, red, bit, myth, run, which do not have a silent vowel at the end. These words sound like "rat, hot, ed, beat, miss, ran."

Cap, pen, bed, ten, not, spot, lot, bad, rat, sit, send, test, pit, in, send, spell, tin, less, ban, mad, fat, Sam, land, did, fit, sat, pet, tin, slip, sad, glad, bag, jam, gap, lag, can, kin, Jim, Jack, yes, ink, cup, run, cod, spin, not, doll, hop, hot, bank, rank, spin, up, us, bus, bun, cut, fun, vet, well, but, nut.

III type of reading – vowel + letter “r” , which affects the sound of the vowel at the root of the word, giving it some prolongation. So the words car, sort, term, fir, Byrd, fur sound like “ka: so:t, te:m, fe: be:d, fe:”.

stern , Far, curt, hard, hart, car, card, cart, fork, cork, work, sort, term, first, Byrd, furs, curl, her, curb, turn, girl, sir, burn, turn, word, born, torn, bird, form, serf, herb.

IVreading type – vowel + letter “r” + vowel. The letter “r” is also unreadable in this case; all three vowels together sound like this: care, store, mere, tire, cure - “kea, hundred:, mie, taie, kue.”

Fare, here, pure, rare, cure, during, mare, fire, bare, mire, stare, tire, sere, mere, store, core, more, care.

Video lesson: Rules for reading the vowel A in English

IN Idea lesson: Rules for reading the vowel E in English

Video lesson: Rules for reading the vowel U in English

Video lesson: Rules for reading the vowel O in English

Video lesson:Rules for reading vowels I,Y

Consonants with two reading options

*s m\z (interdental) – th – there is no such sound in the Russian language. This sound is dull and resembles the Russian sound “s”, but when pronouncing it, the tongue is located between the front upper and lower teeth, and a stream of air passes through the created narrow gap with force.

**we pronounce the interdental sound “z” in the same way.

Video lesson: Rules for reading English consonants

Reading chart for vowels combined with consonants

For high-quality assimilation of the sound system and reading rules English language We recommend repeating the above reading rules every day and trying to read monosyllabic words from the dictionary.

Video lesson: Rules for reading various letter combinations in English

Video lesson: Rules for reading English vowels in unstressed position

For rules for reading unpronounceable consonants, see

• Tip: To check the correct pronunciation, you can use the audio function of online dictionaries.

Hello, dear friends! If you have just started learning English, then the first thing you need to do is learn to read.

This can be done easily and quickly, since the English language has certain reading rules. First, let's get acquainted with to find out how English letters are read.

English letters are accompanied by English transcription so that you can easily learn to read English letters on your own. Why do you need to know the English alphabet?

First of all, while you are learning English and don't know many English words yet, your interlocutors will often spell words you don't know, helping you understand the word. You will do the same when the interlocutor does not understand you or is not familiar with the word you said.

Rules for reading English words depending on the type of syllable

Syllable type
open syllable	closed syllable	vowel + r	vowel +re	unstressed syllable
A	[æ]			[ə]
make	cat	car	share	ago
E	[e]	[ɜː]	[ɪə]	[ə] [i]
we	bed	her	here	absent
I/Y	[i]	[ɜː]		[i]
time	sit	girl	fire	music
U	[ʌ]	[ɜː]		[ə]
tube	cup	turn	cure	success
ABOUT [əʊ]	[ɒ]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ə], [əʊ]
note	not	short	more	more

Why is “Liverpool spelled, but Manchester pronounced” or how to read the word correctly in English?

First, let's learn the 4 main types of vowel reading E, A, Y, U, O, I in stressed syllables in English

Syllable type I is an open syllable; it ends in a vowel. For example: make, note.
Type II syllable is a closed syllable; it ends with a consonant. For example: cat, system.
Type III - a syllable where the stressed vowel is followed by the letter “r”. For example: girl, turn.
Type IV is a syllable where the stressed vowel is followed by “re”. For example: cure, fire.

Check your pronunciation of English vowels

Let's consolidate the reading of vowels with the following exercise:

I syllable type- open syllable

Note, lone, mice, rice, type, tune, shy, lay, say, he, hay, name, same, nine, nice, game, came, make, Kate, Pete, five, tie, life, eve, me, size, no, cope, smoke, rose, nose, spine, sly, cry, vine, maze, home, tube, made, fume, cube, pace, lace, sky, hale, spine.

II syllable type– closed syllable (a syllable ending in a consonant is considered closed). This is the second row in the table. Pay attention to the words rat, hot, red, bit, myth, run, which do not have a silent vowel at the end. These words sound like "rat, hot, ed, beat, miss, ran."

Cap, pen, bed, ten, not, spot, lot, bad, rat, sit, send, test, pit, in, send, spell, tin, less, ban, mad, fat, Sam, land, did, fit, sat, pet, tin, slip, sad, glad, bag, jam, gap, lag, can, kin, Jim, Jack, yes, ink, cup, run, cod, spin, not, doll, hop, hot, bank, rank, spin, up, us, bus, bun, cut, fun, vet, well, but, nut.

III syllable type– vowel + letter “r”, which affects the sound of the vowel at the root of the word, giving it some prolongation. So the words car, sort, term, fir, Byrd, fur sound like “ka: so:t, te:m, fe: be:d, fe:”.

stern , Far, curt, hard, hart, car, card, cart, fork, cork, work, sort, term, first, Byrd, furs, curl, her, curb, turn, girl, sir, burn, turn, word, born, torn, bird, form, serf, herb.

IV syllable type– vowel + letter “r” + vowel. The letter “r” is also unreadable in this case; all three vowels together sound like this: care, store, mere, tire, cure - “kea, hundred:, mie, taie, kue.”

Fare, here, pure, rare, cure, during, mare, fire, bare, mire, stare, tire, sere, mere, store, core, more, care.

Check the pronunciation of English diphthongs

Click on the image to listen!

Pronunciation of English consonants

Check the pronunciation of English consonants

Click on the image to listen!

Like and learn with our tips!

1. Write down words that you have problems with in a notebook. Underline the part of the word that is most difficult for you.
2. Use a dictionary, not a spell checker! Unfortunately, you can't always trust her.
3. Learn words with all kinds of prefixes and suffixes, for example: biography - auto biography, child - child hood etc.
4. Learn the rules, but don't rely on them. We have already said: every rule has its exception.

“i” is written before “e” (exception - after “c”)

One of the first reading rules taught in English classes. The rule works for words that have a long “ee”, as in shield(shield).

Examples: piece (part), niece (niece), priest (priest), thief (thief).

But after “c”: conceive (comprehend, plan), receive (receive), receipt (receipt; not to be confused with recipe).

For words in which the sound “a” or “i” is pronounced, the opposite is true:

“a”: eight (eight), neighbor (neighbor), reign (reign), weight (weight)

“i”: either, height, feisty, sleight

Exceptions: seize (grab), weird (strange), conscience (conscience, consciousness), efficient (effective), etc.

English reading lessons from scratch

When you study a foreign language, you learn not only a set of vocabulary and grammar, you in any case come across the culture and mentality of the people who speak this language. The best remedy knowledge of language and culture is reading in original. And to read on foreign language, you must first learn to read this language .

You don"t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. You can just make people stop reading them.

But, if at school or university you studied German or French languages, or your school base turned out to be smaller than you would like, and now you have decided to learn English, then let's start with the most primary and basic and find out several methods of where to start in order to master the rules of reading.

English alphabet

I think you know that English is different from Russian and German, in which we mainly write and read. In English the system is a little more complicated. The very first thing we need to do is learn the alphabet.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, including 21 consonants and 5 vowels. Knowledge of letters and the ability to pronounce them correctly is the key to successful and competent reading in English.

English alphabet with transcription of letter names.

A very easy way to memorize letters visually and aurally is with the help of a song. Watch the video and sing the song until you remember the letters of the alphabet.

You can use the same method to teach the alphabet to your children and sing the song with your kids.

Reading rules in English

After studying the alphabet, we will begin to study the combination of letters and read short words. There are a number of rules in the English language that you need to learn, practice and remember if you want to read English words correctly.

Rules for reading English consonants

Many consonants are read similarly to Russian consonants, for example the letters m, n, l, b, f, z. You can see this in words like mom, lemon, finger, boy, zebra .

Letters like t And d sound similar, but pronounced with aspirated. For example words table, teacher, dad, dirty.

Letter c has two reading options. Before letters i,e,y it reads like [s]- city, face, cyber. And before other vowels it is read as [k]- cat, cake, factory.

Rule with vowels i,e,y also works with letters g. In front of them it reads like - gym, George, giant. Before other consonants the letter is read as [g].

Letter q always occurs in a combination of letters qu and reads like - quick, queen, square.

Letter j always reads like - jacket, jam, joy.

Table of the relationship between consonants and sounds in English.

How to read vowels in English

In English, a word can end in an open or closed syllable, which affects pronunciation. For example words cat, pot, sit end in a closed syllable and have vowels a, o, i give sounds .

Words such as name, home, five end with an open syllable, since there is a letter at the end of the word e, which is not readable. But, thanks to her, the vowels in the middle of the word are read exactly the same way as they are pronounced in the alphabet, that is, the word name read .

Types of reading English vowels in stressed syllables.

Reading vowel combinations in English

There are certain combinations of letters that have established reading rules, although English tongue-tongue exceptions, and when reading more complex words, you should consult a dictionary. The table below shows combinations of English vowels with examples how they are read and what sound they make.

Table of vowel combinations in English.

And of course, there are exceptions to all rules. However, don't worry and think that you will never be able to learn it. Everything can be understood, you just need to try and practice a little.

Diphthongs of the English language with transcription

When you study the basic rules of reading, you will see that in English there are diphthong sounds that are quite difficult to reproduce, especially if you start learning the language not in childhood, but in adulthood.

Table of English diphthongs with transcription.

Transcription of sounds in English

Practice shows that when children learn a language, they must definitely study transcription, but adults do not want to learn it and it can be difficult for them.

If you still want to learn how to write and read transcriptions, then great! And if not, then you can use online dictionaries, where the word will be pronounced for you. One of the best dictionaries today is Multitran and the online dictionary Lingvo.

Important!

Remember that you need to use dictionaries, not translators!

Here is an example of reading short words with transcription:

Table of vowel sounds in English and transcription.

Living in the Internet age has some advantages. While sitting at home, you can master various knowledge online. For your attention video lesson , which explains the basic principles of reading. However, even after gaining knowledge through an online lesson, it needs to be consolidated in order for a skill to be formed.

Learn English tongue twisters

Tongue twisters, which are often aimed at practicing one sound, can help you here. Here are some examples you can use.

Tongue twister in English	Translation into Russian
Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather will not. Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot. We"ll weather the weather whether we like it or not.	The weather will be good or the weather won't be good. The weather will be cold or the weather will be hot. We can withstand any weather whether we like it or not.
Three swiss witch-bitches, which wished to be switched swiss witch-bitches, watch three swiss Swatch watch switches. Which swiss witch-bitch", which wishes to be a switched swiss witch-bitch, wishes to watch which Swiss Swatch switch?	Three Swiss witch bitches those who want to change their gender, looking at the three buttons on the Swatch watch. What a Swiss witch bitch those who want to change their gender, looking at what button on the Swatch watch?

Don't worry about tongue twisters! At this stage, when you are just learning to read and practicing sounds, it is important to pronounce them correctly, albeit slowly. You can always speed up.

Learn to hear English speech

After learning the basic, basic rules of reading, you can use the method of repeating after the speaker. Your auditory memory will also work and you will hear how words are pronounced correctly and what intonation is in sentences.

For this, you can use short dialogues and audio books for beginners. At this level, it would be ideal if the text is in front of your eyes, you listen, read and repeat at the same time!

You can use such a great resource as Oxford bookworm Library, which features audiobooks for all levels. You can download the library for free

For those who continue to learn English, we recommend learning the language from films, which you can read about in the article

Work on your pronunciation

Learning to read is only the first step towards learning a language. Just like learning grammar and vocabulary, learning to pronounce and hear correctly is very important if you want to understand what is being said to you and say it so that you are understood. Especially if you speak with a native speaker.

As we said a little above, one of the best ways is listen carefully to native speakers and try to copy their pronunciation and intonation .

Particular attention should be paid to sounds that do not exist in your native language. Often, people learning English have a problem with the ‘r’ sound, since in Russian it is hard, but in English it is more guttural and growling.

There are also difficulties in pronouncing the two sounds that combination of letters 'th'. Students persistently pronounce it as ‘c’ and ‘z’. Although it is worth noting that in words such as this, that, there, this sound is spoken as between ‘z’ and ‘d’. And in words like three, think, thief, it is pronounced as a sound between ‘f’ and ‘s’.

This may seem strange to you, since there are no such sounds in the Russian language, but if you listen to native speakers, you will understand that this is how they speak.

Don't worry if you can't say these words correctly the first time, it just takes a little practice. But, try to learn correctly from the very beginning, because it will be more difficult when you are forced to relearn.

Learn to pronounce phrases in English correctly

In English, words in sentences are not pronounced separately; they often merge as if into one whole, especially if it is a combination of a vowel and a consonant. Watch and practice with these transcription examples.

The same applies to phrases where one word ends with the letter ‘r’, and the next word begins with a vowel. In such cases, the sound 'r' is pronounced. Here are some examples.

So let's continue studying the rules of reading in English. And let's start reading the English vowel O. As you remember, there are 6 vowels in total. Here they are: A, E, I,O,U, Y. Vowels whose reading rules you have already learned are highlighted in bold. So, the letter O is the fourth vowel in the English alphabet. In an open syllable it is read as in the alphabet, that is [əu]. It remains to remember how it is read in other types of syllables.

So, from lesson No. 24 you will learn:

• how the English vowel Oo is read depending on the type of syllable;
• and repeat the pronunciation of the sounds [əu] and [ɔ].

Reading the English letter O in four syllable types

As you already know, there are 4 types of syllables in the English language and, accordingly, there are 4 ways to read vowels. But with a letter O everyone is lucky, since her reading in the third and fourth syllable types is the same. Below are phrases that you need to learn and repeat several times a day to remember how to read vowel letter O in the appropriate syllable type.

By the way, Transcription icons vary slightly between dictionaries. For example,

[ɔ] = [ɒ]

Check the pronunciation of a word by clicking on it with your mouse!

Reading the letter O in 4 syllable types. Tongue twisters

1. [əu]: I go home. - I'll go home.

2. [ɔ]: Hot dogs and coffee cost a lot. — Hot dogs and coffee are expensive.

3. [ɔ:]: It’s important to play sports. — It is important to play sports.

4. [ɔ:]: What a bore! - How boring!

Remember! After the letter W, the vowel O is read - [ə:].

• Words at work. — Words at work.
• The world of words. - The world of words.

Phonetic exercises to practice the rules of reading the vowel O in open and closed syllables

O(I, II):

Home, open, clock, those, over, frog, sorry, moment, pose, ago, cone, frost, doe, toe, noble, spot, shoddy, shock, roe, role, poker, pony, otter

Exceptions: gone - - went; one - - one; once - - once

Phonetic exercises to practice the rules for reading the vowel O in the third and fourth type of syllable:

O (III, IV):

fork, sore, score, born, more, corn, formal, store, door, snore, horse, force, port, orbit, horn

Exceptions:

come, love, mother, company, some, money, honey, month, front, son, comfortable, London, become, other, nothing, cover, above, brother, none, color, comfort, done

3) In some words o read . You need to remember them:

1. to - service particle of the indefinite form of the verb
2. do - do
3. who - who
4. whom - whom
5. whose - whose
6. move - move
7. prove - to prove
8. lose - to lose
9. shoe [ʃu:] - shoe
10. and some others

In an unstressed syllable, the vowel O is read as [ə]:
fact or[`fæktə], li o n [`laiən], vi o lin [`vaiəlin], c o llect

Your browser does not support the audio tag!

The phonetic system of many European languages ​​is generally the same and has a certain structure.

Of course, a big role in the pronunciation of vowels in English words intonation plays. There are certain rules for leading it up and down, as well as for individual turns, for example, there is and there are.

However, the phonology of the English language has an orderly presentation of English letters and their corresponding phonemes in the proper way.

Let's try to process and structure the existing extensive material for compact and easy assimilation, applying the principle of comparative studies - comparison with the phonetics of the Russian language where possible.

There are 6 vowels in English:

If you look closely at the capital and uppercase versions of the same word, you will notice that vowels such as O and U have identical spellings.

Transcription of vowels in English

Absolutely everyone who has encountered the study of English phonetics experiences difficulties in correctly understanding the transcription of vowel sounds.

The fact is that in the transcriptional embodiment the pronunciation of English vowels is not similar to, for example, identical Russian vowels. This circumstance is explained primarily by the different history of origin.

Thus, the system of English vowel phonemes goes back to diphthong combinations of sounds.

Graphically, a transcribed sound is indicated by enclosing it either in square brackets(), or in braces (/ /)

Let's look at the transcription of English letters:

Letter	Designated sound
— A a
— E e	*
—I i
— O o
— U u
— Y y

The sign “:” after a vowel sound denotes the so-called longitude. This means that the sound must be pronounced in a somewhat drawn-out manner.

Read also

Rules for reading vowels in English

However, the table above does not yet indicate that all sounds represented by the five English letters are transcribed in the same way.

As you know, there are only six vowel letters, but there are much more sounds that can graphically represent these letters - about 24.

No homework. No cramming. No textbooks

From the course “ENGLISH BEFORE AUTOMATION” you:

• Learn to write competent sentences in English without memorizing grammar
• Learn the secret of a progressive approach, thanks to which you can reduce English learning from 3 years to 15 weeks
• You will check your answers instantly+ get a thorough analysis of each task
• Download the dictionary in PDF and MP3 formats, educational tables and audio recordings of all phrases

Long vowels in English, examples

There are much more long vowel sounds in the language. For the most part, they are pronounced in monophthongs - the articulation does not change throughout the entire duration of the sound.

As already mentioned, in transcription such vowels are indicated by the sign “:”.

For example:

• Good
• Arduous