improve your English pronunciation and

to do that you need two things a native

English speaker and a super amazing tool

called the IPA the international

phonetic alphabet huh

don't worry I'm going to tell you all

about it in just a minute

in lots of languages each letter

represents only one sound so it's easy

to try and pronounce words just by

looking at how the word is spelled but

English isn't like this no no no no no

no nope nope nope when you see letters

in an English word they won't always be

pronounced the same way take the letter

C for example in the word cup it's

pronounced cut but that's different to

the word place and when a c is next to a

hey CH it's often chip like in chocolate

but in the word ake it's pronounced like

a cut again here this is why the

International phonetic alphabet is such

a great tool for English students to

practice their pronunciation with and I

use it all the time when I'm teaching

pronunciation lessons in the IPA every

sound has a unique symbol so when you

read it you know exactly how to

pronounce the English word for example

the words though thought and cough all

have the same Oh ugh spelling but

actually they're pronounced very

differently though thought and cough now

these symbols might seem a little scary

to you especially if you haven't seen

the IPA before but actually they're so

helpful for you when you're learning

English pronunciation because it tells

you exactly how to say the word Oh

Koff so even if you've never heard of

these symbols before don't freak out in

today's lesson we're going to go through

the International phonetic alphabet

together now there's 26 letters in the

English alphabet right but there are 44

different sounds way more than there are

letters that's why I use the IPA to help

my students when they're studying

English pronunciation let's look at

vowels first there are five English

vowels aren't there a oh I oh and you

but there are way more English vowel

sounds some of them are long some of

them are short and some of them are just

lazy let's go through them e e o o

err

oh all ah ah are oh there's another

group of vowel sounds called diphthongs

now don't worry about remembering that

crazy name all you need to do is

remember the sounds diphthongs are

sounds that change from one vowel sound

to another but in the same syllable so

watch my mouth position change as I make

each of these sounds ear air or al Oh a

I we so we've been through valves and

diphthongs now we'll move on to

consonants the top row are unvoiced

consonant sounds which means that the

sound is made by air moving from the

back of your mouth through and out your

lips there is one extra letter that is

unvoiced down the bottom then all the

rest of the consonant sounds are voiced

which means that the sound is made here

with your vocal cords are you can feel

it here and unvoiced sounds use just air

you can't feel anything here

huh

tip

shit Shh

but mmm mmm Jim this is good what you

well that's it for this lesson

make sure you go to my website and

download the free worksheet to help you

practice the IPA sounds the link is in

the comments box below or right here

make sure you subscribe by clicking the

red button so that you get my next video

lesson which is all about English vowels

now

see you then