Pronunciation · Reference

The full IPA chart, with sounds

Last updated 21 July 2026

In short

The complete International Phonetic Alphabet — every documented human speech sound, not just English. 169 symbols across pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants, the full vowel quadrilateral, affricates, diacritics, suprasegmentals and tones, with 118 real human recordings. Turn on the highlight to see which of them English actually uses.

The chart

Tap any symbol to hear a real speaker make it. Tap a diacritic or a stress mark to open it and copy the character.

Highlight the 36 used in English

Select any symbol to hear it and read what it is called.

Pulmonic consonants

Made by pushing air out of the lungs — the great majority of speech sounds in every language. Columns are where the airflow is obstructed, rows are how. Where two symbols share a cell, the right-hand one is voiced. Shaded cells are judged impossible to articulate.

The full IPA pulmonic consonant chart by place and manner of articulation
Manner of articulation	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive
Nasal
Trill
Tap or flap
Fricative
Lateral fricative
Approximant
Lateral approximant

Vowels

A side-on map of the mouth: left to right is tongue position from front to back, top to bottom is how open the jaw is. Where symbols appear in pairs, the right-hand one is made with rounded lips.

FrontCentralBack

Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Non-pulmonic consonants

Made without pushing air out of the lungs. Clicks use a suction pocket in the mouth, implosives pull air inwards, and ejectives push it out with the closed glottis.

Other symbols

Sounds that do not fit the main grid, usually because they are made at two places at once. English uses one of them: /w/.

Affricates

A plosive released slowly into a fricative at the same place. The tie bar shows the two symbols are one sound. English has two: /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/.

Diacritics

Marks attached to a symbol to modify it. They record detail that a phonemic transcription leaves out, which is why they appear in square brackets rather than slashes.

Suprasegmentals

Marks for stress, length and phrasing — features that belong to a syllable or a whole phrase rather than to one sound. These appear in ordinary dictionary transcriptions.

Tones and word accents

Pitch that changes meaning. English does not use lexical tone, but Mandarin, Thai, Vietnamese and Yoruba do — which is why speakers of those languages often have to unlearn tone when they speak English.

If you are learning English, start smaller

This page is a reference, not a syllabus. Nobody needs 160 symbols to speak clearly.

English uses about a quarter of the letters on this chart, and you can learn the ones that matter for YOUR accent in an afternoon. Our English IPA chart shows just those 44, each with example words, mouth-position guidance and a recording drill. The full chart is here for when you need to look up a symbol from a dictionary, a linguistics course, or another language.

Frequently asked questions

How many symbols are in the IPA?

The 2020 chart has 107 letters for consonants and vowels, 31 diacritics and 19 marks for length, stress, tone and intonation. This page carries 169 of them, 118 with audio.

What is the difference between this and the English IPA chart?

This is the full alphabet, covering every documented human speech sound. The English chart covers only the 44 phonemes English uses, which is what a learner needs. Turn on the highlight above and you can see exactly which symbols here belong to that subset.

Why are some cells shaded grey?

Those combinations are judged impossible to articulate. You cannot make a nasal at the glottis, for example, because a nasal needs airflow through the nose while the mouth is closed off, and the glottis is below the point where that split happens. Shaded is different from empty: an empty white cell is possible but unattested.

What are pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants?

Pulmonic sounds are made by pushing air out of the lungs, which covers almost everything in most languages. Non-pulmonic sounds use another airstream: clicks use suction in the mouth, implosives draw air inwards, and ejectives push it out using the closed glottis. English has no non-pulmonic consonants.

Why does the vowel chart have a slanted shape?

Because the mouth does. The quadrilateral maps the space your tongue can move in, and there is less front-to-back room when the jaw is open than when it is nearly closed. That is why the bottom edge is shorter than the top.

Where does the audio come from?

Freely licensed recordings by volunteer phoneticians on Wikimedia Commons, hosted by us rather than embedded, so there are no third-party scripts, ads or cookies. Every contributor and licence is credited on our audio credits page.

Next step

Reading the chart is step one

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