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    Pronunciation · Tool

    Interactive IPA chart for English

    Last updated 2 September 2026

    In short

    All 44 sounds of English, laid out the way the IPA is meant to be read: vowels placed on the quadrilateral by where your tongue sits, consonants arranged by where and how the air is blocked. Tap any symbol to hear it in a real word, in British or American English, and open the full guide for that sound.

    The chart

    Tap any symbol to hear it and see how it is made.

    Select a symbol to hear it, see how your mouth makes it, and open its full guide.

    Vowels (20)

    The shape is a map of your mouth. Left to right is where your tongue sits (front to back); top to bottom is how open your jaw is. Symbols on the right are made with rounded lips.

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

    Consonants (24)

    Columns are WHERE the sound is made, moving from the lips on the left to the throat on the right. Rows are HOW the air is obstructed. Where two symbols share a cell, they are made in exactly the same place and way — the only difference is whether your vocal cords are switched on (the right-hand one).

    English consonants by place and manner of articulation. In each cell the left symbol is voiceless and the right is voiced.
    Manner of articulationBilabialLabiodentalDentalAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarLabial-velarGlottal
    Plosive
    Affricate
    Nasal
    Fricative
    Approximant
    Lateral approximant

    A greyed cell is a combination English does not use, though other languages do.

    How to read the chart

    Most charts are an alphabetical grid of boxes. This one is a diagram of your mouth, and once you can read it, the layout itself tells you how to make a sound you have never seen before.

    The vowel quadrilateral

    Picture your head facing left. The shape is the space your tongue moves in. Left to right is how far forward your tongue is; top to bottom is how far your jaw drops. So iː in see sits top-left: tongue high and forward, mouth nearly closed. ɑː in car sits bottom-right: tongue low and back, jaw open. Everything on the right-hand side is made with rounded lips.

    This is why the chart beats a word list. If you can say iː and ɪ is one small step below it, you already know what to change: drop your jaw very slightly and shorten it. That is the whole difference between sheep and ship.

    The consonant table

    Columns run from the lips to the throat: bilabial (both lips) on the left, glottal (vocal cords) on the right. Rows are how you obstruct the air: stopped completely for a plosive, squeezed for a fricative, redirected through the nose for a nasal.

    The pairs are the useful part. p and b share a cell because they are the same mouth position, with your vocal cords off and then on. Put a hand on your throat and say them: only the buzz changes. The same applies to f/v, s/z and θ/ð.

    Why neighbours matter

    Sounds that sit next to each other on the chart are the ones listeners confuse, because they are physically almost the same. That makes the chart a map of your risk: whichever pair your first language does not separate is a pair of adjacent cells here. Our minimal pairs are ranked by exactly that — how much confusing two neighbours actually damages understanding.

    Go deeper

    The chart is the map. These are the places it leads.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the IPA?
    The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system where one symbol always equals one sound. English spelling cannot do that: 'ough' has at least six pronunciations, so dictionaries and pronunciation guides use IPA symbols instead.
    Is this the full IPA chart?
    This is the English subset: the 44 phonemes of standard British English, which is what learners actually need. The full academic IPA covers every sound in every human language and runs to well over a hundred symbols plus diacritics.
    How do you read the vowel chart?
    The quadrilateral is a side-on map of your mouth, with your lips at the left. Left to right shows how far forward your tongue sits; top to bottom shows how open your jaw is. So /iː/ (top left, as in see) is made with the tongue high and forward, and /ɑː/ (bottom right, as in car) with the tongue low and back. Vowels on the right-hand side are made with rounded lips.
    How do you read the consonant chart?
    Columns are the place of articulation, moving from the lips on the left to the throat on the right. Rows are the manner: how the airflow is obstructed. Where two symbols share a cell, they are made identically apart from voicing, so /p/ and /b/, /f/ and /v/, /s/ and /z/ are each one mouth position with the vocal cords off, then on.
    What is the difference between a phonetic and a phonemic chart?
    A phonemic chart shows the sounds that change meaning in one language, written between slashes, which is what this chart does for English. A phonetic chart records the finer detail of how a sound is actually produced in a given moment, written between square brackets. Learners want the phonemic version.
    Do British and American English use different IPA symbols?
    Mostly the same, with a few systematic differences: British /əʊ/ is American /oʊ/ (go), British /ɒ/ becomes American /ɑː/ (hot), and American English pronounces r everywhere, so /ɜː/ becomes the r-coloured /ɝ/ (bird). Both are fully accepted in IELTS.
    Why do /ɜː/ and /ə/ sit in the same place on the chart?
    Because they are the same tongue position. The difference is length and stress: /ɜː/ is essentially a long, stressed schwa. That is why 'bird' and the second syllable of 'sofa' feel related when you say them slowly.
    How should I use this chart to improve?
    Do not memorise it top to bottom. Find the sounds that give you trouble, which your first language predicts well, tap to hear each one, open its guide for the mouth position, and drill it with feedback a few minutes a day. Neighbouring symbols on the chart are the ones you are most likely to confuse, so they are the pairs worth practising together.

    Next step

    Which of these 44 sounds are YOUR weak ones?

    Record a short sound check in SpeakMetry and the AI builds your personal chart (green for mastered, amber for shaky), then coaches you through the fixes.

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