When you start learning English, the first thing you encounter is the English alphabet (english alphabet [ˈalfəbɛt]). Writing English letters is not something completely new even at the very initial stage of learning, because any modern person daily encounters English letters on a computer and telephone keyboard. Yes, and English words are found at every step: in advertising, on the labels of various goods, in shop windows.

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But while the letters seem familiar, pronouncing them correctly in English is sometimes difficult, even for those who speak English tolerably well. Everyone is familiar with the situation when you need to spell an English word - for example, to dictate an email address or a website name. This is where the wonderful names begin: i - “like a stick with a dot”, s - “like a dollar”, q - “where is the Russian th”.

English alphabet with Russian pronunciation, transcription and voice acting

The English alphabet with Russian pronunciation is only for the very beginners. In the future, when you get acquainted with the rules of reading English and learn new words, you will need to study transcription. It is used in all dictionaries, and if you know it, it will once and for all remove the problem of the correct pronunciation of new words for you. We advise at this stage to compare the transcription icons in square brackets with the Russian equivalent. Perhaps, in these short examples, you will remember some of the ratios of English and Russian sounds.

Below is a table showing the English alphabet with transcription and Russian pronunciation. Notice how the uppercase and lowercase letters look.

← Move the table to the left to view it in full

Letter

Listen

Transcription

Russian pronunciation

Below, you can listen to all the letters of the English alphabet at once:

Alphabet Trainer

Choose the letter that matches its pronunciation.

English alphabet cards

Very effective cards of the English alphabet in its study. Bright and large letters will be easier to remember. See for yourself:

Such cards can be made independently, for example, according to the above sample. Next, print, cut out the letters and arrange them in the correct sequence.

For children, on the cards of the English alphabet, you can depict animals in addition to the letters in order to immediately memorize new words, and the learning process was not boring.

Features of some letters of the English alphabet.

In the English alphabet 26 letters: 20 consonants and 6 vowels.

The vowels are A, E, I, O, U, Y.

There are a few letters in English that we want to pay special attention to because they have certain features that need to be taken into account when learning the alphabet.

• The letter Y in English can be read as a vowel and as a consonant. For example, in the word “yes” it is a consonant sound [j] (th), and in the word “many” it is a vowel sound [i] (and).
• Consonants in words, as a rule, convey only one sound. The letter X is an exception. It is transmitted immediately by two sounds - [ ks ] (ks).
• The letter Z in the alphabet is read differently in the British and American versions (as you probably already noticed in the table). The British version is (zed), the American version is (zi).
• The pronunciation of the letter R is also different. British version - (a), American version - (ar).

To make sure that you pronounce the English letters correctly, we recommend that you not only look at them and read (using transcription or the Russian version), but also listen. To do this, we advise you to find and listen to ABC-song. This song is usually used when teaching children the alphabet, but it can also be useful for adults. ABC-song is very popular in teaching, it exists in various variations. If you sing it with the announcer several times, you can not only check the correct pronunciation of the letters, but also easily remember the alphabet along with the melody.

Listen to a song about the English alphabet:

A few words about spelling

So, we learned the alphabet of the English language. We know how English letters are pronounced individually. But turning to the rules of reading, you will immediately see that many letters in different combinations are read in a completely different way. A reasonable question arises - as the cat Matroskin would say - what is the use of memorizing the alphabet? In fact, there are practical benefits.

The point here is not the ability to tell the alphabet from beginning to end, but the ability to easily spell any English word. This skill is necessary when you need to write down English names under dictation. If you need English for work, this skill can be very useful, since English names, even if they sound the same, can be spelled in several ways. For example, Ashley or Ashlee, Mila and Milla, not to mention surnames. Therefore, for the British and Americans themselves, it is considered absolutely natural to ask to spell the name if you need to write it down (spell it) - hence the word spelling, which you can see in various tutorials.

Online exercises to consolidate the alphabet

Choose the letter that goes

Write the letter that starts the word.

Write the letter that ends the word.

Decipher the code and write down the secret message in letters. The number corresponds to the order of the letter in the alphabet.

You can apply the knowledge gained in practice with the help of. With the help of unique exercises, even at the most basic level, you can master not only reading, but also writing English words, as well as learn the basic grammar rules and continue learning further.

The English alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet and consists of 26 letters. Of these, 6 vowels: A, E, I, O, U, Y.
20 consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z

The letter "Y" can represent both a vowel and a consonant. In combination with a vowel, the pronunciation is very close to Russian [y] and denotes the sounds [ j ] or [ y ]

yellow, yes, you, yard, young, yoga, yogurt
day, they, boy, toy, buy, eye

Forming syllables and being paired with a consonant, the letter "Y" conveys the vowel sound [ i ]

baby, mystery, system, funny

and sound [ ai ] in words

my, cry, analyze, cycle, sky, reply

In the alphabet, each letter has its own sound name, i.e. alphabetical reading.

Transcription marks are used to convey sounds in writing. Each sign corresponds to only one sound inherent in it. Transcription signs are written in square brackets: for example, the letter A is its alphabetic name (sound) - [ ei ].

In the alphabet, letters are read unambiguously, one letter - one sound.

The letters Z and R are read differently in the British and American versions.
The British version of Z - (zed), the American version of Z - (zi).
British version R - (a), American version R - (ap).

Knowledge of the English alphabet is also necessary due to the discrepancy between the pronunciation of words and their spelling. Therefore, you may often be asked to spell a word - Can you spell that, please?

English alphabet with pronunciation and transcription

Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation*		The sounds it conveys
A a			hey	, [æ]
Bb			bi	[b]
c c			si	[s] - before e, i, y [k] - in other cases
D d			di	[d]
e e			and	, [e]
F f			ef	[f]
G g			ji	, [g]
H h			h	[h]
I i			ah	, [i]
J j			jay
K k			Kay	[k]
l l			email	[l]
M m			Em	[m]
N n			en	[n]
O o			OU	, [ɔ]
Pp			pi	[p]
Q q			cue
R r			ar	[r]
S s			es	[s], [z]
T t			ti	[t]
U u			Yu	, [ʌ], [u]
Vv			in and	[v]
Ww	["dʌbl ju:]		double u	[w]
X x			the ex	,
Y y			wye	[j]
Zz	()		zi (zed)	[z]

* In the column " Pronunciation"given in Russian letters is the approximate sound of the names of the letters. And in the column" Transcription" given a more accurate pronunciation using phonetic transcription.

put a widget on Yandex for memorizing the English alphabet

Dear reader, if before learning English you got acquainted with the names of Latin letters in chemistry or physics ( H 2 O - "ASH-Two-O", mv 2 /2 - "EM-VE Square in Half") or at least when playing chess ( e2-e4 - "E Two - E Four"), then the transcription of English letters may have become an unpleasant surprise for you.

Out of habit, such names of English letters as A - "hey", E - "and", I - "ay" and R - "a"(in the latter case the sound " R"although it is implied, it is very often not pronounced or pronounced very quietly). And the Latin letter W, which in Russian is traditionally called " double-ve", in English called " double", i.e " double U", although its bottom edge in the printed image has two sharp, not rounded protrusions. This was because in the old days U and V did not differ. And there are also differences between American, British and Scottish English, between official speech and colloquial.

And still not to be confused with G - "ji", J - "jay" and H - "h", and explain to especially gifted telephone interlocutors that "pi"- This P, not a Greek letter π (the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter ( ≈3,14 ), while π pronounce in english "share".

Perfect automatic knowledge of the names of English letters is a very important skill that should not be neglected when learning English. Why is this necessary, isn't it better to work out with grammar or expand your vocabulary? But the pronunciation of letters is not theoretical phonetics divorced from life. The fact is that English abbreviations are almost always spelled, and you may also be asked to spell your name or some letter code ( "Could you spell your name, please?" ).

And if you do not know the names of the letters, then you will have to blush and mumble something unintelligible. And some English abbreviations entered the Russian language with incorrect pronunciation, for example VIP should be pronounced like "wee-ah-pee", but already rooted in Russian as "VIP". When abbreviations have several identical letters in a row, they are often pronounced using the words "double-" ("double") and triple- ("triple"), for example, when you need to give an address on the Internet, www pronounced "triple double-u".

But what if you need to pronounce some letter code in radio traffic in the airspace, or at sea? It is impossible to allow misunderstandings and hitches in the negotiations between pilots and the air traffic controller, or in negotiations between the English-speaking military and their non-English-speaking allies, so that the artilleryman does not mix up the code for the square "i" as "e".

To avoid ambiguity or misunderstanding, a code is used to represent letters with words, known as "NATO code"(phonetic alphabet of the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO). Surprisingly, even this code has flaws in certain situations, which is why in some cases the names of the letters in it had to be replaced.

And if you want the English alphabet with transcription to unobtrusively scroll before your eyes every time you go to Yandex, then you can install a Yandex widget for yourself that will scroll the letters of the alphabet forward, backward or randomly.

Having studied the Russian alphabet, we can easily read any texts. But for correct reading in English, you will have to make more efforts, because there are many discrepancies between the spelling and pronunciation of words. If you decide to learn this language on your own and cannot understand how to read words in English correctly, then this material is exactly what you need. Today we will analyze the nuances of the pronunciation of English letters and letter combinations, and find out how easy it is to learn to read English from scratch. And it will help to learn the rules of reading English for beginners with a table that shows all the letters and their sound.

First, let's get acquainted with the most important law of reading in English - the rule of open and closed syllables. There is no similar norm in Russian, so let's analyze in detail what it is. Pay attention to transcription.

An open syllable is a syllable that ends in a vowel. As a rule, it occurs in the following cases:

• The word ends in a vowel, so the last syllable is always open: t ake[take].*
• A vowel is followed by a consonant followed by a vowel again: ed uca tion [education].
• Two vowels side by side in a word: cr ue l [cruel].

*Ultimate e in most cases it is considered "dumb", that is, it is not pronounced, but appears at the base of the word precisely for the formation of an open syllable.

In open syllables, the vowel is always pronounced smoothly and extended. Accordingly, closed syllables are all those syllables in which the vowel sound is closed by a consonant and therefore sounds short and abrupt: c ut[cat].

In addition, special reading rules in English are characteristic of syllables in which the vowel sound is closed by the letter r. The fact is that in the British version of the pronunciation of such syllables, the letter r is often completely skipped, i.e. not pronounced. Therefore, there are two options for reading such letter combinations:

1. In an open syllable, when r is surrounded by vowels, only both vowels are read: c are[keea]. In such cases, the last e won't be dumb.
2. In a closed syllable ( voice + r + acc.), r is also not readable, but affects the sound of the vowel sound, making it more drawn out: start [staat]

The rule of open and closed syllables is the basic law of reading in English, although there are many exceptions to it. But it is too early to learn exceptions without knowing the main rules. Therefore, now we will consider the sound options for all letters and letter combinations.

Other English topics: Books in English for beginners: which book to choose

Rules for reading English for beginners - a table of correspondence of letters and sounds

Even if you started learning English and reading it from scratch, you probably already know the spelling and sound of all the letters of the English alphabet. But, as we already learned from the previous section, when reading, the pronunciation of letters depends on the type of syllable or letter combination. Therefore, in the tables below you can find several variants of the sound of the same letter at once. But do not be alarmed, for each case an accessible explanation will be given. So, let's continue to learn English for beginners and learn the rules of reading in English.

Consonants

Let's start with the easiest: with a table of consonants, the pronunciation of which is similar to the Russian sound.

Letter	Transcription	Russian pronunciation
B	[b]	b
D	[d]	d*
F	[f]	f
K	[k]	to
L	[l]	l
M	[m]	m
N	[n]	n
P	[p]	P
R	[r]	R
S	[s]	with
	[z]	h (only in special positions: after voiced consonants, between two vowels and in the -ism suffix.)
T	[t]	t*
V	[v]	in
W	[w]	in**
Z	[z]	h

*English d and t are more aspirated than their Russian counterparts.

**w is pronounced with lips extended into a tube, resulting in something between the Russian sounds в and у.

Now let's deal with more complex letters.

Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation and explanation
C	[s]	c (before vowels i, e, y)
	[k]	to (in other cases)
G		j (before vowels i, e, y)
	[g]	g (in other cases)
H	[h]	Very weakly pronounced Russian X (almost just a strong exhalation)
Q		sq.
X		ks (before a consonant or at the end of a word)
		z (between two vowels)
	[z]	h (at the beginning of a word before a vowel)

And also we will study the letter combinations of consonants in English.

Combination	Transcription	Pronunciation
ck	[k]	to
ch		h
tch
ng	[ŋ]	nasal n
ph	[f]	f
sh	[ʃ]	w
th	[θ]	1) middle sound between s and f (tongue between teeth) 2) the sound is average between h and v (tongue between teeth)
wr	[r]	R
wh	[w]	at / in x (only before o)
qu		sq.

In addition, it is worth considering that the consonants at the very end of the word, the English language never allows you to stun. Otherwise, you may say something completely different from what you wanted to say. For example: back [back] - behind, behind; bag [bag] - bag, bag.

Vowels

It is much more difficult to cope with reading English vowels, but the already familiar rules of open and closed syllables will help us figure it out. We take them into service and learn how to read the vowels of the English language correctly.

Closed syllable
Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation	Examples
A	[æ]	uh	bat, track, sad
E	[e]	uh	pet, red, check
I	[ɪ]	and	pit, fill, tin, system, myth, lynx
Y
O	[ɒ]	about	spot, not, cross
U	[ʌ]	a	spun, truck, butter

Do not forget that in a closed syllable all letters are pronounced briefly.

open syllable
Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation	Examples
A		hey	game, flame, lake
E		and	he, be, Pete
I		ah	mine, like, nine, cry, bye, type
Y
O	[əʊ]	OU	bone, tone, rose
U		Yu	pupil, music, cube

And the vowels of an open syllable are always smooth and drawn out.

Open syllable with r
Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation	Examples
A		ea	square
E	[ɪə]	ie	here
I		aye	tired
Y
O	[ɔː]	oo	more
U		yue	cure

Remember that the letter r after a vowel, as a rule, is not pronounced.

Behindcovered syllable with r
Letter	Transcription	Pronunciation	Examples
A	[ɑː]	aa	dark
O	[ɔː]	oo	sports
E	[ɜː]	yo	pert, bird, myrtle, burn
I
Y
U

Now we know how to read vowels in English words. But for perfect reading in English, one more point needs to be studied.

Diphthongs and triphthongs in English

An important aspect of English for beginners is diphthongs and triphthongs, i.e. combinations of two or three letters that have a special sound. Their pronunciation is called sliding, because. first, the main sound is pronounced intensely, and then it is smoothly translated into a secondary sound. Diphthongs are a kind of exception and do not obey the general grammatical laws, so they can only be learned by heart. The table below will help us learn the rules for reading English diphthongs for beginners.

English diphthongs
Combinations	Transcription	Pronunciation
air, ear, are		uh*
ye, igh, uy, ie		ah
ea, ey, ai, ei, ei		hey
ere, eer, ier, ear	[ɪə]	ie
oy, oi	[ɔɪ]	oh
ou, ow		aow
ou, ow, oa, ol	[əu]	ooh
ure, ue, our, oor		uue
English triphthongs
ower, our		aue
eur, ure		yuyue
iet, ire, ier, iar, yre		aaye

* doubling the letter indicates the length of the first sound, in relation to the second.

So, we have considered the main nuances of reading in English. Take these rules responsibly: conduct reading lessons more often and be sure to learn to distinguish between types of syllables in English. Otherwise, you will make gross mistakes in pronunciation, which will lead to a complete misunderstanding by the interlocutor of your words. Good luck in learning English and see you soon!

Transcription and reading rules in English are two closely related concepts. Reading rules explain how letters and letter combinations are pronounced in different cases, and with the help of transcription, we record and read speech sounds.

Reading rules can confuse a beginner. There are many, they are confusing, and there are more exceptions than the rules themselves. In fact, these rules are so terrible only if you deeply understand them and try to learn by heart along with exceptions. In fact, everything is much simpler: reading rules do not need to be memorized.

Studying English, you will always be something, and soon you will learn to correlate letter designations and sounds without hesitation, automatically. Don't worry about exceptions either. Usually, the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning of a word are remembered as one whole - you just know that such and such a word is pronounced that way.

Feature of English phonetics: we write "Manchester" - we read "Liverpool"

The phonetics of the English language has a noticeable feature: words are often read differently than they are written, that is, it is not always possible to guess how it is pronounced from the spelling of a word. As linguists joke: “We write Manchester, but we read Liverpool.”

In the history of many languages, the following pattern can be traced: the phonetic structure becomes more complicated, while the letters and spelling remain the same or change with great delay. English is no exception. At the dawn of its development, words were read and pronounced more or less similarly, but over time this discrepancy became more and more, the situation was aggravated by the variety of dialects, and now we are already in words though, thought and through read a combination of letters - ough completely different, although the words themselves differ by one letter.

No one is in a hurry to reform English spelling, there are many reasons for this. For example, the English language no longer has a single “control center”. Reforms initiated in London may be coolly received in Sydney and rejected in Washington. And in general, spelling reform is always a painful process, meeting resistance among a significant part of native speakers. Much easier to leave as is.

What is transcription and why is it needed?

Transcription in English is the recording of speech sounds using special characters. It should not be feared or avoided, because it is a very good assistant in learning the language, which will be great to save time and help avoid mistakes. One glance at the transcription of an English word is enough for you to understand how it is read correctly.

When you memorize or write out a new word that comes across in the text, you must definitely look at its transcription and / or listen to the pronunciation (for example, in), otherwise you may remember it incorrectly, and then you will not be understood.

Is it possible to write English words in Russian letters?

Sometimes on websites or even in books you can see “English transcription in Russian” or “pronunciation of English words in Russian letters” - that is, writing English words in Russian letters. Like, why learn tricky badges if can convey sounds in Russian letters? Then what it is forbidden. The phonetics of the Russian language differs from English phonetics so much that the sound can only be conveyed very, very approximately. We simply do not have some sounds of English speech, as well as vice versa.

Transcription and pronunciation of all sounds of the English language separately (video)

With the help of this interesting video table, you can listen to the sound of all sounds separately and see how they are recorded using transcription. Click on play and wait for the video to fully load, then click on the desired sound.

Please note that in transcription, in addition to the symbols themselves, denoting sounds, the following are used:

• Square brackets– traditionally transcription is always written in [square brackets]. For example: [z].
• Vowel length icon- in English, vowels can be long and short, longitude is indicated by a colon after the vowel. For example: .
• accent icon- if a word is transcribed, in which there is more than one syllable, stress must be indicated with an apostrophe (a comma at the top). It is placed before the stressed syllable. For example: – decision.

In total, 44 sounds are distinguished in English, which, like in Russian, are divided into consonants and vowels. Among them there are both sounds similar to Russian, for example: [b] - [b], [n] - [n], and sounds that have no analogues in Russian: [ ð ], [θ ].

In English phonetics, there are no such concepts as softness / hardness of consonants, but there is a longitude of vowels (not characteristic of the Russian language) - vowels can be short [a] and long. It should also be noted that vowel sounds in English can be:

• single (monophthongs): [ i: ], [ e ],
• consisting of two sounds (diphthogni): [ ai ], [ ɔi ],
• consisting of three sounds (triphthongs): [ aiə ].

Diphthongs and triphthongs are read and perceived as whole sounds.

Table of English sounds with examples and cards

Having studied how English sounds are pronounced separately, be sure to listen to how they are read whole words. It is often easier for students to understand and hear the pronunciation of English sounds when they sound as part of a word, and not separately.

In the tables below, all sounds are given with example words. With the help of electronic cards, you can listen to the pronunciation.

Consonants in English
[ f] fox	[ d] date	[ v] vase	[ k] cat
[ θ ]think	[ g] go	[ ð ] father	[ tʃ] change
[ s] say	[ dʒ] age	[ z]zoo	[ m] mom
[ ʃ ] ship	[ n] nose	[ ʒ ]pleasure	[ ŋ ]sing
[ h]hound	[ l]lazy	[ p]pen	[ r] red
[ b]bro	[ j] yes	[ t]today	[ w]wine

Vowel sounds in English
[ i:] he, she	[ ei] name	[ i] his, it	[ ai] line
[ e]ten	[ au]town	[ æ ]hat	[ ɔi] toy
[ a:] car	[ ou] go home	[ ɔ ]not	[ iə]here
[ ʌ ]nut	[ ɛə ] dare	[ u] good	[ uə]poor
[ u:] food	[ juə]Europe	[ ju:] tune	[ aiə]fire
[ ɜ: ] turn	[ auə]our	[ ə ] paper	[ ɔ: ] all

How to learn to pronounce English sounds?

There are two approaches:

1. Theoretical- textbooks usually have a detailed description of how to press the tongue against the palate in order to form a certain sound. With an illustration showing a cross section of a human head. The method is scientifically correct, but it is difficult to use it on your own: not everyone will understand what it means to “slide the upper teeth on the lower lip” and be able to perform this action.
2. Practical- listen, watch and repeat. I think it's much easier that way. You simply repeat after the speaker, trying to imitate the sound as closely as possible. Pay attention to articulation, try to repeat all the movements of the lips and tongue. Ideally, of course, someone should control, but you can just record yourself on a webcam and watch from the side.

If you want to repeat after the speaker, imitating his speech, I recommend using the materials on Puzzle English, namely the Video Puzzle exercises, which are aimed at developing listening comprehension. In video puzzles, you can slow down speech and, as in Lingvaleo, watch the translation of words by clicking on them directly in the subtitles.

In video puzzles, you first need to watch the video, and then collect sentences from words.

Detailed overview of this service:

In addition, for practical exercises by various kind people, a lot of videos have been shot, available on YouTube. For example, in these two videos, the sounds of English speech in American and British versions are analyzed in detail:

British pronunciation

American pronunciation

You should not, having started studying English, strive to achieve a “perfect” pronunciation. Firstly, there are a lot of varieties of pronunciation (the above are, as it were, “generalized” British and American variants), and secondly, even native speakers who speak professionally (for example, actors) often take lessons from special trainers in order to master the features of or another version of pronunciation - practicing speech is not an easy task.

Just try to speak in such a way that 1) it is clear, 2) it does not hurt your hearing too much.

Reading rules in English: table and cards

Reading rules in English are, rather, not even rules, but generalized recommendations that are not particularly accurate. Not only can, say, the letter “o” in different combinations and types of syllable be read in nine different ways, but there are also exceptions. For example, in the words food, too, it is read as, and in the words good, look - as [u]. There is no pattern here, you just need to remember it.

If you look in different books, it turns out that the rules of reading, and indeed phonetics, by different authors can be told in different ways with varying degrees of immersion in details. I think that it makes no sense to delve into the wilds of phonetic science (you can dive there indefinitely), but the easiest way is to take as a basis the most simplified version of the reading rules, that is English reading rules for children.

For this article, I took as a basis the rules given in the textbook “English. 1 - 4 classes in diagrams and tables "N. Vakulenko. Believe me, this is more than enough for both children and adults!

What is open and closed syllable?

In English, an open syllable and a closed one are distinguished, it also matters whether it ends with the letter “r” and whether it is stressed.

A syllable is called open if:

• a syllable ends in a vowel and is the last in a word,
• a vowel is followed by another vowel
• a vowel is followed by a consonant followed by one or more vowels.

The syllable is closed if:

• it is the last in the word, while ending in a consonant,
• after a vowel there are two or more consonants.

In these cards and the table below you can see how different letters are pronounced in different combinations and types of syllable.

Reading Rules
Reading the letter "A"
A - in an open syllable	name, face, cake
A [æ] - in a closed syllable	hat, cat, man
A - in a closed syllable on r	far, car, park
A [εə] - at the end of the word vowel + re	dare, care, stare
A [ɔ:] - combinations all, au	all, wall, fall, autumn
Reading the letter "O"
O [əu] - in an open syllable	no, go, home
O [ɒ] - in a closed stressed syllable	not, box, hot
O [ɜ:] - in some words with “wor”	world, word
O [ɔ:] - in a closed syllable on r	form, fork, horse, door, floor
O - in combination "oo"	too, food
O [u] - in combination “oo”	book, look, good
O - in combination "ow"	town, down
O [ɔɪ] - in combination “oy”	toy boy enjoy
O [ʊə] - in combination “oo”	poor
Reading the letter "U"
U, - in an open syllable	pupil, blue, student
U [ʌ] - in a closed syllable	nut, bus, cup
U [u] - in a closed syllable	put, full
U [ɜ:] - in combination “ur”	turn, hurt, burn
Reading the letter "E"
E - in an open syllable, a combination of "ee", "ea"	he, she, see, street, meat, sea
E [e] - in a closed syllable, combination “ea”	hen, ten, bed, head, bread
E [ɜ:] - in combinations “er”, “ear”	her, heard
E [ɪə] - in combinations “ear”	hear, near
Reading the letter "I"
i - in an open syllable	five, line, night, light
i [ɪ] - in a closed syllable	his, it, pig
i [ɜ:] – combined with “ir”	first, girl, bird
i – combined with “ire”	fire, tired
Reading the letter "Y"
Y - at the end of a word	try, my, cry
Y [ɪ] - at the end of a word	family, happy, lucky
Y [j] - at the beginning or middle of a word	yes, year, yellow
Reading the letter "C"
C [s] - before i, e, y	pencil, bicycle
C [k] - except for combinations ch, tch and not before i, e, y	cat, come
C - in combinations ch, tch	chair, change, match, catch
Reading the letter "S"
S [s] - except: at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	say, books, six
S [z] - at the end of words after ch. and voiced accord.	days, beds
S [ʃ] - combined with sh	shop, ship
Reading the letter "T"
T [t] - except for combinations of th	ten, teacher, today
T [ð] - in combination th	then, mother, there
T [θ] - in combination th	thin, sixth, thick
Reading the letter "P"
P [p] - except for the combination ph	pen, penalty, powder
P [f] - in combination ph	photo
Reading the letter "G"
G [g] - except for combinations ng, not before e, i, y	go, big, dog
G - before e, i, y	age, engineer
G [ŋ] - in combination ng at the end of the word	sing, bring, king
G [ŋg] - combined ng in the middle of a word	strongest

The most important reading rules

The table above looks very busy, intimidating even. Several of the most important rules can be distinguished from it, which have almost no exceptions.

Basic rules for reading consonants

• The combination ph reads like [f]: photo, Morpheus.
• The combination th reads like [ð] or [θ]: think there. These sounds are not in Russian, their pronunciation requires some training. Do not confuse them with the sounds [s], [z].
• The combination ng at the end of the word is read as [ŋ] - this is a nasal (that is, pronounced as if in the nose) version of the sound [n]. A common mistake is to read it as . There is no “g” in this sound. Examples: strong, King Kong, wrong.
• The sh combination reads like [ʃ]: ship, show, shop.
• The letter “c” before i, e, y reads like [s]: celebrity, cent, pencil.
• The letter “g” before i, e, y reads: age, magic, gym.
• The combination ch reads like: match, catch.

Basic rules for reading vowels

• In an open stressed syllable, vowels are usually read as in: no, go, name, face, pupil, he, five. It can be monophthongs and diphthongs.
• In a closed syllable, vowels are read as short monophthongs: nut, got, ten.

How to remember the rules of reading?

Most people who are fluent in English as a foreign language will not be able to immediately name even a few basic reading rules. rules readings do not need to be memorized, they need to be able to use. But how can you use what you do not know? How else can you! Thanks to frequent practice, knowledge turns into skills and actions begin to be performed automatically, unconsciously.

In order for the reading rules to quickly reach the automatic stage, I recommend:

• To study the rules themselves - read, comprehend, speak out loud the examples.
• Practice reading aloud - will help develop pronunciation skills, at the same time, the rules of reading will be fixed. Take text with audio, video with subtitles, so that you have something to compare.
• Do small written tasks - writing practice is good for developing vocabulary, consolidating knowledge of grammar and, of course, for improving spelling.

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