ASCII Phonetic Alphabet for English Pronunciation

This page presents the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet for English Pronunciation. It is a way of writing phonetic transcription of English pronunciation by means of ASCII characters available on all keyboards. This phonetic alphabet can be used to represent English pronunciation in email messages, in posts to discussion forums, on HTML pages, etc. - with the same degree of precision as the usual graphic IPA-based phonetic alphabet used in paper dictionaries or in some electronic dictionaries.

Phonetic transcription on this page is written in such a way as to cover both British and American pronunciation. If you remove (r) from these transcriptions you will get transcription for British pronunciation, and if you treat it as r you get American pronunciation. Another unifying symbol is [@:] - which stands for the choice between [a:] in British English and [@] in American English. Thus this system of notation represents the "unified English pronunciation" - demonstrating that British pronunciation and American pronunciation are in fact two forms of the same thing: English pronunciation.

If you want to use this phonetic alphabet to represent American pronunciation only, you can do so by changing "(r)" into "r" and introducing other modifications that you seem would be appropriate. It is true that this alphabet is based on the way British pronunciation is usually transcribed in English dictionaries but it can well serve to depict American pronunciation if one understands the symbols with appropriate phonetic awareness.

We are aware that the terms "British pronunciation" and "American pronunciation" or even "English pronunciation" are not precise and that they are used differently by various authors. If you are an expert on English pronunciation who can distinguish between more kinds of spoken English than just British and American please don't complain about our usage of these terms. Try to understand that many English learners use phrases like "I want to learn British pronunciation", "I want to learn American pronunciation", "I want to have an American accent", or "I want to have a British accent" to organize their thoughts when they are thinking about developing their English accent.

abilities	[.. 'bi l(i) ti(:)z]
ability	[.. 'bi l(i) ti(:)]
able	['ei b.l]
about	[.. 'baut]
abroad	[.. 'bro:d]
absence	['@b s.ns]
accept	[..k 'sept]
accepted	[..k 'sep tid]
accepting	[..k 'sep tiN]
accepts	[..k 'septs]
acceptable	[..k 'sep t.. b.l]
accident	['@k s(i) d.nt]
accidents	['@k s(i) d.nts]
accordance	[.. 'ko:(r) d.ns]
according	[.. 'ko:(r) diN]
account	[.. 'kaunt]
accounts	[.. 'kaunts]
accounted	[.. 'kaun tid]
accounting	[.. 'kaun tiN]
accustom	[.. 'k^s t..m]
accustomed	[.. 'k^s t..md]
accustoms	[.. 'k^s t..mz]
ache	[eik]
ached	[eikt]
aching	['ei kiN]
aches	[eiks]
acid	['@ sid]
acids	['@ sidz]
across	[.. 'kro(:)s]
act	[@kt]
acted	['@k tid]
acting	['@k tiN]
acts	[@kts]
action	['@k S.n]
actions	['@k S.nz]
active	['@k tiv]
actively	['@k tiv li(:)]
activity	[@k 'ti v(i) ti(:)]
activities	[@k 'ti v(i) ti(:)z]
actor	['@k t..(r)]
actors	['@k t..(r)z]
actress	['@k tr(i)s]
actresses	['@k tr(i) siz]
actual	['@k tSu ..l]
actually	['@k tS.. li(:)]
add	[@d]
added	['@ did]
adds	[@dz]
adding	['@ diN]
addition	[.. 'di S.n]
additions	[.. 'di S.nz]
unacceptable	[^n ..k 'sep t.. b.l]
adjective	['@ dZ(i)k tiv]
additional	[.. 'di S.. n.l]
additionally	[.. 'di S.. n.l i(:)]
adjectives	['@ dZ(i)k tivz]
adjectival	[@ dZ(i)k 'tai v.l]
admiration	[@d m.. 'rei S.n]
admire	[..d 'mai ..(r)]
admired	[..d 'mai ..(r)d]
admires	[..d 'mai ..(r)z]
admirable	['@d m.. r.. b.l]
admiring	[..d 'mai (..) riN]
admiringly	[..d 'mai (..) riN li(:)]
admirer	[..d 'mai (..) r..(r)]
admirers	[..d 'mai (..) r..(r)z]
admit	[..d 'mit]
admitted	[..d 'mi tid]
admittedly	[..d 'mi tid li(:)]
admitting	[..d 'mi tiN]
admits	[..d 'mits]
admittance	[..d 'mi t.ns]
advance	[..d 'v@:ns]
advanced	[..d 'v@:nst]
advancing	[..d 'v@:n siN]
advances	[..d 'v@:n siz]
advancement	[..d 'v@:ns m..nt]
advantage	[..d 'v@:n tidZ]
advantages	[..d 'v@:n ti dZiz]
disadvantage	[di s..d 'v@:n tidZ]
disadvantages	[di s..d 'v@:n ti dZiz]
advantageous	[@d v..n 'tei dZ..s]
advantageously	[@d v..n 'tei dZ..s li(:)]
disadvantageous	[dis @d v..n 'tei dZ..s]
adventure	[..d 'ven tS..(r)]
adventures	[..d 'ven tS..(r)z]
adventurous	[..d 'ven tS.. r..s]
adverb	['@d ve:(r)b]
adverbs	['@d ve:(r)bz]
advertise	['@d v..(r) taiz]
advertised	['@d v..(r) taizd]
advertising	['@d v..(r) tai ziN]
advertiser	['@d v..(r) tai z..(r)]
advertisers	['@d v..(r) tai z..(r)z]
advice	[..d 'vais]
advise	[..d 'vaiz]
advises	[..d 'vai ziz]
advised	[..d 'vaizd]
advising	[..d 'vai ziN]
adviser	[..d 'vai z..(r)]
advisers	[..d 'vai z..(r)z]
affair	[.. 'fe..(r)]
affairs	[.. 'fe..(r)z]
afford	[.. 'fo:(r)d]
afforded	[.. 'fo:(r) did]
affording	[.. 'fo:(r) diN]
affords	[.. 'fo:(r)dz]
affordable	[.. 'fo:(r) d.. b.l]
acceptability	[..k sep t.. 'bi l(i) ti(:)]
affraid	[.. 'freid]
after	['@:f t..(r)]
afternoon	[@:f t..(r) 'nu:n]
afternoons	[@:f t..(r) 'nu:nz]
afterwards	['@:f t..(r) w..(r)dz]
again	[.. 'gen]
against	[.. 'genst]
age	[eidZ]
ages	['ei dZiz]
ago	[.. 'gOu]
agree	[.. 'gri:]
agreed	[.. 'gri:d]
agreeing	[.. 'gri: iN]
agrees	[.. 'gri:z]
agreement	[.. 'gri: m..nt]
agreements	[.. 'gri: m..nts]
agreeable	[.. 'gri: .. b.l]
disagree	[di s.. 'gri:]
disagreed	[di s.. 'gri:d]
disagreeing	[di s.. 'gri: iN]
disagreement	[di s.. 'gri: m..nt]
disagreeable	[di s.. 'gri: .. b.l]
ahead	[.. 'hed]
aim	[eim]
aimed	[eimd]
aiming	['ei miN]
aims	[eimz]