Below are the letters of the English alphabet. You can click on each one to hear it pronounced. You might wonder why there are two letters 'Z' below. The reason is because there are two ways of pronouncing that letter: a British English way (which is also the Kiwi way) and an American English way.

A B C D E F G

H I J K L M N O P

Q R S T U V

W X Y Z & Z

Have you noticed how the letter ‘B' sounds much like the letter ‘C'? Just click on those two letters above and you will see that ‘B' (pronounced /biː/) has the same vowel sound as the letter ‘C' (pronounced /siː/; only the initial consonant is different). What about the letter ‘A'? Do other letters sound similar? Classify each letter of the alphabet according to its sound by doing the exercise below.

Having done the previous exercise on the letters of the alphabet, what do you notice about the way the letter ‘A’ is pronounced in the word 'mate'? …Well, that sound is exactly the same as the one made when you read the alphabet and say the letter ‘A’! That sound (/eɪ/) is what is called the diphthong value of the letter ‘A’ as opposed to the short value which is the one you hear in the word 'mat' (/æ/).

'A', 'I' and 'O' all have a short value and a diphthong value. Just as we just saw about 'A', the diphthong values of 'I' and 'O' are the sounds that you make when you say those letters in the alphabet.

Below is a table with words in which 'a', 'i' or 'o' are pronounced either with their short value or with their diphthong value. Look at the words and try to deduce what spelling pattern indicates whether 'A', 'I' or 'O' are pronounced short or as diphthongs. Then, read the 'tip' in yellow under the table.

 TIP:  'A', 'I' and 'O' are pronounced with their diphthong value in short words (one syllable) ending with 1 consonant + ‘e’. This is sometimes called the 'magic -e' rule.

Now that you know this, you should be able to find out how to pronounce the three words below, even if you don’t know their meaning and you’ve never seen them before. Say them first yourself, then click on them to check your pronunciation.

 mane, dame, fine, pine, cope, dote

Now simply take the letter 'e' off the words above and you will have new words, of which you probably know both the meaning and the pronunciation: man, dam, fin, pin, cop, dot (click to listen). The vowel in each of those words is pronounced with its short value.

NOTE: When the last consonant is the letter ‘R’ this tip does not apply because ‘R’ has a special effect on words and sounds (see fourth tab).

 TIP:  A double consonant (tt, pp, etc.) means the word's vowel is pronounced with its short value.

Therefore the past tense of "to hope" is necessarily "hoped" and the past tense of "to hop" is necessarily "hopped"!

Let's take another couple of examples: "taped" and "tapped." How do you pronounce them? Which is the past tense of "to tap" and which is the past tense of "to tape"? Thanks to the tip above, you can answer those questions.

Indeed, the double consonant 'P' in "tapped" indicates that 'A' is pronounced short. "Tapped" is thus the past tense of the verb in which 'A' is also pronounced short: "to tap." On the contrary, in "taped" the letter 'A' is pronounced with its diphthong value, just like in "to tape."

UK/US: First and foremost, remember that these phonology units are based on British English. This is why you will not find any /r/ sounds in the words below. In American English however, you would find an additional /r/ sound.

When a short word (one syllable) ends in with the letter "r", its pronunciation is influenced ('coloured') by the presence of that letter.

For example, the letter 'A' in the word "bar" is pronounced neither with the 'short' value (as in "bat") nor with the 'diphthong' value (as in "bake").

Below is a table with the sounds that each vowel makes when it is 'couloured' by the letter 'r' :

HOWEVER, if a one syllable word ends not only just with "r" but with "r+e" (as in 'care' or 'fire'), then that final 'e' is going to affect the rule above. Look at the table below to see how the words are pronounced.

As you probably know, the ‘indefinite’ article ‘A’ can also be written ‘AN’ depending on the word that follows. For instance, you say “a cat” but “an umbrella.” Some grammar books will tell you that you have to put ‘AN’ in front of a word starting with a vowel. However, this is not the right rule because although you say “a head” you also say “an hour”! So, is there a rule that explains this and that is accurate 100% of the time? YES! Here it is below:

RULE: you put ‘AN’ in front of a vowel sound.

Although "head" begins with a consonant sound /h/, "hour" begins with the vowel sound /aʊ/ so while you put 'A' in front of the first word, you put 'AN' in front of the second. Likewise, although you say "an umbrella", you say "a university" because even though both begin with the same letter ‘u', the word "umbrella" begins with the vowel sound /ʌ/ whereas "university" begins with the consonant sound /j/ ("university" is phonetically transcribed /,juːnɪ'vɜːsɪti/).In order to know whether to put ‘A' or ‘AN' in front of a noun you therefore have to think of the way it is pronounced rather than look at how it is written. This means that with acronyms, such as M.P. or U.F.O., you have to remember how the first letter is pronounced in order to know if ‘A' or ‘AN' is required. The letter ‘m' for instance is pronounced /em/. Because "M.P." starts with the vowel sound /e/, you are going to say (and write) "an M.P.," not "a M.P." The letter ‘U,' however, is pronounced /ju:/. "U.F.O." therefore starts with the consonant sound /j/ and requires "A" in front of it, not "AN."

Note that this same rule allows you to determine whether ‘THE' should be pronounced strong (/ði/) or weak (/ðə/). That is to say, ‘THE' is pronounced /ði/ in front of a vowel sound while it is pronounced /ðə/ in front of a consonant sound. "The university" is therefore pronounced /ðə ,juːnɪ'vɜːsɪti/ while "the umbrella" is pronounced /ði ʌm'brelə/. It is worth noticing, however, that native speakers do not always systematically follow this rule (you can sometimes hear people using /ðə/ in front of vowel sounds).

Take a look at the table below and if you are not familiar with "voiced" and "unvoiced" consonants, refer to the "Sounds of English" page while looking at this table.