1. PHONETICS

2. What is phonetics?
It’s a discipline in linguistics which deals with the transcription of sounds.
The units are called phonemes.
There are three kinds of phonemes:
Vowels.
Consonants.
Diphthongs (union of two vowels in the same syllable).

3. What phonetics exercises will be important for the exam?
Identify phonemes with graphemes (letter or letters which represent a phoneme in ordinary writing).
-ed endings.
Plural and 3rd person singular –s endings.

4. VOWELS VOWEL GRAPHEMES EXAMPLES / i: / -ee-, -ea- / ɪ / -i- / ʊ /
tree, seat.
/ ɪ /
-i-
sit,
/ ʊ /
-oo-, -u-
good, would, could, should
/ u: /
-oo-, -u-, -oe-
foot, rule,
/ e /
-e-, -ea-, -ai-
bet,
/ ə /
-er, -or endings, and many other unstressed vowels.
father, conductor, alive
/ ɜ : /
-ir-, -ur-, -or-, -ear- in stressed syllables.
bird, world, earth,
/ ɔ : /
-oor, -or-, -al-
door, more, talk
/ ɑ /
-o-, -a-
pot, stop, want
/ æ /
-a-
cat, bag,
/ ʌ /
-u-, -o-
cup, love,
/ a: /
-ar-, -as-
car, cart, class

5. DIPHTHONGS / ɪə / / eə / / ʊə / / əʊ / / aʊ / / eɪ / / aɪ / / ɔɪ /
Graphemes
Examples
/ ɪə /
-ea-, -ee-,
year, beer, clear
/ eə /
-air-, -eir, –ere-
chair, where, there, their
/ ʊə /
-ure-, -our- (not very common. It can be substituted by the vowel / ɔ: /
pure, tour
/ əʊ /
-o- (generally in monosyllables ending in –e), -ow
tone, vote, throw
/ aʊ /
-ou-, -ow-
loud, vow, out
/ eɪ /
-a- (generally in monosyllables ending in –e), -ay-, -ey-
lane, mate, change, way
/ aɪ /
-i- (generally in monosyllables ending in –e), -i-,
five, mice, light
/ ɔɪ /
-oy-, -oi-
choice, voice

6. CONSONANTS
There are two types of consonants: voiced and unvoiced, depending on whether the vocal cords vibrate or not.
UNVOICED: / p /, / f /, / t /, / θ/, / tʃ /, / k /, / ʃ /
VOICED: / b /, / v /, / d /, / ð /, / dʒ /, / z /, / ʒ /, / g /, /h /, /m/, / n /, / ŋ /, / r /, / l /, / w /, / j /

7. Unvoiced consonants Consonant Graphemes examples p -p- please t -t-
tea f
-f-, -gh-
four, enough, laugh k
-c-, -k-, -ch-
cake, architect θ
-th-
thing, through, tʃ
-ch-
cheese, much ʃ
-sh-, -ch-, -s-, -ss-, -tion
ship, machine, sure, mission

8. Voiced consonants 1 Consonant Graphemes examples b -b- d -d- g -g- m

9. Voiced consonants 2 Consonant Graphemes examples v -v- h -h- ð -th- dʒ
-j-, -g-, -d- ŋ
-ng-, -nk- ʒ
-s-, -ss- w
-w- j
-y-