Phonemic chart

The interactive version of the British Council phonemic chart is currently being updated on this website.

About the chart

Pure vowels are arranged the same way as in the IPA chart: according to mouth shape (left to right, lips wide / round - top to bottom, jaw closed / open).
Diphthongs are grouped in rows according to their second sound.

Try some pronunciation activities

Downloads

You can download a non-interactive image version of the British Council's phonemic chart below.

Sounds Right app

The interactive phonemic chart is available for you to download from the Google Play store for Android devices or the App store for Apple devices. Find out more about the interactive mobile app version of the phonemic chart

Downloads

Phonemic chart image46.23 KB

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Comments

phonemic chart

The best way is to have the phonemic chart as a poster in the office and the classroom for continuous revision.

ʊə

I wonder why we do not have an /ʊə/ in this chart?

Chart sounds

Hi and you'll find it in the App linked to the course: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.britishcouncil.phonemicchart&hl=en_GB&gl=US

Are you able to access that?

Best regards,

Anne

TeachingEnglish team

/ɛ/

Hi and help please

I have download the app and I don’t see the
/ɛ/ sound as in
Bread /brɛd/
Head /hɛd/

Can you help me please. And with urgency please as i am teaching to my students and wouldn’t like to make mistakes.

Thank you very much in advance

/e/ sound

Hi jennypr

If you are referring to the vowel sound in "Bread" and "head" then it appears in the chart as /e/. You can find it in the vowel section under /i:/

Hope that helps!

Cath
TeachingEnglish team

Only in the App is it up to date!

Hello, it is true, in the downloadable image it is not updated with the diphthong "ʊə". Please update it. Thank you in advance for all the effort you have put in.

flash player

The app was finished in 2020. What are the option to open the file? FLASH PLAYER

Flash player

Hi,

we no longer have the Flash files available. The best way to access the interactive phonemic chart is to download the Sounds Right App. You can find the link to this on the page.

Thanks

Paul

Available for MAC OS?

Hi, is the chart still unavailable for MAC OS users?

Chart

Hi there

The chart is currently only available as an EXE file

Apologies for the inconvenience,

Cath
TE Team

sorry I couldn't download…

sorry
I couldn't download the chart

missing diphthong in phonemic chart?

Hi the gven phonemic chart which i have just downloaded...is quite a good technological invention to learn and teach sounds of English language. However, i will very humbly point out that it is missing one diphthong--combination of "oo" and "schwa" sound as in words "poor" and "dual"...which will also make it a total of 20 vowel phoneme sounds in English language. please add it too...a humble invocation. best regards Sadaf Fatima

CHART

I can't download it as I use a Google Chromebook. Please update software as most students/teachers have access to Chromebook !!

Hello

Hello Thanks for your comment - I will pass it on to the technical team. Best wishes, Cath TE Team

Useles

The most useless ever,,, this is not helpful. Many are hypocrite that this is helpful in pronunciation. second language are doing a mimic sounds.. like an infant do. This kind of chart had created for additional burden of usless language sounds. In reality this is USESLESS. If you understand the mimic sounds you know what I mean.

You're absolutely right. It…

You're absolutely right. It's a burden for both teachers and learners😓

Request

Thank you very much British Council Am so happy after a very long search I finally found a site like this where I can learn phonemes. Sorry to bore you with this...I have a passion for phonemes I want to learn it and be able to pronounce ever single English word correctly like the first English speakers so please my able British Council I want to ask if there is a way I can download this phenomic chart on my Android phone so that I can be able to learn phonemes on the go anywhere I am. Pleeeeeeeeeeease help me I really need it on my phone. the one here in this page: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TEphonemic.zip is only compatible with PC. Thank you in anticipation of your favourable response

Phonemic chart app

Thanks for your comment, and we are glad you find the chart useful. Unfortunately, as you say, the zipfile is only compatible with PC, but you could download the British Council Sounds Right app, which you can find here https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps/sounds-right I hope that helps, Cheers, Cath TE Team

Why is there no /ʊə/ diphthong?

I'm curious why this chart doesn't have a diphthong for /ʊə/ The one Adrian Underhill uses on the seminar videos does. I became aware of his videos through the British Council, so I am wondering why there is a difference there. Is it not really regarded as a true diphthong? For example, in "pure" /'pjʊə/ is this seen as two separate syllables? Anyway, many other phonemic charts do have /ʊə/ so I was a but confused by the difference.

Phonemic chart

Hi AnthonyESL Thanks for your comment - you are right, that although there has been some disagreement about diphthongs, the /ʊə/ sound is missing here - we have been working on updating the chart here for some time - apologies for the inconvenience. Our LearnEnglish App (which you can download for free - https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps/sounds-right ) does include the sound, and is a great resource for students to use. Hope that helps, Cath TE Team

Help, please !

It used to be that I could use the chart directly in the classroom (live from the Internet, that is), and click on it to hear the sounds etc... It now seems to be unavailable (I wonder why that is, it's really a shame), and I tried to download some of the stuff, but to avail although I use a MacBookPro and even went onto I-Tunes. Can you adise on the procedures ? Fix this so the chart is back online as it used to be ? Thanks in advance. E.L.

Download

Hi Emmanuelle Click on the link above to download the chart onto your PC which I am sure you've done already. Please note you'll need Adobe Flash Player to use it so make sure you have this available and updated. Best wishes Del

App

The downloadable version here only runs on a Windows machine. Here is a link that will let you and your students download the free app to your i-Phone, i-Pad or Android device. http://www.macmillaneducationapps.com/soundspron/

the diphthong in 'tourist'

Hello, I'm wondering why the phonemic chart doesn't have this diphthong? /ʊə/ Thanks Jeanette

The chart

Hi Jeanette, Thanks for the comment - there has been lots of discussion about the 'missing diphthong' on this page - our development team is working on updating the chart, but it is taking longer than expected - we hope to have it updated as some time in the near future. Thanks, Cath

Phonemic Chart

I am afraid one sound is missing. In English there are 44 sounds and you have included 43. The diphthong /ʊə/ as in tour is missing.

Diphthongs

Hi Versi, Thanks for your comment - we are working on updating the chart (to include the /ʊə/ sound that you mention) - we had hoped to have this done by now, but it is taking longer than anticipated. We hope to have a brand new chart up in the near future. In the meantime, you are correct that the /ʊə/ sound should be there! Sorry for the confusion and thanks for your patience! Cath

This is a quite useful tool

This is a quite useful tool to increase our speak and pronunciation abilities and to reinforce the knowledge that we acquired in the classroom, I think that is a good idea the use of new technologies as a resource in the teaching process.

Research

Interesting. I have used the sounds app and I think it's good for students to play with to get used to the sounds. If anyone is interested (or not interested) could I ask you for some help by doing my survey. It’s for my Trinity Diploma in TESOL. If you leave your email address in the final question, I’ll happily share the results. The address is as follows below: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/N3XQSN9 Thanks Pete

What's happened to the /ʊə/?

Hi Richard There's been some debate regarding the missing dipthong which you can add to by looking at the previous comments.

Thank you, but how do you

Thank you, but how do you find related comments? Is the debate about whether or not it has been officially removed, or that the sound doesn't really exist in English.

Hi Derek... a found one

Hi Derek... a found one reference to the missing dipthong which said that the chart would be relaunched. But that was some time ago. Are you able to tell me if the missing symbol is a mistake, or if it has been cancelled officially. Thank you!

What's happened to the /ʊə/?

as in fluent, fewer, sewer?

useful for teaching for all ages

Hello everyone, My sincere wishes to you all. This phonetic transcription chart is very helpful for me not only for teaching children but also teaching pronunciation to adults. Thank you very much

Phenomics

This is most difficult part for me, I understand little of this but hoping to improve it using this resources and the information on this website of teaching English.

Phonemic transcription tool

Is there such an animal? I found a Phonetic transcription tool but it does not give me the characters that I am looking for. Anyone know of an online tool? Thanks, Enrique

doubt on short vowel i

hi i have a doubt on the word TREATY- /ˈtriː.ti/, we have a short vowel sound i in the end, but in the chart it is a long vowel i:, why in the symbols ɪ is not used and the script is not /ˈtriː.t ɪ/, please help, thanks

Hi - I can't see the word

Hi - I can't see the word TREATY displayed in the phonemic chart. Could you tell me where you can see this word? Thanks Paul

query on i and ɪ symbols

hi my query when we use the script for i sound the shot one, we have two symbols the 'i' and ' ɪ ' both sound the same, but in application on the word,committee /kəˈmɪt.i/ , both the symbols are used, ie after m and t., is there any rule to use specific symbols, other examples why in the word kit- we use /kɪt/, and for pony we use /ˈpəʊ.ni/