The same letter in English is frequently read differently in different words as the ‘rules’ often don’t appear to make much sense, which is why linguists devised the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a system in which each symbol corresponds to a particular sound used in English. This free online course teaches you how to use these symbols to determine the correct pronunciation of English words. We explain how capital and lowercase letters work and show you how to transcribe simple syllables representing vowels and consonants. 

The course then examines the letter ‘F’ and words that begin with it, such as ‘fox’, ‘friend’ and ‘fish’. We then move on to the ‘G’ and identify its two distinct sounds used in words like 'girl' and 'gem' before covering ‘H’. We also explore the possessive case and the usage of apostrophes alone or accompanying an 's'. Then comes the structure of the present continuous tense and some simple examples like: “The hand is holding a pen.” The course describes the letter ‘I’ and how it sounds in both ‘closed’ and ‘open’ syllables. We also demonstrate the use of the ‘verb to be’ in the form of ‘is’ and ‘are’. We wrap up this part of the course with ‘J’ and its pronunciation in words like ‘jeans’, ‘jar’, ‘jet’, ‘job’ and ‘juice’.

This course includes a list of phonetic symbols to aid the transcription of English sounds and exercises to guide you to a deeper understanding of the language. We aim our explanations at speakers of Thai and Russian to help you translate your native tongue into English. This course can boost your confidence and improve both your writing and pronunciation of this complex language.

The course modules are presented in English with Thai and Russian subtitles to assist speakers of those languages.