IPA in AWE - consonants

This is a table of the consonant sounds of English and their representation as used in AWE. For an explanation of our usage, see IPA in AWE. You may also want to see IPA in AWE - vowels.

IPA symbol used	English words	Phonetic description	Notes
b	bed, able, pub	voiced bilabial plosive	.
p	put, lapped, up	unvoiced bilabial plosive
t	take, written at	voiced dental plosive	t and d were traditionally known as 'dentals'. (NED remarked in 1884 "The English t and d are not strictly dental, they are alveolar". The alveolus is the 'tooth-ridge'
d	do, added, red	unvoiced dental plosive
g	go, ragged, egg	voiced velar plosive	The so-called hard '-g-' in traditional terms, not to be confused with /dʒ/
k	cat, kick, ache	unvoiced velar plosive	Sometimes written '-c', traditionally called hard '-c-' - not to be confused with /s/
f	fat, soft, off	unvoiced labio-dental fricative
v	from, after, of, give	voiced labio-dental fricative
θ	think, Cuthbert, both,	unvoiced dental fricative	sometimes realized as /f/ in British accents, e.g. 'fink' for 'think' in Cockney.
ð	that, whether, breathe	voiced dental fricative	sometimes realized as /v/ in British accents, e.g. 'muvver' for 'mother' in Cockney.
ʃ	shop, station, cash	unvoiced palato-alveolar fricative
tʃ	chop, catching, such	unvoiced palato-alveolar affricate	given as č in American transcriptions such as Fromkin and Rodman
dʒ	judge, rigid, edge	voiced palato-alveolar affricate	given as ǰ or J̌ in American transcriptions such as Fromkin and Rodman
ʒ	genre, rouge	voiced palato-alveolar fricative	French '-j-' sound; rare in English. Do not confuse with /j/
s	so, rest, face, 'cross	unvoiced alveolar fricative	Sometimes written as the so-called soft '-c-' in traditional terms.
z	zoo, crazy, lose	voiced alveolar fricative
h	have, oho, he	voiced glottal fricative	Realized more strongly in some some accents than others (see Dropping the h).
m	man, commit, thumb	bilabial nasal
n	now, morning, man	alveolar nasal
ŋ	hang, singing, morning	velar nasal	In some accents, realised as separate consonants: /sɪŋgɪŋg/ ('sinGinG') and in others as /in/ (see Dropping the g)
l	lie, selling, well	lateral continuant traditionally 'a liquid'	Sometimes realized as the 'dark -l-', /l/ as in RP 'peel'
r	write, error, correct	post-alveolar approximant, or frictionless continuant	Many variations. In RP, often not realized in final position. Trilled in many accents. See also rhotic.
[vowel]r	visitor, perfect, learn		This is how AWE indicates rs that are pronounced in rhotic accents and not sounded in non-rhotic accents
w	win, one, owing	labio-velar semi-vowel (voiced)	Can be heard in some speakers' realization of such words as 'going' (/ˈgəʊ wɪŋ/).
j	yesterday, yacht	palatal semi-vowel (voiced)	Can be heard in some speakers' realization of such words as 'saying' (/seɪjɪŋg/ Do not confuse with /ʒ/).

Table adapted from Crystal (1995).

You may also want to see IPA in AWE - vowels.

There are also some consonants that appear in various accents if not in RP that it is convenient to list here:

IPA symbol used	English words	Phonetic description	Notes
ʍ	when, what, who	labio-velar semi-vowel (unvoiced)	not realized in most speakers of RP; a feature of such accents as Scots.
χ	loch (Scots), lough (Irish)	voiceless uvular fricative	Most RP speakers realize this as /k/
ʁ	-	Voiced uvular fricative	The 'French', or guttural, '-r-'; only used in English by those who affect a foreign realization of foreign words, usually French.