British English has 20 sounds, although it has only five vowel letters. Twelve are single, steady sounds (seven short and five long) and eight are , which glide from one sound to another, like in five. Each one has a symbol and a key word.
Twenty sounds from five letters
The letters a, e, i, o and u are not the sounds. They are only spellings, and they stand for many different sounds. The letter a is a different sound in cat, car, cake, about and water.
In British English, speakers use 20 vowel sounds: 12 pure (monophthong) vowels and 8 gliding () vowels. If you learn the sounds and not the letters, you can read any word in a dictionary and say it correctly.
The 12 pure vowels
A pure keeps the same shape for the whole sound. Seven are short and five are long. The long ones have a colon (ː) after the symbol.
- short: ship, sit, big.
- short: bed, ten, men.
- short: cat, bad, hat.
- short: cup, bus, love.
- short: hot, dog, stop.
- short: book, good, put.
- short and weak: about, teacher, sofa.
- long: sheep, see, team.
- long: car, father, start.
- long: door, more, talk.
- long: food, blue, group.
- long: bird, learn, work.
The 8 diphthongs
A starts at one and glides to another inside the same . You hear two parts, but they are one sound. The first part is longer and stronger, and the second is quick and light.
Say day slowly: it begins like and ends like . That is the diphthong . The last three in the list, , and , glide towards a weak . Note that is rare in modern British speech: many speakers now say in words like tour and sure.
- : day, make, rain.
- : five, my, time.
- : boy, noise, enjoy.
- : go, home, phone.
- : now, house, town.
- : here, near, idea.
- : there, hair, care.
- : tour, pure, cure.
How vowels are different from each other
differ in four ways. The first is how high the tongue is: high for in sheep, low for in cat. The second is how far forward it is: forward for , back for in food. The third is whether the lips are rounded, as for , or spread, as for . The fourth is length: is longer than .
The mouth diagrams on this page show the tongue and the jaw for four useful vowels. Watch how the jaw opens from and to and .
Length changes with the next sound
length is not fixed. The same vowel is longer before a than before a one. So the vowel in seed is longer than the vowel in seat, and the vowel in bed is longer than the vowel in bet.
Listeners use this difference to decide whether a word ends in or , even when the last consonant is quiet. So when you say a word like bed or bad, give the vowel enough time. If you cut the vowel short, the word can sound like bet or bat.
The contrasts that cause the most trouble
Most learners do not have trouble with all 20. Usually a few pairs cause confusion because their first language has fewer . The pairs below change one word into another, so they are worth practising first.
- ship · sheep
- full /fʊl/ · fool /fuːl/
- bed · bad /bæd/
- cut /kʌt/ · cat
- cut /kʌt/ · cart /kɑːt/
- hot · hurt /hɜːt/
How to learn the vowels
Learn them in groups, not in a list of twenty. Start with the pairs your own language does not have. Say the key word for each sound until the is steady, then build short phrases using the same vowel.
Do not try to be perfect. What you need is to be different enough: when you say ship and sheep, your listener must hear a difference in length and quality. Record the pair, listen, and compare with a model speaker.
Use a dictionary to check any word you doubt. Look at the vowel symbol and say its key word, then say your word. If the symbol is , for example, say bird and then your word.
- Learn one pair a day and spend five minutes on it.
- Use a dictionary with audio and the for every new word.
- Say the sound in a short phrase: a big ship, a green sheep.
- Return to the pair after a week and test yourself.
How to make the sound
- For (sheep): lips spread, tongue high and forward, jaw almost closed. Hold it a little longer.
- For (ship): relax the lips and jaw slightly. Make it short.
- For (cat): open the jaw wide and keep the tongue low at the front.
- For (car): open wide, but pull the tongue back and make it long.
IELTS tip
sounds make the difference between many pairs of words you will use, such as live and leave, sit and seat, and full and fool. In Speaking, a listener who cannot tell two words apart has to guess from context. Practise the pairs that your first language does not have.
Frequently asked questions
How many vowel sounds are in English?
British English has 20: 12 pure and 8 . Other accents of English use a different number.
What is the difference between a vowel letter and a vowel sound?
Letters are the written symbols a, e, i, o and u. Sounds are what you say, and there are more of them than letters.
What is a diphthong?
A vowel that glides from one sound to another in a single , such as in five.
Which vowel is the most important to learn first?
Start with the pairs your language does not have, because they change the meaning of words, such as ship and sheep.
Sources
- Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Cruttenden, A. (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge.