Increasingly, one can notice that in any kind of work, specialists with knowledge of the English language are required, and he himself becomes in demand in many areas of human life. This is the first signal that you need to learn this language at least at the usual level. And, as you know, his study begins with the correct reading and understanding of each word, because an incorrect reading can distort the meaning. Transcription of the English language will allow you to clearly and correctly read each syllable of a word without distorting the meaning of the lexical unit itself. Consider what constitutes transcription and how to read it.
The transcription of English words is ...
Transcription is a graphical representation of the sounds of a language. Knowledge of transcription is the basis of language learning, because without knowing it, you will not be able to start reading, and your interlocutor will not understand you, because you can utter a word with a phonetic error. The pronunciation of English words has always been difficult for people starting to learn this language, but this is only a consequence of ignorance of transcription and reading rules. Accordingly, in order to learn how to correctly express your thoughts and correctly formulate statements in English, it is necessary to study transcription, because this is the basis on which the further development of the language is based.
If you learn how the transcription of the English language is recorded, you can easily master
oral speech, as you will clearly visualize the structure of the word, decomposing its letters by sounds.
The ratio of English letters and sounds
As you know, in English there are only twenty-six letters, and there are much more sounds. Each of them somehow needs to be recorded and voiced. Not all English words obey existing reading rules. Native speakers learn traditional pronunciation from childhood. But for people studying English as a foreign language, an English transcription was developed. This is a graphical system in which sounds are indicated by special characters.
Sounds and letters in the English alphabet are divided in such a way that twenty-four letters correspond to twenty-four sounds, and six vowels correspond to twenty sounds, which together makes up the ratio of twenty-six English letters to forty-four sounds. Consider several provisions that characterize transcription.
English transcription: basic rules
- The transcription of the word is enclosed in square brackets - [...].
- There are letters denoting several sounds, in the transcription they are displayed with different icons.
- There are several types of stresses that have different notations in the transcription of a word.
- In the transcription of some words you can find sounds enclosed in parentheses - (...). This designation indicates that the sound in brackets may be pronounced (for example, in the American language), or it may not (in classic British pronunciation).
- A colon after the main sound indicates the duration of its sound.
After you study these rules, you can correctly read the transcription itself. The table below shows the latest changes in the transcription of some words.
Entry form | for instance | Another form of recording |
|---|
| [i:] | f ee l | [i:] |
| [i] | f i ll | [ı] |
| [e] | f e ll | [e] |
| [ɔ:] | f a ll | [ɔ:] |
| [u] | f u ll | [ʋ] |
| [u:] | f oo l | [u:] |
| [ei] | f ai l | [eı] |
| [ou] | f oa l | [əʋ] |
| [ai] | f i le | [aı] |
| [au] | f ou l | [aʋ] |
| [ɔi] | f oi l | [ɔı] |
| [æ] | c a t | [æ] |
| [ɔ] | c o t | [ɒ] |
| [ʌ] | c u t | [ʌ] |
| [ə:] | c u rt | [ɜ:] |
| [ɑ:] | c a rt | [ɑ:] |
| [iə] | t ie r | [ıə] |
| [ɛə] | t ea r | [eə] |
| [uə] | t ou r | [ʋə] |
| [ə] | b a nan a | [ə] |
A little bit about transcription in Russian
Difficulties in pronouncing words of a foreign language arise for representatives of any nationalities, since sounds in different dialects can quite significantly differ. Surely the British studying Russian ask teachers to "translate the transcription into English." A kind of simplified option for mastering unfamiliar English words is transcription in Russian, that is, the transmission of phonemes of a foreign language using the sounds of the mother tongue. In another way, this method is called phonetic transliteration. In this case, the words will look something like this: [fanatic], [cat], [fish], etc. It would seem that a great way out! However, as we recall, not all sounds can be transliterated in this way quite accurately. Therefore, any teacher will advise you to master the "real" English transcription.
Types of Accents
Nouns, adjectives, adverbs usually have an accent on the first syllable. The transcription of the English language shows not only the sounds into which the word is decomposed, but also the stresses, which are divided into two groups: the main position is always in front of the stressed syllable at the top, and the additional one is located in front of the stressed word below. For a better understanding of stress, we will get acquainted with the rules for setting it:
- Verbs with a prefix, as a rule, will have stress on the second syllable.
- At the beginning of a word there are no two consecutive syllables without stress, one of them will certainly be stressed.
- A word with more than four syllables will have at once two stresses - the main and the additional.
- In nouns, prefixes are often stressed.
- Suffixes of any part of speech at the end of a word are never stressed.
- The word endings also miss the stress.
The correct arrangement of stresses will convey the correct meaning of the word.
Reading and Pronunciation Rules
As you know, an integral part of knowledge of the English language is the ability to translate from English. With transcription, which must be studied from the very beginning of a language course, memorizing a lot of words will be quick enough.
After you understand the rules regarding transcription, you need to turn to reading rules, which, first of all, begin with the correct definition of the type of syllable. So, in English there are open and closed syllables. Open ends with a vowel: game, like, stone - the 1st vowel in a word is read in the same way as in the alphabet. A closed syllable ends in a consonant: pen, cat, bus - a vowel in a syllable gives a different sound.
In addition to simple sounds, there are diphthongs. This is the name of a complex sound, consisting of two simple ones. In many cases, it can be represented as two components, but this rule does not work in writing.
It's important to know
English is the language that is required in many areas of a person’s life, which means that his knowledge is useful to everyone not only for self-development, but also in life. Knowledge of English begins with the ability to read - nouns, adjectives, verbs of the English language (with or without transcription). This is the foundation that you can’t do without.