Bible Basics - Words
Explanation of Phonetic Representation of pronunciations
All pages and information copyright 1996 Net Ministries, Inc.
Phonetics are commonly used as a way to represent the sounds required for each
syllable in a word. Dictionaries use a complex method of letters, symbols, and
markings to represent the pronunciation. In the English alphabet, there are
approximately 39 sounds that can be made although there are only 26 letters. To
represent these sounds on the computer screen, the following standards, which do
not required special symbols are being used. Each symbol is followed by common
words which exemplify the sound.
Vowel Sounds:
- EE - eat, beet, neat
- IH - bit, hit
- AY - ace, hey, day
- EH - bread, Fred, Ted
- A - cat, sat
- AH - car, far
- AW - law, saw
- O - home, coat
- OU - book, took, hook
- OO - moon, spoon
- UH - cut, nut, love
- ER - bird, heard
- EHR - air, tear, fair
- AI - ice, nice, fly
- AU - out, shout, down
- OI - boy, coin
Consonant Sounds:
Consonants sound as the letter normally sounds with these exception:
- G - (hard G) gun, lug
- ZH - garage, mirage, lodge
- TSH - church, chance, cheep
Syllable Emphasis
The syllable on which to put the emphasis, is shown in CAPITAL LETTERS.