Consonants

In pairs, the consonant to the left is voiceless and the consonant to the right is voiced. Click to hear each sound (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Interdental	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b			t d			k g	ʔ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Flap				ɾ
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Lateral Liquid				l
Retroflex Liquid				ɹ
Glide	w̥ w					j

Vowels

Click to hear each sound (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ɪ		ʊ u
Mid	ɛ	ə ʌ	ɔ
Low	æ		ɑ

Diphthongs

Listen to an audio sample of someone saying “no highway cowboys,” which includes all of the diphthongs used in American English. (Recording from Wikimedia Commons.)

[oʊ] as in “no”

[ɑɪ] as in “high”

[eɪ] as in “way”

[ɑʊ] as in “cow”

[ɔɪ] as in “boy”