Help:Pronunciation respelling key

This content is in the Help Namespace.

This is an information page.

It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to describe some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

This page contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The following pronunciation respelling key is used in some Wikipedia articles to respell the pronunciations of English words. It does not use special symbols or diacritics apart from the schwa (ə), which is used for the first sound in the word "about".

Key

Both the IPA and respelling for English on Wikipedia are designed to record all distinctive sounds found in major varieties of English. That is, we record differences found in some varieties but not in others, such as those between "father" and "farther", "wine" and "whine", and "cot" and "caught". This does not mean these differences are, or must be, always distinguished; if you speak a dialect that does not distinguish "father" and "farther", for example, simply ignore the difference between FAH-dhər and FAR-dhər.

For a more thorough discussion of the sounds and dialectal variation, see Help:IPA/English.

Vowels
Rspl.	Example(s)	IPA
a^[1]	bat	See also: /æ/
ah	father	See also: /ɑː/
air	bear, Mary	See also: /ɛər/
ar	farther	See also: /ɑːr/
arr	marry	See also: /ær/
aw	bought	See also: /ɔː/
ay	bait	See also: /eɪ/
e^[1]	bet	See also: /ɛ/
eh^[2]	prestige	See also: /ɛ/
ee	beat	See also: /iː/
ee	happy, serious	See also: /i/
eer	beer, nearer	See also: /ɪər/
err	merry	See also: /ɛr/
ew^[3]	cute, beauty, dew	See also: /juː/
ewr^[3]	cure, lure	See also: /jʊər/
eye^[4]	item, yikes	See also: /aɪ/
i^[1]	bit	See also: /ɪ/
ih^[5]	historic	See also: /ɪ/
ire	hire	See also: /aɪər/
irr	mirror	See also: /ɪr/
o^[1]	bot	See also: /ɒ/
oh	boat	See also: /oʊ/
oir	coir	See also: /ɔɪər/
oo	boot, you	See also: /uː/
oo	influence, fruition	See also: /u/
oor	poor, tourist	See also: /ʊər/
or	horse, hoarse, pour, forum	See also: /ɔːr/
orr	moral	See also: /ɒr/
ow	bout, vow	See also: /aʊ/
owr	flour	See also: /aʊər/
oy	choice, boy	See also: /ɔɪ/
u^[1]	but	See also: /ʌ/
uh^[6]	frustration	See also: /ʌ/
ur	bird, furry	See also: /ɜːr/
urr	hurry	See also: /ʌr/
uu^[1]	book	See also: /ʊ/
uurr	courier	See also: /ʊr/
y^[4]	bite, bide	See also: /aɪ/
ə	about, comma	See also: /ə/
ər	letter	See also: /ər/

Consonants
Rspl.	Example(s)	IPA
b	buy	See also: /b/
ch^[7]	church, nature	See also: /tʃ/
d	dye, ladder	See also: /d/
dh	thy, this	See also: /ð/
f	fight	See also: /f/
g	go	See also: /ɡ/
gh^[8]	guess, guitar	See also: /ɡ/
h	high	See also: /h/
j	jive	See also: /dʒ/
k	kite, sky, lock	See also: /k/
kh	loch, Chanukah	See also: /x/
l	lie, sly	See also: /l/
m	my	See also: /m/
n	nigh	See also: /n/
ng	ring, singer	See also: /ŋ/
nk^[9]	sink	See also: /ŋk/
p	pie, spy	See also: /p/
r	rye, try	See also: /r/
s	sigh	See also: /s/
ss^[10]	ice, tense	See also: /s/
sh	shy	See also: /ʃ/
t	tie, sty, latter	See also: /t/
tch^[7]	church, natural	See also: /tʃ/
th	thigh	See also: /θ/
v	vine	See also: /v/
w	wine	See also: /w/
wh	whine	See also: /hw/
y	you	See also: /j/
z	zoo	See also: /z/
zh	pleasure	See also: /ʒ/

Syllables and stress

Syllables are separated by hyphens ("-"). The stress on a syllable is indicated by capital letters. For example, the word "pronunciation" (/prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/) is respelled prə-NUN-see-AY-shən. In this example, the primary and secondary stress are not distinguished, as the difference is automatic. In words where primary stress precedes secondary stress, however, the secondary stress should not be differentiated from unstressed syllables, because to respell "motorcycle" (/ˈmoʊtərˌsaɪkəl/), for example, as MOH-tər-SY-kəl instead of MOH-tər-sy-kəl would incorrectly suggest the pronunciation /ˌmoʊtərˈsaɪkəl/.

When to use and when not to use

As designated in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation, the standard set of symbols used to show the pronunciation of English words on Wikipedia is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA has significant advantages over this respelling system, as it can be used to accurately represent pronunciations from any language in the world, and (being an international standard) is often more familiar to European/Commonwealth and non-native speakers of English. On the other hand, the IPA (being designed to represent sounds from any language in the world) is not as intuitive for those chiefly familiar with English orthography, for whom this respelling system is likely to be easier for English words and names. So, while the IPA is the required form of representing pronunciation, respelling remains optional. It should not be used for representing non-English words or an approximation thereof. See documentation for {{Respell}} for examples and instructions on using the template.

Sometimes another means of indicating a pronunciation is more desirable than this respelling system, such as when a name is intended to be a homonym of an existing English word or phrase, or in case of an initialism or a name composed of numbers or symbols. When citing a homonym, it should not be enclosed in the {{respell}} template. In such cases, an IPA notation is usually nevertheless needed, but not necessarily so; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Other transcription systems for further discussion.

Respelling should also be avoided when a respelled syllable would be the same as an existing word that is pronounced differently. "Maui" /ˈmaʊi/ respelled as MOW-ee, "metonymy" /mɛˈtɒnɪmi/ as meh-TON-im-ee, and "cobalt" /ˈkoʊbɒlt/ as KOH-bolt are susceptible to being misinterpreted as /ˈmoʊi/, /mɛˈtʌnɪmi/, and /ˈkoʊboʊlt/, because of the words "mow", "ton", and "bolt", so only IPA should be provided for such words, if any.

Particularly, respelling

See also: /aʊ/ could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled with "ow" and pronounced with

See also: /oʊ/: blow, blown, bow, bowl, flow, flown, glow, grow, grown, growth, growths, low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in loud, soup, soul, and touch), so respelling a word including

See also: /aʊ/ may be best avoided altogether; however, sometimes the benefit of respelling may outweigh the disadvantage, especially for longer words, so exercise discretion.

Notes

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f
See also: /æ, ɛ, ɪ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ/ (a, e(h), i(h), o, u(h), uu) are checked vowels, meaning never occurring at the end of a word or before a vowel. When a checked vowel is followed by a consonant and a stressed vowel, which is rare nonetheless, it is acceptable in some cases to attribute the following consonant to the same syllable as the checked vowel, as in bal-AY, even though in IPA it is customary to attribute it to the following syllable, as in /bæˈleɪ/. However, when the following consonant is a voiceless plosive (

See also: /p, t, k/) pronounced with aspiration (a slight delay in the following vowel), it must be attributed to the same syllable as the following vowel, as in ta-TOO, because tat-OO may result in a different pronunciation than intended (compare "whatever" whot-EV-ər, whut-, wherein

See also: /t/ is not aspirated and may be glottalized or flapped). Similarly, when a vowel is followed by

See also: /s/, one or more consonants, and a stressed vowel, the syllabification must be retained, as in fruh-STRAY-shən, because frus-TRAY-shən may result in a different pronunciation than intended.
↑
See also: /ɛ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled eh instead of e when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as another sound such as

See also: /i(ː)/ or

See also: /eɪ/.
↑ ^a ^b ew and ewr are for when
See also: /juː/ or

See also: /jʊər/ takes place right after a consonant within the same syllable. When

See also: /juː/ or

See also: /jʊər/ begins a syllable (e.g. "youth", "Europe", "value"), use yoo(r)—unless it is subject to yod-dropping or yod-coalescence: "Lithuania" LITH-ew-AY-nee-ə.
↑ ^a ^b
See also: /aɪ/ is respelled eye when it begins a syllable or is preceded by

See also: /j/ and otherwise y. When y is followed by a consonant within the same syllable, place an e after the consonant as necessary: "price" PRYSE, "tight" TYTE.
↑
See also: /ɪ/ in syllable-final positions may be respelled ih instead of i when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as another sound such as

See also: /aɪ/.
↑
See also: /ʌ/ in syllable-final positions is respelled uh instead of u to better distinguish it from

See also: /u(ː), ʊ/.
↑ ^a ^b
See also: /tʃ/ after a vowel in the same syllable is respelled tch instead of ch to better distinguish it from

See also: /k, x/.
↑
See also: /ɡ/ may be respelled gh instead of g when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as

See also: /dʒ/.
↑
See also: /ŋk/ is respelled nk rather than ngk, since the assimilation is mandatory, except beyond a syllable boundary: "tinker" TING-kər.
↑
See also: /s/ may be respelled ss instead of s when otherwise it may be misinterpreted as

See also: /z/: "ice" EYESS, "tense" TENSS (compare eyes, tens).