There are a total of 48 phonemes in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English, with 20 vowel phonemes and 28 consonant phonemes. For beginners, it is important to learn and differentiate the pronunciation of these 48 phonemes.
Here are the rules for pronunciation in the IPA:
1. Syllables: Syllables are the units of pronunciation composed mainly of vowels. Generally, vowels are pronounced louder and can form syllables, while consonants are not as loud.
2. Syllable division: In a word where there are two consonant clusters at the boundary of a stressed and an unstressed syllable, one cluster belongs to the preceding syllable and the other belongs to the following syllable. If there is only one consonant cluster at the boundary of a stressed and an unstressed syllable, and the vowel in the preceding stressed syllable is a long vowel, the cluster belongs to the following syllable. However, if the vowel in the stressed syllable is a short vowel, the cluster belongs to the stressed syllable.
3. Stressed syllables: These are the syllables in a word that are pronounced with particular emphasis. When marking the pronunciation of disyllabic and polysyllabic words with IPA, stress symbols should be used. Most monosyllabic words are stressed, and stress symbols are not needed when marking their pronunciation.
4. The five vowel letters are pronounced as long sounds in open syllables.
5. Closed syllables: These are stressed syllables where a single vowel letter is followed by a consonant cluster that ends the syllable.
