English is a West Germanic, Indo-European language.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
Plosive | p pʰ | b | t tʰ | d | k kʰ | g | ||||||||||
Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ç | h | ||||||
Approximant | ɹ | j | ||||||||||||||
Lateral approximant | l |
ʍ | Voiceless labialized velar approximant |
w | Voiced labialized velar approximant |
tʃ | Voiceless postalveolar affricate |
dʒ | Voiced postalveolar affricate |
Unrounded vowel appear on the left of the bullet point, rounded ones on the right.
Front | n-front | Central | n-back | Back | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | iː • | • ʉː | |||
Near Close | ɪ • | • ʊ | |||
Close mid | |||||
Mid | ə | ||||
Open mid | ɛ ɛː • | ɜː • | • ɔ | ||
Near open | æː • | ||||
Open | a aː • | ɑ • |
English uses the 26 character Roman alphabet with no diactrics and ligatures.
A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[æɪ] | [biː] | [siː] | [diː] | [iː] | [ɛf] | [dʒiː] | [hæɪtʃ] | [ɑɪ] | [dʒæɪ] | [kæɪ] | [ɛl] | [ɛm] |
N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
[ɛn] | [ǝʉ] | [piː] | [kjʉ] | [aː] | [ɛs] | [tiː] | [jʉ] | [viː] | [dabl jʉ] | [ɛks] | [wɑɪ] | [zɛd] |
Pulmonic Consonants | |
---|---|
m | media, mammoth, numb, hymn |
n | noon, funny, known, gnome, pneumatic |
ŋ | sing, sink, tongue |
p | spit, happy |
pʰ | pat |
b | bat, rubber |
t | stack, thyme |
tʰ | tick, latter |
d | dud, ladder |
k | act, account, skit, quit, acknowledge, chrome, cheque |
kʰ | key, cat, tack |
g | gone, bigger, ghoul, guard, exam |
h | how, who |
f | free, scuff, rough, sapphire |
v | voice, savvy, of |
θ | those |
ð | then |
s | sale, mess, century, scythe, psychology |
z | zoo, fuzz, has, scissors, xylophone |
ʃ | shin, election, machine, mission, schedule |
ʒ | treasure, evasion, azure |
ç | human |
ɹ | red, parrot, rhino |
j | yes, onion, vignette |
l | lime, hall |
Co-articulated Consonants | |
ʍ | when |
w | wow, quit |
tʃ | chip, nature, batch |
dʒ | jam, adjective, soldier, usage |
Simple Vowels | |
a | undo, son, flood, rough |
aː | father, alms, sergeant, heart, car |
æ | bat, plait |
ɛ | pen, bury, heifer, said, says |
ɛː | bear, air, bare, prayer, stair, where, mayor |
ɪ | bit, pretty, build, busy, nymph, sieve |
iː | seen, receive, evil, magazine, siege, protein, city |
ɜː | turn, burr, fern, fir, learn, worm |
ə | taken, eloquent, pencil, nation |
ʉː | too, do, queue, shoe, spew, true, you |
ɑ | pot, wasp |
ɔ | torn, paw, broad |
ʊ | cook, pull, should, women |
Diphthongs | |
æɪ | ape, day, hey, feign, neigh, rain, gauge, grey |
ɑɪ | hive, cry, eye, benign, aisle, guy, might, rye |
ɔɪ | boy, oil |
æɔ | now, croud, bough |
əʉ | over, tow, dough, hoe |
ɪə | near, here, beer, tier |
ʊə | cure, skewer |
Triphthongs | |
æɪə | layer |
ɑɪə | fire, buyer, liar, tyre |
ɔɪə | lawyer |
æɔə | hour, cower |
əʉə | lower |
Inflection | Usage | Spellings |
-[s/z/əz] | plural | cats / dogs, mazes, rubies / busses |
-[s/z/əz] | genetive | the cat's / the dog's / the bus's |
-[s/z/əz] | 3rd person | he wraps / he runs / she rushes |
-[t/d/əd] | past participle | jumped / slammed / sanded |
-[n] | past participle | seen |
-[ɪŋ] | present participle | writing, running |
-[ɜː/iɜː] | comparative | faster / heavier |
-[əst/iəst] | superlative | fastest / heaviest |
Affix | From | To | Usage | Example |
re- | verb | verb | repeat | tie/retie |
un- | adjective | adjective | opposite | tidy/untidy |
un- | verb | verb | reverse | tie/untie |
-able | verb | adjective | can be done | win/winnable |
-ity | adjective | noun | - | obese/obesity |
-ly | adjective | adverb | - | quiet/quietly |
-ous | noun | adjective | - | glamour/glamourous |
Basic word order is subject, verb, object.
S : NP VP (conj S) NP : (determiner) (AP+) noun (PP+) VP : (aux) (AP+) verb ({NP,S'}) (AP+) (PP+) AP : (AP) {adjective,adverb} PP : preposition (NP)
How do you say .... in English? | |
What is ... in French? | |
Do you understand? | |
How do you spell that? |
hello | |
excuse me | |
sorry | |
please | |
thank you | |
okay | |
goodbye |
yes | |
no | |
maybe |
who | |
what | |
when | |
where | |
why | |
how | |
how much |
case | subject | object | determiner | possessive object | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | singular | I | me | my | mine |
plural | we | us | our | ours | |
2nd | singular | you | you | your | yours |
plural | you | you | your | yours | |
3rd | male | he | him | his | his |
female | she | her | her | her | |
neutral | it | it | its | its | |
plural | they | them | their | theirs |
that | |
where | |
which | |
who |
this, these | |
that, those |
a, an | |
the | |
this, these | |
that, those | |
some |
and | |
or | |
if | |
but | |
because | He speaks English very well because he is English. |
as | |
however | |
since | |
when |
at | |
in | |
of | |
for | |
by | |
with | |
without | |
except | |
like | |
on | |
after | |
before | |
against | |
around | |
behind | |
in front | |
beside | |
during | |
inside | |
of | |
on top | |
near | |
next to | |
under | |
until | |
towards |
ask | |
be | |
can | |
come | |
do | |
give | |
go | |
have | |
know | |
meet | |
take | |
think | |
say | |
speak | |
want | |
will |
be | |
can | |
go | |
have |
about | |
also | |
always | |
enough | |
even | |
less | |
maybe | |
more | |
never | |
now | |
obviously | |
often | |
really | |
several | |
so | |
somewhere | |
sometimes | |
still | |
surely | |
very | |
yet |
best | |
better | |
new | |
next |
0 .. 10 | zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten |
11 .. 19 | eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen |
20 .. 90 | twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety |
10 ^ x | hundred, thousand, million |
1 .. 10 | first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth |
11 .. 19 | eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, ... |
20 .. 90 | twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth, fiftieth ... |
10 ^ x | hundredth, thousandth, millionth |
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