图说英语：自然拼读字母字母组合发音表（PDF版）

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
The symbols between forward slashes / / are used in the UK Government’s Letters and Sounds phonics programme*. The green symbols in
round brackets are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Letter or
Combination
of Letters Corresponding Sounds (Phonemes) and Example Words Notes
(Graphemes)
a /a/ ( ) at, alligator, can, bag The most common correspondence
for letter ‘a’. Sometimes called ‘short
a’.
/ai/ (e ) apron, alien, angel, baby, cradle, lady Sometimes called ‘long a’. This is
the most common correspondence
for the /ai/ sound.
/o/ ( ) was*, wand, what, swan, squash Uncommon – mostly after ‘w’.
*Pronounced as ‘wuz’ in some
accents.
Uncommon. Examples with asterisk
/ar/ (ɑ:) father, lather, rather, bath*, grass*, last* are mainly found in the accents of
people in the south of England.
/e/ (e) any, many Rare correspondence.
/or/ ( :) water Rare correspondence.
/ / ( ) ago, about, banana, gorilla Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ae /ai/ (e ) Gaelic, Israel, reggae, vertebrae Uncommon.
/e/ (e) haemorrhage, haemorrhoids UK spelling. Rare.
/ee/ (i:) Aeon, algae, haemophilia, paediatrician Mostly UK spellings.
/igh/ (a ) maestro, taekwondo, curriculum vitae Rare correspondence.
a-e /ai/ (e ) ape, bake, cave, snake, tale Split digraph, sometimes called
‘magic e’.
/i/ ( ) baggage, cabbage, damage, language
/a/ ( ) have Rare.
ai /ai/ (e ) aim, brain, faint, snail, waist Most common sound for this digraph.
/i/ ( ) or / / ( ) captain, mountain, fountain The actual sound spoken depends
on individual accents.
/e/ (e) again, said Rare sound for this digraph.
/a/ ( ) plaid, plait Rare sound for this digraph.

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
air /air/ (e ) chair, fair, hair, stair Trigraph.
al /a/ ( ) + /l/ (l) Alps, scalp, talc, Val
/l/ (l) animal, capital, hospital
/or/ ( :) talk, walk, chalk, stalk Acting as a digraph - usually before
‘k’.
/or/ ( :) + /l/ (l) also, always, alright, already
/ar/ (ɑ:) half, calm, calve, palm Also acting as a digraph, but less
common.
/a/ ( ) salmon Very rare.
all /a/ ( ) + /l/ (l) shall Rare correspondence.
/or/ ( :) + /l/ (l) all, ball, call, fall Quite common.
ar /ar/ (ɑ:) arm, car, dark, farm Most common sound for this digraph
/or/ ( :) dwarf, war, wardrobe, wart Uncommon – usually after ‘w’.
/air/ (e ) area, Mary, vary Uncommon.
/ / ( ) (British and Australian accents) ( ) (American accents) Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
cellar, dollar, nectar, vinegar
are /air/ (e ) bare, care, glare hare Trigraph
/ar/ (ɑ:) are Very rare sound for this trigraph.
au /or/ ( :) August, caught, haunt, pause
/o/ ( ) Australia, because, fault, vault Uncommon.
/ar/ (ɑ:) aunt, draught, laugh Rare - can be pronounced as /a/ for
ant in the north of England.
augh /or/ ( :) caught, daughter, naughty, taught Rare correspondence.
/a/ ( ) + /f/ (f) draught, laugh Rare correspondence.
aw /or/ ( :) awful, crawl, draw, saw
ay /ai/ (e ) day, play, say, tray
b /b/ (b) boy, big, ability, crab
bb /b/ (b) Abbot, gibbon, rabbit, wobble
bt /t/ (t) debt, doubt, subtle Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘b’. Very rare correspondence.
bu /b/ (b) building, built, buoy Very rare correspondence.
c /k/ (k) cat, cub, cornflakes, cotton
/s/ (s) cell, city, cycle, cent, icy Usually before ‘e’,’i’ or ‘y’

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
cc /k/ (k) account, hiccup, occur, soccer
/k/ (k) + /s/ (s) accent, access, success, vaccine Uncommon.
ce /s/ (s) bounce, dance, juice, voice
/sh/ ( ) ocean, crustacean, sebaceous Rare correspondence.
ch /ch/ (t ) chick, child, church, much Most common sound for this digraph.
/k/ (k) anchor, Christmas, chemistry, school Mostly words borrowed from Greek.
/sh/ ( ) chalet, chef, machine, brochure Mostly words borrowed from French.
/k/ (k) + /w/ (w) choir Rare.
ci /sh/ ( ) delicious, racial, special, musician Uncommon.
ck /k/ (k) clock, duck, kick, quack
d /d/ (d) Dad, drink dress, and
dd /d/ (d) address, cuddle, ladder, odd
de /d/ (d) aide, blonde, horde Uncommon.
dg /j/ (d ) badger, budget, dodgy, fidget
dge /j/ (d ) badge, fudge, fridge, porridge Trigraph
e /e/ (e) bed, desk, egg, pen
/ee/ (i:) be, demon, evil, he, me
/i/ ( ) England, college, knowledge, pretty
/ / ( ) effect, elephant, bulletin, the* Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’. *‘The’
is pronounced as ‘thee’ before a
vowel.
ea /ee/ (i:) beach, clean, eat, meal Most common sound for ‘ea’.
/e/ (e) bread, dead, feather, head
/ai/ (e ) break, great, steak, Reagan Rare correspondence.
ear /ear/ ( ) beard, disappear, hear, spear
/ur/ ( : Br. or US) Earth, heard, learn, pearl Uncommon.
/air/ (e ) Bear, pear, tear, wear Rare correspondence.
/ar/ (ɑ:) heart, hearth Very rare correspondence.
eau /oa/ ( or o ) chateau, gateau, plateau Very rare correspondence. Mainly
found in words borrowed from
French.
ed /d/ (d) alarmed, baffled, behaved, camouflaged
/t/ (t) chopped, hopped, jumped, walked

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
/ / ( ) + /d/ (d) alerted, bearded, landed, wanted / / represents schwa sound. Similar
to ‘uh’.
ee /ee/ (i:) bee, cheese, geese, sheep
e-e /ee/ (i:) athlete, compete, phoneme, these Split digraph, also known as ‘magic
e’.
eer /ear/ ( ) beer, cheer, deer, meerkat
ei /ee/ (i:) ceiling, protein, receive, seize Rare correspondence.
/ai/ (e ) beige, feint, reindeer, veil Rare correspondence.
/e/ (e) heifer, leisure (British accents) Very rare correspondence.
eir /air/ (e ) heir, heirloom, their Very rare correspondence.
eigh /ai/ (e ) eight, freight, weigh, neighbour Uncommon.
/igh/ (a ) height, sleight Rare correspondence.
er /ur/ ( : Br. or US) fern, germ, her, person
/ear/ ( ) cafeteria, cereal, hero, zero
/ / ( ) after, butter, corner, sister (British and Australian Accents) Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
/ar/ (ɑ:) clerk, Derby, sergeant
/r/ (r) every camera (and different in some accents) ‘Silent e.’
ere /ear/ ( ) atmosphere, cashmere, here, sincere Uncommon.
/ur/ ( : Br. or US) were Very rare correspondence.
/air/ (e ) compere, there, where, premiere Rare correspondence.
eu /oo/ (u ) sleuth, leukaemia, rheumatism Rare
/y/ (j) + /oo/ (u ) Europe, feud, neuron, pneumonia Uncommon.
ew /oo/ (u ) blew, chew, flew, grew
/y/ (j) + /oo/ (u ) dew, few, new, nephew, skewer The /y/ sound isn’t spoken in all
these words in some accents.
/oa/ ( or o ) sew Very rare correspondence.
ey /ee/ (i:) abbey, donkey, honey, monkey
/ai/ (e ) hey, prey, they, obey Less common correspondence than
/ee/ sound for ‘ey’.
f /f/ (f) fan, fit, fox, defuse
/v/ (v) of Very rare correspondence but ‘of’ is
a common word.
ff /f/ (f) off, cliff, daffodil, muffin

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
g /g/ (g) got, Gran, argue, began
/j/ (d ) gel, gym, giraffe, angel Usually before ‘e’, ‘i' or ‘y’.
ge /j/ (d ) barge, large, sponge, pigeon
/zh/ ( ) beige, camouflage, massage, prestige
gg /g/ (g) egg, beggar, giggle, wagging
gh /g/ (g) ghee, ghost, ghastly, gherkin Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘h’.
/f/ (f) cough, laugh, rough, enough Digraph.
gn /n/ (n) gnaw, gnome, reign, sign Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘g’.
/g/ (g) + /n/ (n) gnu, magnet, cygnet, ignite Consonant blend.
gu /g/ (g) guard, guest, guide, disguise Digraph (or silent ‘u’).
h /h/ (h) hat, hug, happy, behind
i /i/ ( ) it, bin, chip, digger Very common correspondence.
/igh/ (a ) blind, child, giant, lion
/ee/ (i:) happier, pizza, ski, taxi
/y/ (j) onion, preview, Spaniard, union Rare correspondence.
/ / ( ) cavity, delicate, horrible, president Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ie /igh/ (a ) cried, flies, pie, satisfied Uncommon.
/ee/ (i:) achieve, belief, chief, field
/e/ (e) friend Very rare correspondence.
i-e /igh/ (a ) bike, dice, hide, kite Split digraph, sometimes called
‘magic e’ – quite a common
correspondence.
/i/ ( ) give, lived, engine, evasive Relatively uncommon.
/ee/ (i:) elite, machine, police, sardine Relatively uncommon.
ier /ear/ ( ) cashier, fierce, pier, tier
igh /igh/ (a ) bright, high, light, right
ir /ur/ ( : Br. or US) bird, chirp, dirt, girl
j /j/ (d ) jam, jet, jump, enjoy
k /k/ (k) kangaroo, kid, sketch, bike
kk /k/ (k) bookkeeping, trekking, yakking Uncommon.

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
kn /n/ (n) knee, knew, knife, know Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘k’.
l /l/ (l) leg, lip, black, camel
le /l/ (l) or / / ( ) + /l/ (l) apple, beetle, candle, giggle
ll /l/ (l) bell, doll, chill, bully
m /m/ (m) mad, mix, gum, chimp
mb /m/ (m) bomb, comb, lamb, climb Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘b’.
mm /m/ (m) comma, dummy, hammer, summer
mn /m/ (m) Autumn, column, damn, hymn Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘n’ - rare
n /n/ (n) nap, nettle, pan, hand
/ng/ ( ) blank, junk, pink, jungle, single
ng /ng/ ( ) bang, bring, king, running
nn /n/ (n) annoy, bunny, dinner, tennis
ngue /ng/ ( ) tongue, meringue Rare correspondence.
o /o/ ( ) dog, God, hot, on
/oa/ ( or o ) cold, echo, go, oval, so
/u/ ( ) front, monkey, month, won
/oo/ (u ) do, who, to, tomb Rare correspondence.
/or/ ( :) dog, job Some American accents.
/ / ( ) carrot, observe, offend, parrot Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
/i/ ( ) women Very rare correspondence.
oa /oa/ ( or o ) cloak, goat, loaf, soap
/or/ ( :) abroad, broad Rare correspondence.
oar /or/ ( :) boar, board, roar, soar Rare correspondence.
oe /oa/ ( or o ) doe, goes, Joe, tomatoes
/ee/ (i:) amoeba, diarrhoea, foetus, oestrogen Mainly UK spellings.
/oo/ (u ) canoe, shoe Rare correspondence.
o-e /oa/ ( or o ) alone, choke, home, nose Split digraph, sometimes called
‘magic e’.
/u/ ( ) come, done, love, some
/oo/ (u ) lose, move, prove Rare correspondence.

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
oi /oi/ ( ) avoid, boil, coin, oink
oo /oo/ (u ) balloon, food, room, too
/oo/ ( ) book, foot, good, look
/u/ ( ) blood, flood Rare correspondence.
oor /or/ ( :) door, floor, moor Very rare correspondence.
/ure/ ( ) poor, poorly Very rare correspondence. Can be
pronounced as /ooer/ or /or/
depending on different accents.
or /or/ ( :) born, cork, for, horse Most common correspondence for
‘or’.
/ur/( : Br. or US) attorney, word, work, world Uncommon.
/ / ( ) doctor, mirror, sailor, tractor (British and Australian Accents) Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ore /or/ ( :) chore, more, store, wore
ou /ow/ (a ) bounce, cloud, fountain, house Most common correspondence for
‘ou’.
/u/ ( ) cousin, touch, rough, young Less common correspondence for
‘ou’.
/oa/ ( or o )boulder, mould (UK), shoulder, soul Rare correspondence.
/oo/ (u ) group, soup, you, toucan Rare correspondence.
/ / ( ) anxious, enormous, hideous, serious Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ough /or/ ( :) bought, fought, thought Rare correspondence.
/ow/ (a ) bough, drought, plough Very rare correspondence.
/ / ( ) Borough, thorough Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’. Rare
correspondence.
/oa/ ( or o )although, dough, furlough, though Rare correspondence.
/oo/ (u ) through Very rare correspondence.
oul /oo/ ( ) could, should, would Very rare correspondence.
our /ow/ (a ) + / / ( ) flour, hour, scour, sour / / represents the schwa sound.
Similar to ‘uh’.
/or/ ( :) course, four, mourn, your
/ur/( : Br. or US) adjourn, courtesy, glamour, journey Rare correspondence.
/ure/ ( ) tour, Lourdes Rare. Can be pronounced as /ooer/
or /or/ depending on different
accents.
/ / ( ) armour, flavour, humour, neighbour (UK) Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
ow /ow/ (a ) allow, cow, flower, how Both sound correspondences for ‘ow’
have a similar frequency in words.
/oa/ ( or o ) arrow, blow, grow, thrown
oy /oi/ ( ) annoy, boy, enjoy, toy
p /p/ (p) pan, pet, cup, spell
pb /b/ (b) Campbell, cupboard, raspberry Rare. Usually represents 2 separate
sounds as in ‘upbeat’.
ph /f/ (f) alphabet, dolphin, elephant, phonics
pp /p/ (p) apple, clapping, dropped, flipper
ps /s/ (s) psalm, psychiatrist, psychic, psychology Very rare correspondence. Mainly
found in words borrowed from Greek.
q /k/ (k) Qatar, Iraq, Iqra Usually names of places or people.
qu /k/ (k) + /w/ (w) quack, Queen, quick, liquid The letter q is almost always paired
up with the letter u in English words.
/k/ (k) conquer, etiquette, quiche, mosquito Acting as a digraph.
r /r/ (r) rat, red, brush, coral
re / / ( ) acre, centre (UK), mediocre, ogre Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
rh /r/ (r) rhea, rhino, rhythm, rhetorical Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘h’.
rr /r/ (r) barrel, carry, hurry, parrot
s /s/ (s) sad, snake, desk, ducks
/z/ (z) has, is, beans, frogs Quite common.
/sh/ ( ) sugar, sure, capsule Rare correspondence.
/zh/ ( ) casual, measure, pleasure, leisure Mostly when ‘s’ is before -ion or -
ure but there are other examples
such as usual.
sc /s/ (s) + /k/ (k) scab, scar, scoop, scheme ‘Sc’ as 2 blended sounds.
/s/ (s) descend, scent, scissors, science ‘Sc’ as a digraph. Often referred to
as silent ‘c’.
se /s/ (s) goose, horse, mouse, collapse Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘e’.
/z/ (z) browse, cheese, please, noise Digraph.
sh /sh/ ( ) sheep, shrimp, brush, fish Digraph.
si /zh/ ( ) Asia, division, invasion, television

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
/sh/ ( ) extension, mansion, pension tension
/z/ (z) business Very rare
ss /s/ (s) boss, fuss, hiss, blossom
/z/ (z) dessert, dissolve, possess, scissors
/sh/ ( ) assure, fissure, issue, tissue
st /s/ (s) + /t/ (t) start, stop, fast, last Represents 2 blended sounds.
/s/ (s) bristle, castle, fasten, listen Digraph. Often referred to as silent
‘t’.
t /t/ (t) top, it, rat, pointed
/ch/ (t ) culture, mixture, punctual, statue
tch /ch/ (t ) catch, fetch, match, witch
th /th/ (θ) thank, thin, bath, sloth
/th/ ( ) this, then, with, feather
/t/ (t) Esther, Thomas, thyme, Thailand Rare. Mostly names of people or
places.
ti /sh/ ( ) action, initial, station, mention
tt /t/ (t) attend, butter, kitten, twitter
u /u/ ( ) up, under, duck, butter This sound isn’t spoken in some
parts of the north of England. ‘U’
represents the same sound as ‘oo’ in
‘foot’ or ‘took’ there.
/oo/ ( ) bull, full, put, push
/oo/ (u ) brutal, flu, super, truant Quite common correspondence.
/y/ (j) + /oo/ (u ) cucumber, emu, human, music Quite common correspondence.
/w/ (w) penguin, language Very rare correspondence.
ue /oo/ (u ) blue, clue, glue, true
/y/ (j) + /oo/ (u ) argue, cue, rescue, venue
u-e /oo/ (u ) fluke, June, rude, salute Split digraph, sometimes called
‘magic e’.
/y/ (j) + /oo/ (u ) amuse, costume, cute, mule
ui /i/ ( ) build, biscuit, circuit Rare correspondence.
/oo/ (u ) bruise, cruise, fruit, juice Rare correspondence.
ur /ur/ ( : Br. or US) burn, fur, hurt, nurse

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English
/ / ( ) Arthur, lemur, murmur, sulfur (British and Australian Accents) Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ure /ure/ ( ) cure, sure, lure, endure Can be pronounced as /ooer/ or
/yooer/ or /or/ depending on the
individual words and different
accents.
/ / ( ) capture, creature, picture, vulture Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
uy /igh/ (a ) buy, guy Very rare correspondence.
v /v/ (v) van, avenue, beaver, heaven
ve /v/ (v) carve, deserve, groove, leave English words don’t usually end with
the letter v on its own.
w /w/ (w) wag, wet, swim, reward
wh /w/ (w) why, when, whale, where, wheel Digraph. Often described as silent
or /h/ (h) + /w/ (w) ‘h’. in some accents.
/h/ (h) who, whose, whole, whoever Digraph. Often described as silent
‘w’. Rare correspondence.
wr /r/ (r) wrap, wren, wrist, write Digraph. Often described as silent
‘w’.
x /k/ (k) + /s/ (s) box, fox, mix, oxygen
/z/ (z) xenon, xenophobia, xylophone Rare correspondence.
/g/ (g) + /z/ (z) exact, exam, example, exist
y /y/ (j) yak, yes, yellow, Kenya
/i/ ( ) crystal, gym, myth, system
/ee/ (i:) baby, Daddy, funny, very Most common correspondence for
‘y’.
/igh/ (a ) by, cyclone, dry, my
/ / ( ) bicycle, mysterious, pyjamas, syringe Schwa sound. Similar to ‘uh’.
ye /igh/ (a ) dye, goodbye, rye Rare correspondence.
y-e /igh/ (a ) analyse, style, type, tyre Split digraph. Rare correspondence.
z /z/ (z) zip, zebra, doze, lizard
ze /z/ (z) breeze, freeze, ooze, squeeze
zz /z/ (z) buzz, dizzy, frizzy, grizzly

Letter-Sound Correspondences in English