English to IPA: phonetic transcription generator
Paste English text and get its phonetic transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Stress marks are included, punctuation is kept, and the whole dictionary works offline once loaded.
Convert text to IPA
General American pronunciation from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (about 125,000 words). Words that are not in the dictionary stay in [brackets].
How to read the transcription
| Symbol | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ˈ | main stress, placed before the stressed syllable | about → əˈbaʊt |
| ˌ | secondary stress | understand → ˌʌndɚˈstænd |
| ə | schwa, the weak unstressed vowel | sofa → ˈsoʊfə |
| θ / ð | TH without voice / with voice | think → θɪŋk, this → ðɪs |
| ʃ / ʒ | SH / the middle of “vision” | ship → ʃɪp |
| tʃ / dʒ | CH / J | church → tʃɝtʃ, job → dʒɑb |
| ŋ | NG | sing → sɪŋ |
| ɝ / ɚ | R-colored vowel, stressed / unstressed | bird → bɝd, teacher → ˈtitʃɚ |
What the generator can and cannot do
It looks every word up in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary and converts the entry to IPA. That gives dictionary pronunciations for about 125,000 words in General American.
- Words with two pronunciations get only one: “read” is shown as the past tense /rɛd/, “record” as the verb.
- Weak forms are not applied. In real speech “to” and “and” are usually /tə/ and /ən/.
- Names and rare words that are missing from the dictionary are left in [brackets].
- British transcription differs mainly in R after vowels and in the vowels of “bath”, “lot” and “go”.
Why learn IPA at all
English spelling does not tell you the sound: “though”, “through”, “tough” and “thought” share four letters and no vowel. IPA has one symbol per sound, so a transcription removes the guesswork. You need about 40 symbols, and half of them are ordinary letters.
Questions people ask
Is this American or British transcription?
American (General American). The CMU dictionary does not include British pronunciations.
Can I transcribe a whole paragraph?
Yes, up to 3,000 characters at a time.
Why are some words in brackets?
They are not in the dictionary: mostly names, brands, very new words or misspellings.
Related
- IPA sounds chartEvery vowel and consonant of English with its symbol, example words and audio.
- Tough, though, through, thorough, thoughtFive words, five different vowels, one spelling: -ough explained.
- Silent lettersB in debt, K in knife, L in walk: every silent letter with the rule behind it.
- The schwa /ə/The weak “uh” that replaces vowels in unstressed syllables.