The Vowel Sound Chart

Interactive IPA Vowel Chart with Audio: Learn British English Vowel Sounds

The Purpose of the Vowel Sound Chart

The vowel sound chart helps us identify the position of the tongue for each of the twenty vowel sounds.

This chart is useful for linguists, academics, language learners, accent coaches and actors, etc.

Example: Let’s compare the words ‘sheep’ /ʃiːp/ and ‘ship’ /ʃɪp/.

It is often assumed that the vowel sounds /ɪ/ and /iː/ differ only in length. However, from observing the chart, we can see that the /iː/ sound is further forward compared to the /ɪ/ sound. The /iː/ sound is a front vowel sound, while the /ɪ/ sound is a near-front vowel sound.

(Interactive chart optimized for desktop.

Mobile users: Scroll down to access the full Audio Library.)

Click on the IPA symbols to playback the sounds.

Master the Vowel Sound Chart & IPA.

Close vs Open

The height of the tongue directly influences the position of the jaw: raising the tongue closes the jaw, while lowering it opens the jaw.

A vowel sound can be categorised as:

Open
Near-open
Mid
Close
Near close

Front vs Back

Vowel sounds produced with the tongue pushed forward are known as front vowels, whereas those made with the tongue pulled back are back vowels.

A vowel sound can be categorised as:

Front
Near-front
Back
Near-back

Rounded vs Unrounded

Vowel sounds can be categorised according to the shape of the mouth:

Rounded
Unrounded

Examples

The /ɒ/ sound is an open-back rounded vowel and appears in words such as ‘hot’, ‘got’ and ‘not’, etc.

The schwa sound /ə/ is a mid-central vowel which commands a relaxed facial posture. It is neither rounded nor ungrounded. It is neither an open vowel nor a close vowel.

Master the Vowel Sound Chart & IPA with precision.