Guía de Fonética del Inglés: Sonidos, Reglas y Patrones

Vocales cortas

"/æ/ — short A"

The "flat" vowel sound as in "cat", "hat", "map". Lips spread wide and jaw drops slightly.

""The cat sat on the mat — a classic short /æ/ drilling sentence.""

Vocales cortas

"/ɛ/ — short E"

The mid-front vowel in "bed", "pen", "red". Mouth is slightly open with lips pulled back.

""She went to bed and read her pen pal's letter.""

Vocales cortas

"/ɪ/ — short I"

The high-front lax vowel in "sit", "bit", "him". Tongue is high and slightly back of the "ee" position.

""Did the fish flip its fin in the big dish?""

Vocales cortas

"/ɒ/ — short O"

The low back rounded vowel in "hot", "dog", "top" (British English). Jaw drops fully.

""The dog got on top of the box by the log.""

Vocales cortas

"/ʌ/ — short U"

The mid-central vowel in "cup", "run", "mud". Often spelled with "u" but also "o" in words like "son".

""The sun is fun — run and jump in the mud!""

Vocales cortas

"CVC pattern"

Consonant–Vowel–Consonant structure: the standard frame for teaching short vowels (e.g., "pin", "hop", "wet").

""Every CVC word follows the same rule: the middle vowel is always short.""

Vocales cortas

"word families"

Groups of words sharing the same rime (vowel + final consonant), e.g., the "-at" family: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat.

""Learning the -ig family (big, dig, fig, jig, pig, wig) in one lesson saves time.""

Vocales cortas

"closed syllable"

A syllable ending in a consonant that forces the vowel to be short (e.g., "cac-tus", "ham-ster").

""In the word 'rabbit', both syllables are closed: rab- and -bit.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"magic E rule"

A final silent "e" makes the preceding vowel long: pin→pine, hop→hope, bit→bite, cut→cute.

""Adding an 'e' to 'cap' makes it 'cape' — the vowel is now long /eɪ/.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"vowel team "ai/ay""

The digraphs "ai" (mid-word) and "ay" (end of word) both represent the long /eɪ/ sound.

""It may rain today — both 'ai' in rain and 'ay' in may/today follow the pattern.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"vowel team "ee/ea""

"ee" and "ea" typically produce the long /iː/ sound, as in "tree", "sea", "meet", "heat".

""He eats green beans near the sea every week.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"vowel team "oa/ow""

"oa" (mid-word) and "ow" (end of word) usually represent the long /oʊ/ sound.

""A slow boat floats down the low road to the coast.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"open syllable"

A syllable ending in a vowel that is therefore long (e.g., "go", "she", "ba-by", "ti-ger").

""In 'pi-lot', the first syllable 'pi' is open — the vowel says its name.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"/iː/ — long E"

The tense high-front vowel in "see", "feet", "chief". Lips spread into a wide smile.

""She needs three green leaves to complete her piece.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"/aɪ/ — long I"

The diphthong in "time", "bike", "night". Starts open then glides to /ɪ/.

""My kite might fly high in the bright night sky.""

Vocales largas y E silenciosa

"/juː/ — long U"

The "yoo" diphthong in "cube", "cute", "mute". Often preceded by a /j/ glide in most accents.

""The student used a cute mule in the music video.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"initial L-blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl)"

Blends where L follows another consonant at the start of a word: "black", "clap", "flat", "glad", "play", "slip".

""The black cloud flew slowly above the plane on the flat plain.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"initial R-blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr)"

R-blends at word beginnings: "brick", "crab", "drop", "frog", "grab", "price", "trip".

""The frog grabbed a cricket from the dripping branch.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"initial S-blends (sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw)"

S precedes another consonant: "scan", "skip", "slim", "smell", "snack", "spin", "stop", "swim".

""She swam to the stone step and snapped a small stick.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"final blends (-nd, -nt, -st, -sk, -mp, -lt)"

Two-consonant endings: "hand", "tent", "best", "desk", "lamp", "melt".

""He bent his hand and felt the cold wind against his wrist.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"three-letter initial blends (spl, spr, str, scr, shr, thr)"

Three-consonant clusters at word start: "split", "spring", "string", "scream", "shred", "three".

""Three strong sprouts split through the shredded straw.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"blend vs. digraph distinction"

A blend keeps both sounds (/bl/ = /b/+/l/); a digraph creates one new sound (/sh/ = neither /s/ nor /h/ alone).

""'sl' in 'slide' is a blend; 'sh' in 'ship' is a digraph — very different rules.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"consonant cluster simplification"

In natural speech, clusters are often reduced: "next" sounds like "neks", "acts" like "aks" in casual talk.

""Knowing cluster simplification helps learners decode fast native speech on podcasts.""

Combinaciones consonánticas

"CCVC and CVCC words"

Words with clusters at start (CCVC: "frog") or end (CVCC: "band"). Both types appear on standardized phonics checks.

""'Sled' is CCVC; 'last' is CVCC — teach both shapes before moving to longer words.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"ch — /tʃ/"

Produces the affricate sound in "chip", "church", "much". Also appears as /k/ (school) or /ʃ/ (chef) in loanwords.

""The cheerful child chose chocolate chip cookies for lunch.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"sh — /ʃ/"

The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative in "ship", "fish", "shine". Lips round slightly forward.

""She shared fresh shellfish from the shop by the shore.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"th — /θ/ or /ð/"

"th" is voiceless in "think", "bath" (/θ/) and voiced in "this", "breathe" (/ð/). Both require tongue between teeth.

""Those three thin threads are worth the thought and effort.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"wh — /w/ or /hw/"

In most accents today "wh" = /w/ (same as "w"). In Scottish and Irish English it stays /hw/ — audibly different from "witch"/"which".

""Whether the weather is wet or warm, the whales swim west.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"ph — /f/"

The Greek-origin digraph that spells /f/: "phone", "graph", "dolphin", "phobia". Common in academic vocabulary.

""The photographer took a photo of the physical geography of the Philippines.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"ng — /ŋ/"

The velar nasal in "ring", "song", "king". The /g/ is silent in this position; tongue touches the soft palate.

""The king sang a long strong song during the spring evening.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"ck — /k/"

Double consonant digraph used after short vowels to spell the /k/ sound: "black", "duck", "trick", "lock".

""Jack's black duck clucked and kicked the clock off the dock.""

Dígrafos y trígrafos

"tch — /tʃ/ trigraph"

Three-letter spelling of /tʃ/ used after short vowels: "catch", "fetch", "itch", "notch", "hutch".

""The witch's sketch showed a watch and a patch — a match!""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"ar — /ɑːr/"

R-controlled vowel in "car", "park", "star", "farm". The vowel is lengthened and coloured by the /r/.

""The farmer drove his car far from the barn to the dark market.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"er / ir / ur — /ɜːr/"

Three spellings, one sound: "her", "bird", "burn" all produce the stressed mid-central R-coloured vowel.

""The bird perched on the curb and stirred up dirt near the fern.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"or — /ɔːr/"

R-controlled "or" in "for", "horn", "morning", "storm". Lips round and tongue is back.

""The storm forced the horse toward the fort on the north shore.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"schwa — /ə/"

The most common vowel in English — an unstressed mid-central sound. Written as any vowel: "a" in "about", "e" in "taken", "i" in "pencil".

""A doctor's banana — every unstressed vowel in that phrase is a schwa.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"oi / oy — /ɔɪ/"

The diphthong in "coin", "boil", "boy", "toy". "oi" appears mid-word; "oy" at the end.

""The boy avoided the noisy oil spill on Royal Street.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"ou / ow — /aʊ/"

The diphthong in "out", "cloud", "cow", "down". "ou" is common mid-word; "ow" appears mid and end.

""The crowd shouted out loud at the brown owl in the flower tower.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"oo — /uː/ or /ʊ/"

"oo" has two sounds: long /uː/ in "moon", "food", "boot" and short /ʊ/ in "book", "foot", "wood". Context distinguishes them.

""The cook took a good look at the food on the wooden spoon.""

Variantes vocálicas y vocales con R

"au / aw — /ɔː/"

Vowel digraph producing the mid-back rounded vowel: "author", "pause", "claw", "jaw", "dawn".

""The author saw the fawn pause at dawn on the autumn lawn.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"floss rule"

After a short vowel in a single-syllable word, double the letters F, L, and S: "off", "hill", "miss", "bell", "buff", "fuss".

""The spelling rule says: spell 'fill' not 'fil' — the double L is required after the short vowel.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"doubling rule"

When adding a vowel suffix (-ing, -ed, -er) to a CVC word with a stressed short vowel, double the final consonant: "run→running", "hop→hopping".

""She's running and hopping — not 'runing' — because both end in short-vowel CVC.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"drop-E rule"

When adding a vowel suffix to a magic-E word, drop the silent E: "hope→hoping", "make→making", "use→using".

""'Hoping' loses its silent E when '-ing' is added, but 'hopeful' keeps it.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"Y-to-I rule"

When adding a suffix to a word ending in consonant+y, change y to i unless the suffix starts with i: "happy→happier", "cry→cried", but "cry→crying".

""She cried every day but is now smiling — y changed to i for the -ed suffix.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"soft C and G"

C makes /s/ and G makes /dʒ/ before E, I, or Y: "cell", "city", "cycle"; "gem", "giant", "gym". Before A, O, U they are hard (/k/ and /ɡ/).

""Circus uses both a hard C and a soft C — the rule applies to each syllable separately.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"syllable division (VC/CV)"

In a VCCV word, split between the two consonants: "bas-ket", "pil-low", "nap-kin". Each syllable stays intact.

""When dividing 'rabbit', split between the two b's: rab-bit, keeping each syllable closed.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"high-frequency irregular words"

"Sight words" or "tricky words" that do not follow regular phonics patterns: "said", "was", "their", "one", "two", "have", "come".

""The word 'said' is spelled s-a-i-d but sounds like /sɛd/ — it must be memorised, not decoded.""

Fonética avanzada y estructura de palabras

"morphophonological spelling"

Spelling is preserved across morphemes even when pronunciation shifts: "sign/signal", "muscle/muscular", "bomb/bombard" share letters for meaning.

""Knowing that 'sign' and 'signal' share a root explains the silent G — spelling encodes meaning, not just sound.""