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Finally, there's the slurred [[schwa]] sound found in many unstressed syllables, as at the end of ''sofa.'' This is written {{IPA|/ə/}}, a symbol used in many US dictionaries. The stressed syllable is marked with a tick: ''sofa'' {{IPA|/ˈsoʊfə/}}. Note that the letter {{IPA|/ə/}} is never used for a stressed vowel; for words like ''cut,'' we use {{IPA|/ʌ/}}: ''butter'' {{IPA|/ˈbʌtər/}}, ''cuppa'' {{IPA|/ˈkʌpə/}}.
== Consonants ==
{{main|Help:IPA/English#Key}}
While most IPA consonants are intuitive for English speakers, there are some caveats:
* The sound of the consonant ''Y'' is {{IPA|/j/}}, as in ''yes'' {{IPA|/ˈjɛs/}} and ''yellow'' {{IPA|/ˈjɛloʊ/}}.
*:(This is the value the letter ''J'' has in central European languages like German and Polish. The IPA letter {{IPA|/y/}} is used for a non-English vowel, the French ''u'', German ''ü'', and Swedish ''y'' sound.)
* The ''NG'' sound of ''sing'' is written by combining the letter ''n'' with the tail of the ''g,'' {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, as in ''sing'' {{IPA|/ˈsɪŋ/}}. This is not the same as the sound in ''finger,'' which has an extra ''g'' sound: {{IPA|/ˈfɪŋɡər/}}. This sound also appears when ''n'' comes before a ''k'', such as in ''sink'' {{IPA|/ˈsɪŋk/}}.
* The digraph ''TH'' is used for two sounds in English. Since the IPA uses a single letter for each sound, two new letters are required for these two sounds:
** {{IPA|/θ/}} for the ''th'' in ''thick'' {{IPA|/ˈθɪk/}} (from the Greek letter [[theta]])
** {{IPA|/ð/}} for the ''th'' in ''those'' {{IPA|/ˈðoʊz/}} (from the Old English letter [[eth]], which was used for the ''th'' sounds)
* The sound of the digraph ''SH'' is transcribed with the [[Long s|long ''S'']]. It's used in its cursive form, {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, to make it easier to read, as in ''push'' {{IPA|/ˈpʊʃ/}} and ''shelf'' {{IPA|/ˈʃɛlf/}}.
* There is a sound with no letter or digraph in English, though sometimes written ''ZH'' in foreign words. It's usually written ''si,'' as in ''vision.'' In the IPA, it's written with a 'stretched' ''Z'', {{IPA|/ʒ/}}: ''vision'' {{IPA|/ˈvɪʒən/}}.
* As noted above, the digraph ''CH'' is a sequence of sounds, ''T'' plus ''SH''. This may be hard for an English speaker to hear, but is obvious to a French speaker, which is why we get spellings like ''[[Tchaikovsky]]'' but also ''catch'' in English. (Adding a ''t'' to ''ch'' doesn't make any difference, because the ''ch'' already has a ''t'' sound within it.) The IPA uses the same long ''S'' for this sound here as anywhere else: ''itch'' {{IPA|/ˈɪtʃ/}}.
* Similarly, the English consonant ''J'' is a sequence with a ''d'' sound in it. For instance, in ''judge,'' adding the ''d'' doesn't affect the consonant sound, just the vowel. In the IPA, this is transcribed {{IPA|/dʒ/}}: ''jump'' {{IPA|/ˈdʒʌmp/}}, ''judge'' {{IPA|/ˈdʒʌdʒ/}}, or ''Jesus'' {{IPA|/ˈdʒiːzəs/}}.
* Finally, the IPA letter {{IPA|[r]}} is officially a [[Trill consonant|trill]], as in Italian and Spanish. The rather unusual English ''R'' sound is transcribed with a turned ''r,'' {{IPA|[ɹ]}}. However, since this makes no difference within English, and not all English dialects actually use the {{IPA|[ɹ]}} sound, it's very common to see English ''R'' transcribed with a plain {{IPA|/r/}}, and that's the convention used on Wikipedia.
** English is divided into [[Rhoticity in English|rhotic and non-rhotic accents]]. Non-rhotic accents such as [[Received Pronunciation]] and [[Australian English]] do not pronounce {{IPA|[ɹ]}} at the end of a syllable. However, Wikipedia convention writes in a way that recognizes the rhotic pronunciation, even for places or words normally pronounced with a non-rhotic accent. For example, the pronunciation of the British town of [[Guildford]] is written as {{IPA|/ˈɡɪlfərd/}}, though the local pronunciation is {{IPA|/ˈɡɪlfəd/}}. Wikipedia does not follow the usual approach of many United Kingdom dictionaries which place the final ''r'' in parentheses.
The English digraphs ''ch, ng, qu, sh, th'' are not used.
== IPA's purpose and Wikipedia's use of IPA ==
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