Intro to the International Phonetic Alphabet

Learn the basics of IPA

4.50 (114 reviews)

Udemy

platform

English

language

Language

What you will learn

Use the symbols you have learned in this course for other accents, dialects and languages.

You will be able to identify and write the symbols of IPA as they relate to Standard American English.

You will be able to make and recognize the sounds and symbols of IPA as they relate to Standard American English.

Write your own transcriptions of different passages of poetry and other pieces of literature.

Why take this course?

This course is an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA is a collection of symbols that represent all of the sounds that human beings make in the use of language.

This course will go over the symbols needed for American English. The symbols that are learned in this course, however, are applicable to all other languages. Every symbol represents one sound across all languages.

That being the case, this course serves as in introduction to some of the sounds on the IPA chart and after they have been learned they can be applied to the IPA of other languages and other and accents and dialects.

Not only does this course go over the sounds and symbols that are needed for American English IPA, there are also four different transcription activities so that students can practice and apply what they have been learning.

This course is good for:

The non-native english speaker who wants to master American English Pronunciation.

The student who wants to learn the basics of American English IPA so they can use that as a jumping off point for IPA in other languages.

The student who wants to learn the basics of American English IPA so that they can use that as a jumping off point for IPA in studying accents and dialects.

Reviews

Theodore

September 9, 2023

I would have liked some discussion of the open/closed, mid/low/high, and rounded/unrounded aspects of these vowel symbols.

Lara

May 24, 2023

I'm a singer reviewing by IPA/diction before teaching my pedagogy course at Uni. This course is off to a great start!

Rhe

October 24, 2022

Very easy to understand, learned a lot in such a short time. It was actually quite entertaining. I just wish there were more quizzes. Like for consonant sounds and then towards a more challenging quiz like a word or sentences. Just enough for those who doesn't have a paper or pen on hand while learning.

Odette

July 24, 2022

Buena, pasó mucho tiempo entre las preguntas y las respuestas del quiz, pero el resto de la lección fue simple y concisa.

WmRobt

June 25, 2021

Although my main objective is to learn about the IPA as a resource for learning French I like this course because it does cover many of the symbols and sounds that I will encounter in French I was not able to find it a resource tailored exactly to my needs, but this one will have to do until I find the missing pieces need to fill in the rest of the ipa for French.

Antônio

June 24, 2020

a few symbols were not properly explained (as the r, the upside r, and some other diphtongs). however, it was really helpful to get a first insight on what ipa transcriptions should look like and the process behind it.

Hway

April 23, 2020

A good introduction to IPA, and very easy to follow materials. I can now pronounce a new word from the English dictionary. I am a happy student :-)

John

March 28, 2020

This course gave me a basic understanding before I started diving deep into English Language Accents and Dialects for Stage & Screen by Paul Meier. That course is very complex and I at first felt I was thrown into the deep end of the pool before I knew the basics. David allowed me to approach my studies with more confidence and understanding.

Liam

January 3, 2020

It's very concise and easy to understand my only reservation is that i am english and I wonder if this is a wrong way to learn. For example the backwards c for aw is very different from the sound in an English accent

Ashley

November 10, 2019

This is a very thorough, understandable course, with a lot of hands-on training. I feel very comfortable moving forward into stage dialect coaching with the additional, resources recommended by David. He is a very engaging teacher, and definitely knows this subject matter inside and out. Excellent course!!

Max

November 25, 2018

I learned very basic IPA through this course, but not enough. I had to watch a bunch of youtube videos and use a bunch of IPA-pronunciation tools in order to actually transcribe anything with real speed. It was worth it as it is helpful advance my career. There's a question in the first quiz that is incorrect. I'll let the professor figure out which one he has to fix, I've spent enough time here! Thanks!

Bonnie

February 11, 2018

I think it is good overall so far, it is clear on the pronunciation and gives several examples for each phone

Carlos

September 5, 2017

What's the purpose of matching random words with symbols in the quiz to test the symbol sound? The whole point of this course is to learn how to pronounce the word, meaning I currently don't know how to pronounce it, so I can't test a symbol against the word. This course is supposed to be targetted to non-native English speakers, but it's completely useless if you don't know natively how to pronounce every English word. It would be much more useful if it would teach to actually pronounce the sounds, with both sound and image, showing how to use the lips, tongue, etc, and then, maybe as an extra section, to recognize when to use each sound in the English language.

Kai

April 24, 2017

Please re-upload: consonant section2 lecture6. Need to re-upload: consonant section2 lecture6. It is very hard to see the texts. I can hardly see anything on "consonant section2 lecture6". The overall good.

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