Learn IPA: short stories All lessons
Learn IPA · Readers
IPA reading practice: short stories in transcription
Ten short stories printed entirely in the International Phonetic Alphabet: a dad who can fix anything, a queue-jumper, a satnav with feelings, and a Scot, an Australian and a Texan trying to order water. Read the transcription, tap a word to check its spelling, hear every line, then answer three questions.
- 10short stories
- 2free, with audio and questions
- 2read in six English accents
How the readers work
Real stories
Ordinary English, with real dialogue and endings worth reading to. Each one sits after a lesson, but any of them is fine once you know the symbols.
Check as you go
Tap a word to see how it is spelt, or reveal a whole line. Read it in IPA first: the reveal is for checking, not for reading.
Hear it, then prove it
Every line plays in a synthetic British voice. Three questions follow, with the answers printed in IPA too.
After lesson 2 All 24 English consonants, and the eight new symbols.
After lesson 3 All 12 English vowels, and the length mark ː.
- 2Max and the picnic/suː ən mɑːk teɪk mæks tə ðə biːtʃ fɔː ə ˈpɪknɪk. ðeɪ faɪnd ə ɡʊd spɒt ɒn ðə sænd./A picnic, a hungry dog, and some very suspicious cheese.Free171 words
- 3The queue/ˈsev.ən əv ʌs ɑː ˈweɪtɪŋ æt ðə bʌs stɒp ɪn ðə reɪn. wiː kjuː. wiː duː nɒt tɔːk./A man jumps the queue at a bus stop. Nobody says much.Plus175 words
After lesson 4 Vowels that glide: the eight diphthongs.
After lesson 5 The schwa ə, and the weak vowels i and u.
- 5The wolf who cried boy/aɪ lʊk ˈɑːftə ðə ʃiːp ɒn ðə hɪl əˈbʌv ˈaʊə ˈvɪl.ɪdʒ. ɔːl deɪ. ʃiːp, ʃiːp, ʃiːp. ˈnʌθɪŋ ˈev.ə ˈhæpənz./The boy who cried wolf, and the wolf who cried boy.Plus183 words
- 6Where is Dad's phone?/hæz ˈeniwʌn siːn maɪ fəʊn?/Dad loses his phone. The family search everywhere but one place.Plus164 words
After lesson 6 Stress marks ˈ and ˌ, syllable dots and weak forms.
After lesson 7 French y and ø, nasal vowels, and pure Spanish vowels.
After lesson 8 Five r sounds: rolled, tapped, French, English, curled.
After lesson 10 Mixed practice, and British against American.
How the stories are transcribed
Broad British (RP) transcription, one word at a time, each word as it is said on its own: the transcription on that word's own page where it has one. The exception is six small words, which print the weak forms you actually hear in a sentence:
- a/ə/
- an/ən/
- the/ðə/, /ði/ before a vowel
- to/tə/, /tu/ before a vowel
- of/əv/
- and/ən/
At the end of a phrase they take their strong form instead, so To. Day. is /tuː. deɪ./ Real speech links and squashes words more than this; the stories show you the words, the audio shows you the speech.
For teachers: every reader is a ready-made IPA transcription exercise. The text is free to read and print for everyone; the first two readers' audio and questions are free too, and the rest come with Kilo Lingo Plus. Every transcription is broad British (RP), in dictionary style, and matches the word's own page on this site wherever it has one.