y
Rounded i, as in French tu
Say /iː/, freeze your tongue, then round your lips for /uː/. IPA y is never the English y - that is /j/.
IPA vowels English doesn't have
Everything so far was English. The reason to learn IPA properly is that it works the same way for every language, and this is where that starts to pay: the symbols below are the vowels English speakers most often get wrong in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.
Two tricks cover most of them. First, rounding: /y/ is the tongue of /i/ with the lips of /u/, and /ø/ is /e/ with rounded lips. Second, nasality: the little tilde, as in /ɑ̃/, means the air goes out through the nose as well as the mouth. There is no /n/ in the French word bon - just a nasal vowel.
The plain letters a and o are new too. English has no pure /o/: its long o is the glide /əʊ/. Spanish no is a single, steady /o/ that never moves, and hearing the two side by side fixes the most common English accent in Spanish.
Every word here is a real word from one of our courses, played in its own language's voice.
The symbols
ø
Rounded e, as in French deux
The same trick one step lower: say /e/ and round your lips.
œ
Open rounded e, as in French seul
An open /e/ with rounded lips, the vowel of seul and peur.
ɛ̃
Nasal e, as in French bien
An open /ɛ/ with the air through the nose. The mouth never closes for an n.
ɑ̃
Nasal a, as in French dans
An open back /ɑ/ through the nose: dans, quand, en.
ɔ̃
Nasal o, as in French bon
A rounded /ɔ/ through the nose. Bon has no n in it.
ɐ̃
Nasal a, as in Portuguese não
Portuguese has its own nasal a, more central than French /ɑ̃/, often gliding into a nasal /w̃/ as in não.
ɨ
Barred i, as in Russian ты
A high vowel with the tongue pulled back: the ы of ты and мы. Try /iː/ while drawing your tongue backwards.
o
Pure o, as in Spanish no
A steady rounded o that never glides. English go is /ɡəʊ/; Spanish no is just /no/.
a
Open a, as in Spanish casa
The plain open a of Spanish and Italian. In English it only turns up as the start of a glide, as in /aɪ/.
Drill
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Part of Kilo Lingo Plus - the lesson above is free to read.
Which word is this?
/nɔ̃/