I love the IPA!
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is really helpful for language learners. It helps you learn and accurately produce sounds using a universal code. And by representing pronunciation visually, it acts like a written version of word pronunciation audio clips!
Yes, a pronunciation audio clip in written form!
That’s wonderful!
When I started learning Russian, I often turned to Reddit and other websites to learn the correct pronunciation of Russian letters and words. But you might ask, ‘Why not just use Google Translate and listen to the audio?’ Well, I think I grasp information better when reading than listening. Because of this, reading a transcription works better for me than listening.
Maybe you also are one of those that prefer reading over listening, making IPA a perfect fit for you.
But IPA is also great for other types of learners as well:
- No need for headphones – You can check pronunciation anywhere without needing to plug in earphones or connect them to Bluetooth.
- No background noise interference – Unlike audio, IPA lets you see pronunciation clearly, even in noisy environments.
- Free pronunciation on Anki – You don’t need to pay for premium audio features when you have IPA!
- Faster lookups – Instead of replaying audio multiple times, you can instantly recognize pronunciation patterns.
- No confusion with similar-sounding words – It reduces the chances of mistaking words with similar sounds, like “ship” and “sheep,” by showing their distinct phonetic representation.
But anyway, while searching on Reddit and other sites, I often saw people recommending learning IPA.
They often said that IPA was better than relying on vague descriptions like, ‘It’s kind of like the i in ship, but not exactly.’ In contrast, the IPA provides precise and accurate pronunciation. With the IPA, you don’t need to rely on approximations and you learn the peculiar and unique sounds of your TL accurately.
After seeing people recommending it so many times, I decided to give it a try—and I loved the concept!
Who could imagine a pronunciation audio clip in accurate written form? What a wonderful invention! It was created in the 19th century by the linguist Paul Passy and the International Phonetic Association. Certainly one of humanity’s greatest inventions.
As you can guess by its name, it’s valid for any language—it’s an international convention.
Each IPA symbol always represents the same sound, no matter the language or word it appears in. For example, the sound of ɨ is identical in both Russian and Tupi (a native Brazilian language). In any language that uses this symbol, it sounds like saying ‘ee’ with a hint of ‘oo’—a blend of the two.
See it? Using the IPA is even more concise than saying it sounds as something similar to ‘ee’ with a hint of ‘oo’ (a mix of the two).
You simply say, it sounds as ɨ.
The IPA chart is extensive, covering all the sounds humans produce with their mouths. But you don’t need to learn all of those letters (or all of them at once)—just focus on learning the symbols and sounds specific to your target language. For example, if you’re learning Spanish pronunciation, there’s no need to worry about the symbol for the click sound, ǃ,, used in some African languages, since Spanish doesn’t have that sound!
You don’t need to learn letters that don’t exist in your target language.
But another nice thing about the IPA is that it helps even with intonation.
IPA doesn’t just show individual sounds—it also indicates stress and tone, which is really helpful when learning Russian. Take the word хорошо as an example. The stress falls on the last syllable, causing the first two o’s to sound something like ‘a’ (as in father). Placing the stress incorrectly can make a word unintelligible or even change its meaning entirely, and IPA helps you avoid it.
Furthermore, the IPA helps you catch subtle pronunciation differences that you might not notice right away just by listening.
For example, using our word хорошо again, the first o sounds more like ã, while the second one is closer to ‘a’ (as in father). These distinctions might be difficult to catch by ear alone, but IPA makes them clear. It highlights these small nuances, helping you improve and refine your pronunciation.
Okay, so I started learning it.
Seeing someone practice the sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet might be funny. People would walk by and hear me repeating things like ‘aba aba aba, apa apa apa, buh puh mm sss zzz’ out loud. They’d probably wonder, ‘Is he stupid?’
But after learning each sound, the time came to use them with a Russian word.
And wow, I sounded like a Russian!
It sounded like someone else was saying the word. Even the dog nearby was like, ‘Who said that? Who’s there?? Who said that???’ Likewise, I was like, ‘Офигеть, how is this possible? Did I really just say that? That’s perfect pronunciation! This really sounds Russian!’
I see that one reason my pronunciation was so accurate is that the IPA helped me notice the small details in pronunciation.
Without it, it would have taken me much longer to catch those nuances just by listening. For example, in English, I unintentionally noticed small differences in pronunciation just by listening. If I had known the IPA back then (and studied English actively), I would have noticed those differences much faster.
But anyway, since then, I’ve always used the IPA in my Russian studies.
I highly recommend learning the IPA.
It will change your life forever!