Social science 

We read simple English sentences with transcription. Transcription and reading rules in English

Learning to read English is not only about being able to correctly pronounce different syllables and letter combinations. Reading is a practical skill needed to Everyday life. Sometimes a quick scan of the page “diagonally” is enough for us to determine whether, for example, the address we need is there. In another situation, we read only certain passages from the text in order to understand its main content - usually this is how they look through a newspaper article. And, of course, quite often we read every word because we want to get maximum information (if it is an important document) - or pleasure (if we are reading texts in English or a work of fiction)

Now, thanks to the Internet, the choice of reading materials is huge. We advise you to follow two basic rules when searching for suitable texts. First, focus on your level. If it is still Elementary, you don’t need to take on Dickens in the original, start with the adapted texts. The second rule is don’t read anything that doesn’t interest you. If you treat reading as a boring routine, you will not get any benefit. By choosing something that you would enjoy reading in Russian, you increase your chances of success - because you motivate yourself from within.

Let's take a look at some online resources that will help you develop your reading and comprehension skills.

1. The British Council offers a very convenient structure for reading

learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
The British Council offers a clearly thought-out structure for working on the text. Before you start reading, you may want to read new vocabulary, read the text (and simultaneously listen to its audio recording), then complete comprehension tasks. For each story, a short annotation has been compiled that will help you choose the text that is interesting to you.

2. Collection of short stories in the original

short-stories.co.uk
Meeting short stories — a good option for those who have already had enough practice in reading adapted literature and would like to try reading in the original. The stories are grouped by genre; in addition, there is a reader rating - you can choose the most popular. As a bonus, there is a selection of games with words, with which you can reinforce vocabulary in a non-standard form.

3. A resource for those who prefer recreational reading

twitter.com/amusingfacts
An excellent resource for people who enjoy recreational reading. On this site you will find more than 600 short messages on different topics: What kind of candy did President Reagan like? How many bottles of Chanel No. 5 are sold in the world every minute? Which animal can scream the loudest? Who invented Christmas cards? If you are already curious, read and discuss with friends.

4. Magazine "Easy Reading"

neboutrom.livejournal.com
Easy Reading magazine is designed as a free access resource for those who want to maintain and develop their English language. The journal publishes fragments of non-adapted publications, full version which can be found at the link. To see the Russian translation of words in bold, you need to hover your cursor over them.

5. The most popular newspapers and magazines

englishpage.com
A very useful page for advanced readers - here you will find links to the most popular newspapers and magazines, as well as reference materials and online libraries. Just choose a title from the list and read The Times over breakfast like a true gentleman.

6. English texts for all levels

usingenglish.com/comprehension/
A selection of texts by level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. After reading, you can complete a comprehension task on the site and see the answers. Many English texts are based on tasks for the most popular exams - Cambridge ESOL, TOEFL, IELTS, etc.

7. BBC staff's lives outside of work

bbc.co.uk
What employees are interested in training center Air Force, other than work? Find out about it on their blog, where they talk about holidays, favorite books, fashion, British slang and much more. Accustomed to developing materials for English learners, the blog authors took the time to create a mini-dictionary for each entry. You can not only read, but also comment on posts if you register on the site.

8. 1664 lessons with audio recordings and exercises

breakingnewsenglish.com
On this moment The site contains 1664 news-based lessons and this number is constantly growing. You can choose news marked “easier” or “harder”, depending on your level. Each adapted text is accompanied by an audio recording and exercises. You can download a 2-page mini-lesson or a 26-page selection of various tasks. All assignments are designed so that the student constantly refers to the source text. As a result of this work, you will automatically learn ready-made lexical and grammatical structures. In addition, the author provides links to news sources for more experienced readers.

9. Hollywood movie scripts

imsdb.com
Shouldn't we read... a new film? No, this is not a typo - you can find scripts for many Hollywood films at the link above. You can combine reading with viewing, print out the text and highlight new words and expressions, as well as unfamiliar grammatical structures that you would like to discuss with your teacher.

10. A useful tool for reading English effectively

esldesk.com
ESL Reader is a very useful tool for any reader. You can copy a passage of any text and paste it into the window of this program. It will turn each word into a clickable link - and this will give you the opportunity to look up the meaning of the word in any dictionary (you can select them from a list).

Reading helps us expand lexicon, assimilate grammatical structures, develop the ability to guess the meaning of a word from the context. All students need to read, but especially those who perceive information better visually. Thanks to reading, ready-made speech structures will be imprinted in your memory - that is, grammar and vocabulary will be learned on their own, practically without your participation. And if you don’t understand anything, our experienced Skype teachers will be happy to come to the rescue!

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

No homework. No cramming. No textbooks

From the course “ENGLISH BEFORE AUTOMATION” you:

  • Learn to write competent sentences in English without memorizing grammar
  • Learn the secret of a progressive approach, thanks to which you can reduce English learning from 3 years to 15 weeks
  • You will check your answers instantly+ get a thorough analysis of each task
  • Download the dictionary in PDF and MP3 formats, educational tables and audio recordings of all phrases

How to read consonants?

A large number of English consonant sounds are practically no different from the pronunciation of Russian consonant sounds, but there is a difference.

There are several special characteristics that are worth paying attention to. It should be remembered that all consonants English sounds are pronounced only firmly, and voiced consonants at the end of a word are not pronounced dully.

Also, features are present in the pronunciation of individual sounds:

  • The sound W is different from V. The sound (W) must be spoken with both lips, and (V) only with the lower lip.
  • The sounds P, T, K are pronounced followed by aspiration.
  • About half of the sounds need to be pronounced by touching the tongue to the upper palate.

How to Read Vowels: 4 Syllable Types

There are also several specific rules when reading vowels. In English there are 4 main types of reading vowels (E, A, Y, U, O, I). The pronunciation of a sound in a word or phrase depends on each type.

Open

An open syllable is a syllable that ends with a vowel, even without its pronunciation.

Reading vowels in such a syllable can be called alphabetical, since often the pronunciation is practically no different from what it is in the alphabet:

  • A – (ei)– lake, take, care, safe, late;
  • O–(ou)– pose, rose, note, no, joke;
  • E–(i)– me, she, creepy, delete;
  • I (Y under stress) – (ai)– deny, dislike, nice, sunshine;
  • U – (u:)– purple, pupil, autotune, youtube.

But there are also exceptions, of which the English language is full. You want to pronounce some words according to the basic rules, but in reality they have a different pronunciation. The words dove, love, none, done, some - in these words the letter (o) must be read as a short letter (a).

Closed

A closed syllable is significantly different from an open one. A closed syllable is a syllable ending with one or more consonants. In words with a closed syllable, the letters are read differently than in the alphabet. It all depends on how the consonants follow the vowels.

If the letter Y is unstressed at the end of a word, then it should be read as the sound (i): truly, ugly, spicy.

Vowel + r


Let's look at examples:

  • A – (a:)– farmer, park;
  • E – (e:)– service, perfect;
  • I – (e:)– first, bird;
  • O–(c:)– fork, morning;
  • U–(e:)– church, turn;
  • Y – (e:)– myrtle.

Vowel + r + vowel

The fourth type of reading is a combination of two vowels in a word, between which there is a consonant r, for example:

  • A– (ea:)– parents, careful;
  • E – (ie:)– cereal, here;
  • I – (aie:)– dire, tire;
  • O–(c:)– snore, bore;
  • U – (jue:)– during, pure;
  • Y – (aie:)– ture, byre.

How to read letter combinations and diphthongs?

Many vowel sounds in English depend on consonants that come together, let’s take a closer look:

a+s+consonant - ;

ear - under stress, if there is no consonant after it -;

ear - before a consonant - [ə:];

eer - under stress -;

ew - if not after l, r, j - ;

ew after l, r, j - ;

oo+consonant - ;

u - after r, l, j, and also before a vowel - ;

ui after r, l ,j - ;

You can start studying and at different ages. This is why understanding and explaining basic concepts to adults or children will differ.

Children perfectly remember and apply the information received, presented in the form of a game or a similar format. and manuals should be chosen bright, colorful, with all kinds of game or picture elements. Do not try to learn how to read it using standard textbooks for schoolchildren, as it will be boring and the study will not yield results.

In more mature age Learning a language and reading it is more difficult. You should choose a single program to follow throughout your studies. Practice reading and pronunciation with the help of English books, films and videos.

How to learn to read in elementary school?

In primary school it mainly consists of game and fairy tale formats. It will be easier for those children who have kindergarten were or those with whom the parents worked.

Important! Parents need to take note that it is better to start reading in English with their child before school starts. Of course, in many Sunday schools English is provided as a separate lesson, but it is still better to monitor the study.

Often, young schoolchildren as homework set the repetition of transcriptions. During runtime homework, the parent needs to study and read with the child!


Several Yet useful tips are given below.

Learn English tongue twisters

- this is a great way to memorize and pronounce new words English words. Tongue twisters are useful because most of them are well remembered and allow you to learn slang, or. They are useful to teach both adults and children.

Each tongue twister is aimed at improving the pronunciation of a certain sound or pronunciation of words. Each tongue twister has a feature associated with the pronunciation of one particular sound. You should speak the tongue twister for several days and then the problem of pronunciation will disappear and the sound will sound clear.

Here are some useful tongue twisters with translation:

Learn to hear English speech

Many language learners have trouble understanding speech. The problem stems from the fact that the study is not taking place in an English-speaking space or country. It is important to learn to hear and understand foreign speech.

To do this you need to constantly train: Find someone with whom you can learn the language and conduct dialogues together, so you both will train your speech.

Work on your pronunciation

You need to work on your pronunciation, because many English words sound similar, and if the articulation is incorrect, you can simply pronounce them incorrectly. To do this, you need to train your speech apparatus and get rid of your accent.

Learn the perfect pronunciation of each letter. Practice pronouncing the transcription of letters, words and phrases. Pay attention to how the English speak, to the peculiarities of their speech.

Learn to pronounce phrases in English correctly

The English language differs from Russian in that many sentences do not have intonationally separated sentences, most of them sound like a single phrase. This also applies to individual independent phrases. To learn how to correctly pronounce phrases in English, you need to learn the transcription and pronounce it correctly.

If you pronounce it incorrectly during a conversation, you may misuse the right word, having lost the meaning of what was said.

Conclusion

In order to correctly learn to read in English, you must follow the tips for learning it. You need to constantly practice writing words, learn grammatical, punctuation and phonetic rules. It is important not to forget about transcription.

These rules need to be taught to both children and adults studying foreign language. Parents should practice language learning with their children before primary school so that they do not have problems in class and when doing homework.

If you follow all the rules and tips, learning to read correctly will not be difficult!

Greetings, friends.

I think each of you - whether you are a parent or a teacher - understands that the rules of reading in English for children differ from the rules for adults, but not in content, but in volume and presentation of material.

For preschoolers or children school age who are just starting to learn English, you need to give such information in very portions, accompanying all this with bright pictures, video and audio materials. Of course, you should immediately give memorable examples and, if possible, reinforce everything with exercises. Then this topic will be easy and even interesting for the young student.

On this page you will find very colorful and useful tables with the basic vowel sounds of the English language. ().

In the first table you can see the basic vowel letters and how to read them.

In the second table - the most common combinations of vowels in words and also ways to read them.

And in the third and fourth — examples of sentences with words containing the mentioned letters and combinations.

How to work with them?

  1. First, explain to your child that each vowel letter in English can be read differently and, using table 1, look at the examples and read them together (you can also study if it is not clear to the child).
  2. Then talk about the fact that in the English language there are vowel letters that often stand next to each other, and in this case they will sound differently together. You will see and read this together using the examples from the 2nd table.
  3. In the third and fourth tables, you and your child will be able to read entire sentences, each of which contains several words with the same vowel sounds (they are underlined). Before each example sentence, a transcription icon with the sound being practiced is highlighted in red. Read it first, and then the entire sentence.

To make it easier for you, I recorded audio for these materials. Listen and practice.

Letters and sounds

Comment to table 1: If you noticed, each vowel letter in the English language can be read in two ways: either the way we read it in the alphabet, or another way. So, usually in alphabetical order the letters "a, e, i, o, u" are read in words that end with a letter "e" or consisting of more than one syllable . But in short monosyllabic words ending with a consonant, they are read differently. You need to remember this! Reading a letter "y" you also need to remember in two ways - but here the logic is different - in short words, where it stands on last place, we read it alphabetically (to be precise, almost alphabetically), and in long ones - in a different way.

Regularly re-read with your children examples of short monosyllabic and longer English words with vowel letters - then their reading rules will be “written” in the child’s memory, and subsequently he will be able to use the method of analogy to recognize the way in which the letter will be read. You will find a lot of similar practice in mine.

Example sentences


Hope you enjoyed it!

By the way, about important rules When teaching a child to read correctly in English, I wrote - there you will also find a little practice with the spoken material.

How to learn to read English (M. Kaufman) - This is a very interesting guide for children. What is very remarkable is that in parallel with learning to read, acquaintance with the English-speaking culture occurs. This awakens the child’s interest and curiosity in the language... And interest, as you know, is already 50% of success! If not more...

If you have any questions, write and ask them in the comments - I will be happy to help.

Having studied the Russian alphabet, we can easily read any texts. But to read correctly in English you will have to put in more effort, because there are many discrepancies between the spelling and pronunciation of words. If you decide to learn this language on your own and cannot understand how to read words in English correctly, then this material– exactly what you need. Today we will look at the nuances of pronunciation English letters and letter combinations, and find out how easy it is to learn to read English from scratch. A table that shows all the letters and their sounds will help you learn the rules of reading English for beginners.

First, let's get acquainted with the most important law of reading in English - the rule of open and closed syllables. There is no similar norm in the Russian language, so we will analyze in detail what it is. Please pay attention to the transcription.

An open syllable is a syllable that ends with a vowel sound. As a rule, it occurs in the following cases:

  • The word ends in a vowel, so the last syllable is always open: t ake[take].*
  • A vowel is followed by a consonant, followed by another vowel sound: ed uca tion [education].
  • There are two vowels adjacent to the word: cr ue l [cruel].

*Final e in most cases it is considered “dumb”, that is, it is not pronounced, but appears at the base of the word precisely to form an open syllable.

In open syllables, the vowel is always pronounced smoothly and drawn out. Accordingly, closed syllables are all those syllables in which the vowel sound is closed by a consonant and therefore sounds short and abrupt: c ut[cat].

Besides, special rules readings in English are characteristic of syllables in which the vowel sound ends with the letter r. The fact is that in the British version of the pronunciation of such syllables, the letter r is often completely omitted, i.e. not pronounced. Therefore, there are two options for reading such letter combinations:

  1. In an open syllable, when r is surrounded by vowels, only both vowels are read: c are[keea]. In such cases, the last e will not be dumb.
  2. In a closed syllable ( voice+r+acc.), r is also unreadable, but affects the sound of the vowel sound, making it longer: start [staat]

The rule of open and closed syllables is the basic law of reading in English, although there are many exceptions to it. But it’s too early to teach exceptions without knowing the main rules. Therefore, now we will look at the sound options of all letters and letter combinations.

Other English topics: Learning to read in English: learning on your own

Rules for reading English for beginners - letter and sound correspondence table

Even if you started learning English and reading it from scratch, you are probably already familiar with the spelling and sound of all the letters of the English alphabet. But, as we already learned from the previous section, when reading, the pronunciation of letters depends on the type of syllable or letter combination. Therefore, in the tables below you can find several sound options for the same letter. But don't be alarmed, there will be an accessible explanation for each case. So, let's continue to study English for beginners and learn the rules of reading in English.

Consonants

Let's start with the easiest thing: with a table of consonants, the pronunciation of which is similar to the Russian sound.

Letter Transcription Russian pronunciation
B [b] b
D [d] d*
F [f] f
K [k] To
L [l] l
M [m] m
N [n] n
P [p] P
R [r] R
S [s] With
[z] z (only in special positions: after voiced consonants, between two vowels and in the suffix –ism.)
T [t] T*
V [v] V
W [w] V**
Z [z] h

*English d and t are pronounced with more aspiration than their Russian counterparts.

**w is pronounced with the lips extended into a tube, the result is something between the Russian sounds v and u.

Now let's deal with more complex letters.

Letter Transcription Pronunciation and explanations
C [s] s (before vowels i, e, y)
[k] to (in other cases)
G j (before vowels i, e, y)
[g] g (in other cases)
H [h] Very weakly pronounced Russian X (almost just a strong exhalation)
Q kv
X ks (before a consonant or at the end of a word)
gz (between two vowels)
[z] z (at the beginning of a word before a vowel)

We will also study letter combinations of consonants in English.

Combination Transcription Pronunciation
ck [k] To
ch h
tch
ng [ŋ] nasal n
ph [f] f
sh [ʃ] w
th [θ] 1) sound intermediate between s and f (tongue between teeth)

2) the sound is average between z and v

(tongue between teeth)
wr [r] R
wh [w] u/v

x (only before o)
qu kv

In addition, it is worth considering that the English language never allows consonants at the very end of a word to be deafened. Otherwise, you may say something completely different from what you wanted. For example: back [back] – behind, behind; bag [bag] – bag, sack.

Vowels

It is much more difficult to cope with reading English vowels, but the already familiar rules of open and closed syllables will help us understand it. We take them into service and learn to read the vowels of the English language correctly.

Closed syllable
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [æ] uh bat, track, sad
E [e] uh pet, red, check
I [ɪ] And pit, fill, tin, system, myth, lynx
Y
O [ɒ] O spot, not, cross
U [ʌ] A spun, truck, butter

Do not forget that in a closed syllable all letters are pronounced briefly.

Open syllable
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A Hey game, flame, lake
E And he, be, Pete
I ah mine, like, nine, cry, bye, type
Y
O [əʊ] OU bone, tone, rose
U Yu pupil, music, cube

And the vowels of an open syllable are always smooth and drawn out.

Open syllable with r
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A ea square
E [ɪə] ie here
I aye tired
Y
O [ɔː] oo more
U Yue cure

We remember that the letter r after a vowel, as a rule, is not pronounced.

Behindcovered syllable with r
Letter Transcription Pronunciation Examples
A [ɑː] ahh dark
O [ɔː] oo sport
E [ɜː] e pert, bird, myrtle, burn
I
Y
U

Now we know how to read vowels in English words. But for perfect reading in English, it is necessary to study one more point.

Diphthongs and triphthongs in English

An important aspect of English for beginners is diphthongs and triphthongs, i.e. combinations of two or three letters that have a special sound. Their pronunciation is called sliding, because. First, the main sound is pronounced intensively, and then it is smoothly transferred to the secondary sound. Diphthongs are a kind of exception and do not obey general grammatical laws, so they can only be learned by heart. The table below will help us learn the rules for reading English diphthongs for beginners.

English diphthongs
Combinations Transcription Pronunciation
air, ear, are uh*
ye, igh, uy, ie ah
ea, ey, ay, ai, ei Hey
ere, eer, ier, ear [ɪə] IEE
oh, oh [ɔɪ] Ouch
ou, ow awww
ou, ow, oa, ol [əu] oooh
ure, ue, our, oor wow
English triphthongs
ower, our aaue
eur, ure Yuyue
iet, ire, ier, iar, yre aaye

*doubling the letter indicates the length of the first sound in relation to the second.

So, we have looked at the main nuances of reading in English. Treat the stated rules responsibly: conduct reading lessons more often and be sure to learn to distinguish between types of syllables in English. Otherwise, you will make gross mistakes in pronunciation, which will lead to a complete misunderstanding of your words by the interlocutor. Good luck in learning English and see you again!

This cycle No. 3 "Texts in English for Beginners" created for practicing reading English words and is included in the section. It is recommended to start it after completing the following courses:

  • Cycle No. 1 —
  • Cycle No. 2 —

Texts in English for beginners with audio recording

Text. London Parks

St. James's Park is a charming park. It has got a lake. Alexander Park has got tall trees, rare flowers and animals. Hyde Park is a famous park in London. Marble Arch is the gateway to the park. Hyde Park is a popular place for walking. Visit the amazing Queen Mary's Gardens in Regent's Park. See rare and charming flowers. Visit the Rose Gardens and the lake. Go to London Zoo. It is also the Park.

Vocabulary for the text


1. park - park
2. place - place
3. lake – lake
4. trees – trees (plural)
5. flowers – flowers (plural)
6. animals – animals (plural)
7. famous - famous
8. popular - popular
9. see – to see
10. visit – to visit
11. go – go

Additionally:
12. charming - charming
13. rare – rare
14. Marble Arch – Marble arch
15. gateway – entrance to the park
16. walking - walking
17. amazing – amazing

Text. The Telephone

Without the telephone people had to meet to speak. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in eighteen seventy seven (1877). Now people have telephones and they don’t need to meet every time they want to speak. Alexander’s father was a speech teacher. Alexander was a teacher as well. He taught the deaf.

Listen to the text:

FOR REFERENCE: Alexander Graham Bell, a scientist and inventor of Scottish origin, invented the telephone.

Vocabulary for the text

First level words for beginners:

1. telephone - telephone
2. people - people
3. meet – meet
4. speak - speak
5. now – now, now
6. want – want
7. father - father
8. teacher - teacher

Additionally:

9. without - without
10. had to – had to
11. invent – ​​to invent
12. need – need
13. every time – every time
14. speech teacher – teacher of rhetoric
15. as well – also
16. taught – taught (past tense)
17. deaf – deaf

Text. Seasons

In spring it’s not hot and it’s not cold. We go boating and cycling. A lot of frogs live in ponds in spring.

In summer days are hot. Grown-ups grow roses in the gardens. We go on picnics. We roast hot dogs and potatoes.

In autumn days are not hot. It is often foggy. People collect apples and make jam.

In winter days are cold and frosty. We use hot water bottles in our bedrooms. We watch TV and drink cocoa ([‘kəukəu]) or coffee with roasted toasts.

Listen to the text:

Vocabulary for the text

First level words for beginners:
1. spring - spring
2. summer - summer
3. autumn – autumn
4. winter – winter
5. frogs – frogs (plural)
6. roses – roses (plural)
7. gardens – gardens (plural)
8. hot dogs – hot dogs (plural)
9. potatoes – potatoes
10. days – days (plural)
11. people - people
12. apples – apples (plural)
13. jam - jam
14. bedrooms – bedrooms (plural)
15. cocoa - cocoa
16. coffee - coffee
17. hot - hot
18. cold – cold
19. often – often
20. live - live
21. watch TV – watch TV
22. drink – drink

Additionally:

23. a lot - a lot
24. ponds – ponds (plural)
25. grown-ups – adults (plural)
26. hot water bottles - hot water bottles
27. roasted toasts – toasts (plural)
28. go boating – go boating
29. go cycling – ride a bike
30. collect – collect
31. grow - grow
32. roast – fry
33. make – do
34. use – use
35. frosty – frosty
36. It’s (not) hot. It's (not) cold. - (Not) hot. (Not cold.
37. It is foggy. - Foggy.

Dialogue. Ball games

Almost all ball games are for tall.
- Not at all. Not all of them. I am not tall at all, but I play basketball better than all of them.
Listen to the text:

Vocabulary for dialogue

First level words for beginners:
1. all – everything
2. ball – ball
3. games – games (plural)
4. tall - tall
5. play - play
6. basketball - basketball

Additionally:

7. almost – almost
8. at all - completely
9. for - for

Expressions to remember:

10. ball games – ball games
11. Not at all. - Not at all.
12. better than – better than

Phrases for reading the letters I and Y

  1. The little inn is in this village. - This small hotel in this village. ( short sound[i])
  2. This is a silly film. - It's a stupid movie. (short sound [i])
  3. It isn’t easy to please Lizzy. - It's not easy to please Lisa. (sounds [i] - )
  4. Silly sheep weep and sleep. - Stupid sheep bleat and sleep. (sounds [i] - )
  5. Mr Vernon is an interpreter. His version of German verses is perfect. - Mr. Vernon is a translator. His version of the translation of poetry from German is excellent. (sound [ə:])
  6. Thirteen girls came to Shirley’s thirteenth birthday. Shirley was in white skirt. The girls came to Shirleys birthday at one thirty. Happy birthday to you dear Shirley, happy birthday to you. (sound [ə:])

Listen to the text:

Phrases for reading the letter U

  1. Sue, you are a student, but you behave like a pupil. “Sue, you’re a student, but you act like one.”
  2. If I were you I would surely dye the hair blue. – If I were you, I would, of course, dye my hair blue.
  3. If you don’t burn excess fat now, it’ll turn into a huge problem. – If you don’t lose weight now, it will become a huge problem for you.
  4. Let us leave them alone to cure their wounds. “Let’s let them heal their wounds themselves.”

Listen to the text: