The English alphabet: how to pronounce every letter (with IPA)

If you’ve ever said «aitch» without being sure you were right, or frozen when someone asked you to spell your surname in English, you’re not alone. The alphabet is the first thing taught in any course, and yet it’s where I see the most lasting mistakes in class: most learners pick it up with the sounds of their own language and carry that habit for years. That’s a shame, because spelling things out well is one of the most useful skills you can have in English: names, email addresses, bookings, car registrations…

Don’t worry, because there are only 26 letters, and they can be grouped by sound. In this guide I give you the pronunciation of every letter of the English alphabet with its phonetic transcription (IPA), a trick for memorising them in seven groups, the letters learners confuse most, the difference between British and American English, how to spell out names and email addresses (including how to say symbols like @), and the most typical mistakes. At the end there are thirty practice sentences with answers. Let’s get started! 🙂

The English alphabet: 26 letters, 5 vowels and 21 consonants

The English alphabet has 26 letters. Of these, 5 are vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 are consonants. There’s one practical exception: Y sometimes sounds like a vowel (sky, gym), although it’s counted as a consonant.

Before we look at the letters, there’s one idea that avoids a lot of confusion: the name of a letter isn’t the same as its sound in a word. The letter A is called /eɪ/, but in cat it sounds /æ/ and in about it sounds /ə/. In this guide we’re looking at the names of the letters, which are what you need for spelling. The vowel sounds inside words have their own explanation.

How to pronounce every letter of the English alphabet

Before looking at the table, listen to the whole alphabet, slowly, in British English:

This is the full table. The IPA column is the reference (standard British English). The «Rhymes with» column gives you a familiar word that helps you remember the sound:

Two details on reading the IPA: the symbol /ː/ shows that the vowel is long, and /tʃ/ is the ch of chair, while /dʒ/ is its voiced version: the same sound, but with your vocal cords vibrating, as in jam.

A trick to memorise the alphabet: group it by sound

The fastest way to learn the names of the letters isn’t in alphabetical order, but by the sound they share. With seven groups you have all 26:

Notice that the biggest group is /iː/, with eight letters. If you know that’s the default sound, you’ve already solved almost a third of the alphabet. For more tricks to memorise the order, have a look at my post on how to memorise the English alphabet.

The letters learners confuse most

There are seven cases where almost everybody gets it wrong at first, because the English name of the letter isn’t what you’d expect from your own language:

• E and I: E is /iː/ (a long «ee») and I is /aɪ/ («eye»). This is the classic mix-up: ❌ saying «E» like a short «eh» → ✅ E = /iː/.
• G and J: G is /dʒiː/ and J is /dʒeɪ/. They start with the same sound, and that’s the difficult part: it’s the voiced ch of /dʒ/, as in jam. They differ only in the vowel: «jee» against «jay».
• H: in English it’s /eɪtʃ/ («aitch»), and it doesn’t start with an h sound. It ends with the sound /tʃ/ like ch in chair.
• R: it’s /ɑː/, a long open a, with no strong «r» in British English. In American English the r is pronounced.
• U, W and Y: U is /juː/ («you»), W is /ˈdʌbljuː/ («double-you») and Y is /waɪ/ («why»). None of them sounds like its written form in other languages.
• V: it’s /viː/, with your top teeth touching your bottom lip. Some languages don’t distinguish b and v, but English does: B /biː/ against V /viː/.
• Q: it’s /kjuː/ («kyoo»), not «koo».

British and American English: Z and not much else

The names of the letters are almost identical in the two varieties. The differences are few, but worth knowing:

• Z: in British English it’s zed /zed/ and in American English it’s zee /ziː/. It’s the best-known difference and the one you’ll be asked about in an exam.
• R: in British English it’s /ɑː/ and in American English it’s /ɑːr/, with the r pronounced.
• H: in some Irish accents you hear /heɪtʃ/, with an initial h, but the standard is /eɪtʃ/.

In this guide I use British English, which is the variety of Cambridge English. Candidates can use either variety, as long as they are consistent.

How to spell in English: names, surnames and addresses

Knowing the letters isn’t much use if you can’t spell with confidence. These are the phrases you need:

• How do you spell your name? / Could you spell that, please?
• It’s J-O-Y-C-E. (You say the letters one by one, with small pauses.)
• Is that with one L or two?

When there are double letters, you don’t repeat the letter, you say double: Anna is A, double N, A and Lloyd is double L, O, Y, D. For three in a row, you say triple (triple E). And to tell capitals from small letters, you use capital and small: capital M or small m.

How to say @ and other symbols

When you dictate an email address or a website, symbols are read like this:

A full example: [email protected] is said maria dot ruiz at k-s-e dot com. And the website kse-academy.com is k-s-e dash academy dot com.

The alphabet in the Cambridge exams

It looks like a beginner’s topic, but it comes up more often than you’d think:

• Speaking (A2 Key and B1 Preliminary). In the first personal questions you may be asked to spell your first name or surname. Doing it confidently makes a very good impression from the start.
• Listening (A2 and B1). It’s very common for a recording to spell out a name, an address or a code that you then have to write down. What’s most often confused here is E with I, G with J and B with V.

Common mistakes with the English alphabet

• ❌ Saying E like a short «eh» → ✅ E is /iː/.
• ❌ Saying I like «ee» → ✅ I is /aɪ/.
• ❌ Mixing up G and J → ✅ G /dʒiː/, J /dʒeɪ/.
• ❌ Starting H with an «h» sound → ✅ /eɪtʃ/.
• ❌ Rolling the R as in other languages → ✅ /ɑː/.
• ❌ Saying Y like «ee» or «yi» → ✅ /waɪ/.
• ❌ Saying Q like «koo» → ✅ /kjuː/.
• ❌ Mixing up B and V → ✅ B /biː/ with both lips, V /viː/ with teeth on the lip.
• ❌ Saying a translation of the symbol when you dictate an email → ✅ at.
• ❌ Repeating a double letter («N, N») → ✅ double N (although you’ll be understood if you say the letters one by one).

Tips for practising

• Spell your first name and surname out loud every day for a week. It’s the most practical exercise there is.
• Learn the seven sound groups in the table rather than alphabetical order.
• Dictate your full email address in English to a friend, or record yourself and compare it with the IPA.
• Practise the problem pairs: E/I, G/J, B/V.

Frequently asked questions about the English alphabet

How many letters are there in the English alphabet?

26 letters: 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 consonants.

How do you pronounce W in English?

/ˈdʌbljuː/, «double-you». The name is literally «double U».

Is it «zed» or «zee»?

Both are correct. Zed is British English and zee is American English. In a Cambridge exam either one is fine.

How do you say @ in English?

At. The email [email protected] is read ana at mail dot com.

What’s the difference between the name of a letter and its sound?

The name is how you say the letter when you spell (A is /eɪ/); the sound is what it represents inside a word (in cat it’s /æ/). They’re different things, and that’s why English can be written one way and read another.

How do you say double letters?

With double: Anna is A, double N, A. For three the same, triple.

English alphabet exercises

Thirty sentences to check you’ve got it. Below you’ll find three interactive exercises that mark themselves, so you’ll know straight away how you did.

And if you prefer a version in text that you can copy and paste, you have it down here 👇

Exercise 1: which letter?

Choose the letter that matches the pronunciation in each sentence.

Exercise 2: letters that sound like words

Write the letter that sounds like the word.

Exercise 3: how do you say it?

Choose the correct way to say each item.

Conclusion

To sum up in three ideas: the name of a letter isn’t its sound, and for spelling you need the names; the seven sound groups (/eɪ/, /iː/, /e/, /aɪ/, /juː/, /əʊ/ and /ɑː/) save you from memorising 26 separate pronunciations; and E, I, G, J, H, R, U, W, Y and V are the letters where mistakes are most frequent, so they’re worth practising.

If you want to keep going with this topic, the natural next step is my post on how to memorise the alphabet.

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See you in the next post. Until then, don’t forget to keep smiling! 🙂