Where a term’s pronunciation may not be immediately obvious from its spelling, a guide is provided in square brackets following the word or phrase. Words are broken up into small units, usually of one syllable. The syllable that is spoken with most stress in a word of two or more syllables is shown in bold type.
The pronunciations given follow the standard speech of southern England. However, since this system is based on analogies rather than on precise phonetic description, readers who use other varieties of spoken English will rarely need to make any conscious adjustment to suit their own forms of pronunciation.
The sounds represented are as follows:
| a | as in cat |
| ă | as in ago |
| ah | as in calm |
| air | as in hair |
| ar | as in bar |
| aw | as in law |
| ay | as in say |
| b | as in bat |
| ch | as in chin |
| d | as in day |
| e | as in bed |
| ĕ | as in taken |
| ee | as in meet |
| eer | as in beer |
| er | as in her |
| ew | as in few |
| ewr | as in pure |
| f | as in fat |
| g | as in get |
| h | as in hat |
| i | as in pin |
| ĭ | as in pencil |
| I | as in eye |
| j | as in jam |
| k | as in kind |
| l | as in leg |
| m | as in man |
| n | as in not |
| ng | as in sing, finger |
| nk | as in thank |
| o | as in top |
| ŏ | as in lemon |
| oh | as in most |
| oi | as in join |
| oo | as in soon |
| oor | as in poor |
| or | as in for |
| ow | as in cow |
| p | as in pen |
| r | as in red |
| s | as in sit |
| sh | as in shop |
| t | as in top |
| th | as in thin |
| th | as in this |
| u | as in cup |
| ŭ | as in focus |
| uu | as in book |
| v | as in voice |
| w | as in will |
| y | as in yes |
| or when preceded | |
| by a consonant = I | |
| as in cry, realize | |
| yoo | as in unit |
| yoor | as in Europe |
| yr | as in fire |
| z | as in zebra |
| zh | as in vision |
The raised n (n) is used to indicate the nasalizing of the preceding vowel sound in some French words, as in baton or in Chopin. In several French words no syllable is marked for stress, the distribution of stress being more even than in English.
A consonant is sometimes doubled, especially to help show that the vowel before it is short, or when without this the combination of letters might suggest a wrong pronunciation through looking misleadingly like a familiar word.