IPA

The IPA English help page on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English is a great resource on IPA pronunciation. he notes here is based off that but with notes targeted to how I speak.

Vowels

There are short and long vowels.

ɔː (*) is British pronunciation. north is 'n-awe-th' knawth. North American English pronounces this as /ɒ/. Eg. cot and caught. ɘ has no jaw drop. called a 'schwa'

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ English ship, kit, mirror, edition ɪː cheese, cheek	ʊ pull bull, foot, cook ʊː mood food
Mid	e wet pet	ə ago, sofa ɜː certain, bird, burn	ɔː born sword
Open	æ cat, trap, tattoo, ambition aː say 'ahh'	ʌ thumb up, curry, un-prefix	ɒ body, lot, orange, neon

Some vowels are combined, called diphthongs or triphthongs.

eɪ	a	/beɪ/, bay. eɪər player
aɪ	i	/baɪ/, buy. pie. aɪər, hire, aɪ.ər, higher
ɔɪ	a-oy	/bɔɪ/, boy. ɔɪ.ər employer
əʊ	eau	/bəʊ/, beau
aʊ	ow	/baʊ/, bough, bow (verb). aʊər flour.
oʊ	oh	goat, mower

Some subtleties between British and North American pronunciations are given in the table below. 'r's before vowels are hard?

Word	British	North American
near	/ˈnɪər/ ne-ar	/'nʊər/ neer
cure	/ˈkjʊər/ cue-er	/'kjuːr/ queuer
square	/ˈskwɛər/	/ˈskwiːr/
caught	/'kɔːt/	/'kɒt'/

Consonants

IPA	Eample
b	buy, cab
d	dye, cad, ladder
dj	dew
dʒ	giant, badge, joy
f	fan, leaf
g	guy, bag
h	high, ahead
hw	whine
j	yes, hallelujah
k	sky, crack
l	lie, sly, gal
lj	lute
m	my, smile, cam
n	nigh, snide, can
nj	new
ŋ	sang, sink, singer
p	pie, spy, cap
r	rye, try, very
s	sigh, mass
sj	consume
ʃ	shy, cash, emotion
t	tie, sty, cat, latter
tj	tune
tʃ	china, catch
ð	thy, breathe, father
θ	thigh, math
θj	enthuse
v	vine, leave
w	wine, swine
z	zoo, has
zj	Zeus
ʒ	pleasure, beige

Common Mistakes

Word	IPA	Incorrect and comment
mischievous	/'mɪs tʃə vəs/	/'mɪs tʃe ve ʌs/ (mis-che-vi-ous) with an extra syllable.
triathlon	/'traɪ'æθ lɒn/	/'traɪ'æθ a:lɒn/ (tri-ath-a-lon), with an extra syllable.
draught	/'dræft/	/'drɔ:t/ or /'draʊt/ (drawt). augh here is like an 'af'.
worcestershire	/'wʊstɘrʃɘr/	the first 'r' is dropped. 'shire' is like in New Hampshire and sounds like 'sure'.