IPA-skolan
The whole phonetic alphabet — and most of it you already speak. Tell it your languages; it tells you which sounds you own and which are new. Tap a word to hear it in that language. Read IPA once, and every dictionary becomes a pronunciation coach.
dina språk
Languages you speak (tap the star for a mother tongue).
Polish gives you p b t d k ɡ m n r f v s ʂ ɕ j l i ɛ ɔ a
Dutch gives you p b t d k ɡ m n ŋ ʀ f v s h ʋ j l i y u ɪ ʏ e ø ə o ɛ œ ɔ ɑ
Spanish gives you p b t d k ɡ m n r f s j l i u e o a
English gives you p b t d k ɡ m n ŋ f v s h j l ɪ ʊ ə ɛ ɔ ɑ
New to build: ʈ ɖ ɳ ɧ ɭ ʉ ɵ
Swedish practice with a fill-the-symbol drill lives in ljudkartan.
Plosives
r + t fused: curl the tongue tip back, then release. New to you — Swedish builds it from rt.
r + d fused, tongue tip curled back.
— not in your languages
Hungarian ty, Icelandic. None of your languages — a hard k pushed forward to the palate.
— not in your languages
— not in your languages
Arabic qaf. A k made far back at the uvula. None of yours.
The catch in the throat in 'uh-oh'.
Nasals
r + n fused, tongue curled back.
Spanish ñ, Polish ń — you have this. Like the ny in 'canyon'.
The ng in 'sing' — and never a hard g after it. Swedish många = MO-nga.
— not in your languages
Trills & taps
Swedish r is a tap/trill of the same family you roll in Polish & Spanish.
The rolled r of Spanish perro / Polish — you already trill. Swedish uses a tap/trill of this family.
The single-flap r of Spanish pero (vs trilled perro).
The back-of-throat French/German r; southern Swedish uses it too.
Fricatives
Swedish's ɕ is Polish ś; its ɧ is unique. It has no z or voiced sibilants.
Spanish has no true v — it uses b/β instead.
The th in 'think', tongue between the teeth. Not in Swedish.
The th in 'this'. Not in Swedish.
Swedish has NO z (or any voiced sibilant) — Swedish s is always voiceless. A thing you can drop.
The sh of 'ship'. Swedish uses its own ɧ instead (see sj-ljudet); Polish sz is the retroflex ʂ, not this.
The s in 'measure'. Not in native Swedish (Polish ż is the retroflex ʐ, not this).
r + s fused into a dark sh, tongue curled back. Polish sz is close.
Polish rz/ż — you have this.
This IS Polish ś — you've had it since childhood. Swedish tj-ljudet is the same sound. A soft, front hush.
Polish ź — the voiced pair of ś.
German ich-Laut; the h in 'huge'.
Spanish j, Dutch/Polish ch — a raspy back h. You have this three times over.
German Bach; the harder, further-back Dutch g.
The French/German r as a fricative.
Spanish h is silent, and Polish h/ch is the velar x — this soft breath is English/Dutch/Swedish.
The infamous Swedish sj-sound — NO language you know has it. A breathy back hush, like blowing on soup while whispering. Collect it.
Approximants & laterals
Dutch w — softer than a full v.
The English r — the one Swedish/Polish/Spanish do NOT use (they trill/tap instead).
The y of 'yes'. Swedish hides it in hj/lj/dj/gj spellings.
r + l fused, tongue curled back.
The 'lli' in 'million'.
The heavy 'dark' l at the end of English 'full'.
Vowels
Your y, ø, u, o come from Dutch; your bright a and pure e/o from Spanish. New to build: ʉ, ɵ.
The ee of 'see' — Swedish long i is even tenser.
Say i and round your lips — this IS Dutch uu / German ü. You have it.
Polish y — pull i back toward the centre. You own this one.
Say Dutch uu /y/ and pull it to the CENTRE with tight rounded lips. Genuinely new — the signature Swedish vowel.
The oo of Dutch boek. In Swedish the letter o usually sounds like this.
The looser i of English 'bit'.
The short, lax version of y — Dutch u in 'put'.
The oo of English 'book'.
A pure e with NO glide (unlike English 'day'). Lips spread.
Say e and round the lips — Dutch eu, German ö. You have it.
The neutral 'uh' of unstressed syllables — everywhere in English and Dutch.
The short Swedish u — a centralised, rounded vowel. Near-new.
A pure o with rounded lips. Swedish å is this sound.
The open e of 'bed'. Swedish ä.
The more open ö — French œuf, and Swedish short ö.
The o of 'hot' (British) — Swedish short å, Polish o.
The u of English 'cup'. Not in Swedish.
The a of 'cat'. Swedish ä before r leans this way.
The clear, bright a of Spanish casa. Swedish short a. (Dutch short a is backer — see ɑ.)
The deep, dark a of Swedish long a / British 'father' / Dutch short a.
Non-pulmonic (clicks, implosives, ejectives)
Real IPA, but none of your languages — here for completeness.
— not in your languages
The tsk of disapproval — a click, used as a real consonant in Zulu/Xhosa. None of your languages.
— not in your languages
— not in your languages
Air pulled inward. Sindhi, Vietnamese. None of yours.
— not in your languages
— not in your languages
A 'popped' consonant with a closed glottis. Georgian, Amharic. None of yours.
Marks
The diacritics and suprasegmentals that ride on the letters.