E P Tips

English Pronunciation Tips

  • About
  • Acknowledgments
  • Ear-training
    • Ear-training 1
    • Ear-training 2
    • Ear-training 3
    • Ear-training 4
    • Ear-training 5
    • Ear-training 6
    • Ear-training 7
  • Intonation
    • How to sound re-assuring
    • Reflexives and the tonic
    • Tonic
    • Wh-questions
  • Mini dictionaries
    • Animals
    • Archaeology
    • Architecture
    • Astronomy
    • Birds
    • Chemical elements A – E
    • Chemical elements F – N
    • Chemical elements O – S
    • Chemical elements T – Z
    • Finance
    • Geography
    • Geological periods
    • Grammatical terms
    • Greek letters
    • Herbs and spices
    • Literary terms
    • Meteorology
    • Music
  • Miscellaneous
    • Affricate sequences
    • Because
    • Berry
    • Change of voicing
    • Close
    • Garage
    • Graph
    • Hello, sailor!
    • Hello, soldier!
    • house
    • Kilometre
    • Months
    • No syllabic n, thank you!
    • Perhaps
    • Regular noun plurals
    • Shrinking words
    • Some flowers
    • Some irregular plurals
    • Stranding
    • Stranding 2
    • That
    • Tricky pairs
    • Use
    • Usual
    • ðz and zð (how to cheat)
  • Names
    • -bo(u)rne
    • -borough -burgh
    • -bury
    • -cester
    • -chester
    • -ese
    • -folk
    • -ford
    • -ham
    • -mouth
    • -ness
    • -port
    • -sex
    • -son
    • -stone & -ston
    • -wich
    • Beautiful places
    • Canada
    • Caribbean
    • Dorset, Somerset
    • Glamis and Wemyss
    • holm, hulme
    • Ireland
    • Keighley
    • Mainwaring
    • More troublesome place-names
    • New places
    • New Zealand
    • Scotland
    • Some given names
    • Some troublesome place-names
    • Two-part place-names
    • USA
    • Wales
  • Oddities
    • Bass
    • Blancmange
    • Broad
    • Brooch
    • Chamber
    • cheese and geese
    • Choir
    • Christ
    • Courtesy
    • Cushion
    • Equation
    • Fever and lever
    • Funny business
    • Gaol and margarine
    • Gross
    • Iron
    • Leisure, seizure
    • Mauve
    • Mayor
    • Meringue
    • Mortgage
    • Quay
    • Scone
    • Shoe
    • Sponge
    • Subpoena
    • Vineyard
    • Wrath
    • Yacht
  • Prefixes
    • Aero
    • bio-
    • By(e)-
    • Cata-
    • Circum-
    • Com-, con-
    • Hyper-
    • Hypo-
    • Mis-
    • Para-
    • Peri-
    • Poly-
    • Tele-
    • Un-
  • Sitemap
  • Sounds
  • Spelling to sound
    • <-se> Episode 1
    • <-se> Episode 2
    • <-se> Episode 3
    • <a> is not ʌ
    • <ai>
    • <al>
    • <au>
    • <bt>
    • <cc>
    • <ch> = k
    • <ch> = ʃ
    • <ea> = e
    • <eak>
    • <ear> = ɜː
    • <ease>
    • <ei> = eɪ
    • <eigh>
    • <eo>
    • <g> = ʒ
    • <gain>
    • <ge> and <gi>
    • <gn>
    • <i> = iː
    • <mb>
    • <ng>
    • <ng> again
    • <o> = uː
    • <on> = ʌn
    • <ood>
    • <ose>
    • <ost>
    • <ou> = uː
    • <ou> = ʌ
    • <ough>
    • <ound>
    • <oup>
    • <our> = ɜː
    • <ove> = ʌv
    • <ove> does not = ʌv
    • <qu> = k
    • <s> = ʒ
    • <ss>
    • <th> = t
    • <ui>
    • <w(h)a> and <qua(w)>
    • <wor> = wɜː
    • Initial <th> = ð
    • Silent <h>
    • Silent <s>
    • Silent <w>
  • Stress
    • -aire
    • -eer
    • -esque
    • -ette
    • -ic and -ical
    • -ity
    • -ocracy
    • -oo
    • -oon
    • -proof
    • -worthy
    • Abbreviations
    • Blue, green, red
    • Roads and Streets
    • Stress variation
    • Stressful Christmas?
  • Symbols
  • Transcriptions
    • Transcription 1
  • Vowels
    • No schwa!
    • Vowel alternation: aɪ ~ ɪ
    • Vowel alternation: eɪ ~ æ
    • Vowel alternation: iː ~ e
    • Vowel alternation: əʊ ~ ɒ
    • ə elision in the first syllable
  • Word endings
    • -(m)ony = (m)əni
    • -(n)gue
    • -ac
    • -ade
    • -age = ɑːʒ
    • -ance
    • -ane
    • -ary and -ory
    • -ate
    • -chief
    • -cious
    • -eous
    • -et
    • -ex(e)
    • -ful(ly)
    • -gm
    • -i = aɪ
    • -ice
    • -ine
    • -ious
    • -ique
    • -ite = ɪt
    • -less
    • -ment
    • -mn
    • -ngle
    • -nomy & -tomy
    • -olic
    • -on
    • -oose
    • -oric(al)
    • -our
    • -our = aʊə
    • -path
    • -pathy
    • -re
    • -sis
    • -sten & -stle
    • -ture
    • -ward(s)
    • Non-silent <e>

<mb>

In words which end in the sequence <mb> the <b> is always silent.  Examples:

bomb climb comb crumb dumb jamb lamb limb numb plumb thumb tomb womb

The addition of a inflectional suffix to words like this makes no difference. The <b> is still silent.  Examples:

climber combing dumber

In other words <mb> represents the expected sound sequence mb. Examples:

amber clamber crumble lumber mumble ramble samba symbol timber wombat

Notice that number is ambiguous. It could mean “more numb”. Then the pronunciation would be ˈnʌmə. On the other hand it could mean, well, a number, in which case the pronunciation would of course be ˈnʌmbə.


2013_07_16

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    Latest update: 2015_04_18
    Number of tips: 246
    Number of tips with sound: 42

    Latest changes:

    Updated and added sound to -ese

    Added sound to Funny business

    Added sound to Graph

    Added sound to That

    Added sound to Tricky pairs

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