The table below lists the 40 sounds of US English in truespel and the % of ways the sounds are spelled.
The free phonetic converter is located at truespel.com.
Ways in % That USA English Sounds Are Spelled in Running Text |
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| by Thomas E. Zurinskas 2007, from data in Truespel Book 4, at Authorhouse.com | |||||||||||||||
| The table below shows the primary ways sounds are spelled in traditional spelling (tradspel) taken from the | |||||||||||||||
| number of instances occurring in general text (common speech). The column "trad" means letters used | |||||||||||||||
| in tradspel. The percentages represent how often a sound is spelled by a particular letter or letter string. | |||||||||||||||
| The sample is 15.4 million words and estimated to be 90% of the words on a typical newspaper page. | |||||||||||||||
| The data are from a Collins Cobuild frequency count of the top 5,000 print media words converted from UK | |||||||||||||||
| to USA English spelling. The percentages are rounded. (Note that "_-e" means "silent e." "None" means | |||||||||||||||
| no letters for the sound, e.g., ~y in "few." If the total percent is less than 100% there are more ways.) | |||||||||||||||
| (Sounds (phonemes) are in alphabetical order. Results are rounded, so 100% means greater than 99.5%) | |||||||||||||||
| 1st | way | 2nd | way | 3rd | way | 4th | way | 5th | way | 6th | way | ||||
| cnt | sound | as in | trad | % | trad | % | trad | % | trad | % | trad | % | trad | % | Total |
| 1 | ~a | bat | "a" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 2 | ~aa | Saab | "o" | 66% | "a" | 34% | 100% | ||||||||
| 3 | ~ae | sundae | "a-e" | 34% | "ay" | 20% | "a" | 17% | "ey" | 12% | "ai" | 10% | "a--e" | 4% | 97% |
| 4 | ~air | fair | "ere" | 30% | "ar" | 20% | "eir" | 17% | "er" | 14% | "are" | 9% | "air" | 7% | 97% |
| 5 | ~au | auger | "al" | 50% | "o" | 29% | "ough" | 7% | "au" | 6% | "aw" | 5% | "a" | 2% | 99% |
| 6 | ~b | bat | "b" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 7 | ~ch | chin | "ch" | 72% | "t" | 22% | "tch" | 5% | "sc" | 1% | 100% | ||||
| 8 | ~d | die | "d" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 9 | ~e | men | "e" | 77% | "a" | 9% | "ea" | 6% | "ai" | 6% | "ie" | 1% | "ie" | 1% | 100% |
| 10 | ~ee | meet | "e" | 31% | "y" | 25% | "i" | 19% | "ee" | 10% | "ea" | 10% | "ie" | 2% | 97% |
| 11 | ~er | her | "er" | 60% | "or" | 19% | "ur" | 7% | "ir" | 4% | "ure" | 3% | "our" | 3% | 96% |
| 12 | ~f | fair | "f" | 96% | "ph" | 2% | "gh" | 2% | 100% | ||||||
| 13 | ~g | good | "g" | 98% | "x" | 2% | 100% | ||||||||
| 14 | ~h | hat | "h" | 94% | "wh" | 6% | 100% | ||||||||
| 15 | ~i | hip | "i" | 63% | "e" | 21% | "io" | 4% | "a" | 2% | "o" | 2% | "ee" | 2% | 94% |
| 16 | ~ie | die | "i" | 37% | "i-e" | 33% | "y" | 18% | "igh" | 8% | "ie" | 2% | "eye" | 1% | 99% |
| 17 | ~j | jet | "g" | 59% | "j" | 33% | "d" | 5% | "dg" | 3% | 100% | ||||
| 18 | ~k | kip | "c" | 58% | "k" | 26% | "x" | 6% | "ck" | 6% | "q" | 3% | "ch" | 1% | 100% |
| 19 | ~l | lift | "l" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 20 | ~m | men | "m" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 21 | ~n | net | "n" | 99% | "kn" | 1% | 100% | ||||||||
| 22 | ~oe | toe | "o" | 63% | "ow" | 16% | "o-e" | 15% | "ou" | 3% | "oa" | 2% | "oe" | 1% | 100% |
| 23 | ~oi | point | "oi" | 62% | "oy" | 38% | 100% | ||||||||
| 24 | ~oo | good | "al" | 28% | "le" | 24% | "oul" | 20% | "oo" | 14% | "u" | 9% | "e" | 2% | 97% |
| 25 | ~or | form | "or" | 59% | "ore" | 21% | "our" | 8% | "oor" | 4% | "ar" | 3% | "owar" | 1% | 96% |
| 26 | ~ou | out | "ou" | 69% | "ow" | 31% | 100% | ||||||||
| 27 | ~p | pop | "p" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 28 | ~r | run | "r" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 29 | ~s | sun | "s" | 83% | "c" | 14% | "x" | 3% | 100% | ||||||
| 30 | ~sh | shed | "sh" | 51% | "ti" | 30% | "ci" | 8% | "ssi" | 3% | "s" | 2% | "ss" | 1% | 95% |
| 31 | ~t | tie | "t" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 32 | ~th | the | "th" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 33 | ~thh | thin | "th" | 100% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 34 | ~u | up | "e" | 29% | "a" | 26% | "o" | 25% | "u" | 12% | "o-e" | 5% | "ou" | 1% | 98% |
| 35 | ~ue | blue | "o" | 55% | "ou" | 15% | "u" | 9% | "u-e" | 6% | "oo" | 6% | "ew" | 5% | 96% |
| 36 | ~v | vat | "v" | 53% | "f" | 47% | 100% | ||||||||
| 37 | ~w | wet | "w" | 70% | "wh" | 17% | none | 10% | "qu" | 3% | 100% | ||||
| 38 | ~y | yet | none | 55% | "y" | 43% | "i" | 2% | 100% | ||||||
| 39 | ~z | zap | "s" | 98% | "x" | 1% | "z" | 1% | 100% | ||||||
| 40 | ~zh | vision | "s" | 98% | "x" | 1% | "g" | 1% | 100% | ||||||