IPA Consonant Symbols

Understanding Consonant Classification

The IPA organizes consonants along two primary axes:

Place of articulation: Where in the vocal tract the airflow is obstructed (bilabial, alveolar, velar, etc.)
Manner of articulation: How the airflow is obstructed (plosive, fricative, approximant, etc.)

Additionally, consonants are classified by:

Voicing: Whether vocal cords vibrate (voiced) or not (voiceless)
Airstream mechanism: Pulmonic (lung air), velaric (clicks), glottalic ingressive (implosives), or glottalic egressive (ejectives)

Places of Articulation

Places of articulation from front to back of mouth
Place	Location	Example Sounds
Bilabial	Both lips	/p b m/ — "pat, bat, mat"
Labiodental	Lower lip + upper teeth	/f v/ — "fat, vat"
Dental	Tongue tip + upper teeth	/θ ð/ — "thin, then"
Alveolar	Tongue + alveolar ridge	/t d s z n l/ — "top, dot, sip, zip, not, lot"
Postalveolar	Tongue + back of alveolar ridge	/ʃ ʒ/ — "ship, measure"
Retroflex	Tongue curled back	/ʈ ɖ ɽ/ — Hindi, Mandarin
Palatal	Tongue + hard palate	/j ɲ/ — "yes", Spanish "ñ"
Velar	Back of tongue + soft palate	/k g ŋ/ — "cat, go, sing"
Uvular	Back of tongue + uvula	/q ʀ/ — Arabic, French /r/
Pharyngeal	Root of tongue + pharynx	/ħ ʕ/ — Arabic ح ع
Glottal	Vocal folds	/h ʔ/ — "hat", glottal stop

Manners of Articulation

Plosives (Stops)

Complete blockage of airflow, then sudden release:

p b — Bilabial: "pie, buy"
t d — Alveolar: "tie, die"
k g — Velar: "kite, guy"
ʔ — Glottal stop: "uh-oh" /ʔʌʔoʊ/
ʈ ɖ — Retroflex: Hindi, Sanskrit
c ɟ — Palatal: Hungarian, Albanian
q ɢ — Uvular: Arabic /q/, Persian /ɢ/

Nasals

Oral blockage with air flowing through nose:

m — Bilabial: "man"
n — Alveolar: "no"
ŋ — Velar: "sing" (not "n+g", just /ŋ/)
ɲ — Palatal: Spanish "señor", Italian "gnocchi"
ɳ — Retroflex: Tamil, Kannada
ɱ — Labiodental: English "symphony" /ˈsɪɱfəni/
ɴ — Uvular: Japanese /ɴ/ syllable-final

Trills

Rapid vibration of articulator:

r — Alveolar trill: Spanish "perro", Italian "carro"
ʙ — Bilabial trill: Rare; used in some expressions
ʀ — Uvular trill: French /r/ variant, German /r/

Taps and Flaps

Single brief contact:

ɾ — Alveolar tap: Spanish "pero", American "butter" /ˈbʌɾɚ/
ɽ — Retroflex flap: Hindi, Norwegian
ⱱ — Labiodental flap: Rare; some African languages

Fricatives

Narrow constriction creating turbulent airflow:

f v — Labiodental: "fan, van"
θ ð — Dental: "thin, this"
s z — Alveolar: "sip, zip"
ʃ ʒ — Postalveolar: "ship, measure"
ʂ ʐ — Retroflex: Mandarin zh/sh sounds
ç ʝ — Palatal: German "ich", Spanish "yo"
x ɣ — Velar: German "Bach", Spanish "hago"
χ ʁ — Uvular: German /r/, French /ʁ/
ħ ʕ — Pharyngeal: Arabic ح ع
h ɦ — Glottal: "hat", voiced h

Lateral Fricatives

ɬ ɮ — Alveolar lateral fricatives: Welsh "ll", Zulu

Approximants

Wider opening than fricatives, no turbulence:

ʋ — Labiodental approximant: Dutch /v/
ɹ — Alveolar approximant: English "red" (not a trill!)
j — Palatal approximant: "yes"
w — Labial-velar approximant: "we"
ɰ — Velar approximant: Korean, Spanish

Lateral Approximants

l — Alveolar: "let"
ɭ — Retroflex: Tamil, Kannada
ʎ — Palatal: Italian "gli", Spanish "ll"
ʟ — Velar: Some Korean dialects

Complete Pulmonic Consonant Chart

IPA pulmonic consonants (voiceless, voiced pairs)
Manner	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d	ʈ ɖ	c ɟ	k g	q ɢ	ʔ
Nasal	m	ɱ		n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ	ɴ
Trill	ʙ			r				ʀ
Tap/Flap		ⱱ		ɾ	ɽ
Fricative	ϕ β	f v	θ ð	s z	ʂ ʐ	ç ʝ	x ɣ	χ ʁ	h ɦ
Lateral fricative				ɬ ɮ
Approximant		ʋ		ɹ	ɻ	j	ɰ
Lateral approximant				l	ɭ	ʎ	ʟ

Note: Postalveolar consonants (ʃ ʒ) are included in the full IPA chart between alveolar and retroflex.

Non-Pulmonic Consonants

Clicks (Velaric Ingressive)

Produced by creating suction with the tongue. Found primarily in African languages:

Click consonants
IPA Symbol	Name	Description	Languages
ʘ	Bilabial click	"Kiss" sound	!Xóõ, Hadza
ǀ	Dental click	"Tsk tsk" sound	Zulu, Xhosa, Nama
ǃ	Alveolar click	"Pop" sound	!Xũ, Juǀʼhoan
ǂ	Palatal click	Tongue-palate suction	Khoekhoe languages
ǁ	Lateral click	Horse "giddyup" sound	Xhosa, Zulu

Implosives (Glottalic Ingressive)

Produced by lowering the glottis while making a closure:

ɓ — Bilabial implosive: Sindhi, Swahili
ɗ — Alveolar implosive: Hausa, Vietnamese
ʄ — Palatal implosive: Swahili, Sindhi
ɠ — Velar implosive: Sindhi, Hausa
ʛ — Uvular implosive: Mam (Mayan), very rare

Ejectives (Glottalic Egressive)

Produced by raising the closed glottis to compress air:

pʼ — Bilabial ejective: Georgian, Quechua
tʼ — Alveolar ejective: Hausa, Navajo, Georgian
kʼ — Velar ejective: Georgian, Amharic
sʼ — Alveolar ejective fricative: Tlingit
tsʼ — Alveolar ejective affricate: Navajo
tʃʼ — Postalveolar ejective affricate: Georgian
qʼ — Uvular ejective: Georgian, Quechua

Co-articulated Consonants

Consonants with two simultaneous places of articulation:

Labial-Velar

w — Voiced labial-velar approximant: English "we"
ʍ — Voiceless labial-velar approximant: Scottish "which" /ʍɪtʃ/ (distinct from "witch")
kp gb — Labial-velar plosives: Yoruba, Ewe, Igbo

Labial-Palatal

ɥ — Voiced labial-palatal approximant: French "huit" /ɥit/

Alveolo-Palatal

ɕ ʑ — Alveolo-palatal fricatives: Mandarin x/j, Polish ś/ź
tɕ dʑ — Alveolo-palatal affricates: Mandarin q/j, Polish ć/dź

Affricates

Plosive followed immediately by a fricative at the same place of articulation:

ts dz — Alveolar affricates: German "Zeit" /tsaɪt/, Italian "zio" /ˈdzio/
tʃ dʒ — Postalveolar affricates: English "church, judge"
tɕ dʑ — Alveolo-palatal: Mandarin, Polish
ʈʂ ɖʐ — Retroflex affricates: Mandarin zh/ch sounds
pf — Labiodental affricate: German "Pferd" /pfeːɐ̯t/
kx — Velar affricate: Tlingit

Notation: Affricates can be written as ligatures (ʧ ʤ) or with tie bars (t͡ʃ d͡ʒ). The IPA recommends tie bars for clarity.

English Consonant Inventory

American English Consonants

English consonant phonemes
IPA	Example	Place	Manner	Voicing
p	pit	Bilabial	Plosive	Voiceless
b	bit	Bilabial	Plosive	Voiced
t	tip	Alveolar	Plosive	Voiceless
d	dip	Alveolar	Plosive	Voiced
k	cat	Velar	Plosive	Voiceless
g	gap	Velar	Plosive	Voiced
m	mat	Bilabial	Nasal	Voiced
n	not	Alveolar	Nasal	Voiced
ŋ	sing	Velar	Nasal	Voiced
f	fan	Labiodental	Fricative	Voiceless
v	van	Labiodental	Fricative	Voiced
θ	thin	Dental	Fricative	Voiceless
ð	this	Dental	Fricative	Voiced
s	sip	Alveolar	Fricative	Voiceless
z	zip	Alveolar	Fricative	Voiced
ʃ	ship	Postalveolar	Fricative	Voiceless
ʒ	measure	Postalveolar	Fricative	Voiced
h	hat	Glottal	Fricative	Voiceless
tʃ	church	Postalveolar	Affricate	Voiceless
dʒ	judge	Postalveolar	Affricate	Voiced
l	let	Alveolar	Lateral approximant	Voiced
ɹ	red	Alveolar	Approximant	Voiced
j	yes	Palatal	Approximant	Voiced
w	wet	Labial-velar	Approximant	Voiced

Note: Some phoneticians include /ʔ/ (glottal stop) as an English allophone, particularly in British English "bottle" /ˈbɒʔl/.

Learning IPA Consonants

Practice Strategies

Master your native inventory first: Identify all consonants you produce
Learn place distinctions: Practice moving from bilabial → dental → velar
Learn manner distinctions: Plosive → fricative → approximant progressions
Use minimal pairs: "pat" /p/ vs. "bat" /b/, "sue" /s/ vs. "zoo" /z/
Study language families: Romance, Germanic, Slavic for systematic patterns

Common Confusions

/ɹ/ vs. /r/: English "red" is approximant /ɹ/, not trill /r/
/ŋ/ standalone: "sing" is /sɪŋ/, not /sɪng/ (no /g/)
/θ/ vs. /ð/: "thin" vs. "this" — voicing is the only difference
/j/ for "y": IPA uses /j/ for "yes", not /y/ (that's a vowel)