Esperanto pronunciation

Main article: Esperanto

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA in Unicode.

The following tables are a quick guide to Esperanto pronunciation. Each letter in the Esperanto alphabet, and each digraph representing a falling diphthong, is listed along with an equivalent in English and the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof suggested using Italian as a model for Esperanto pronunciation.

For further discussion, see the article on Esperanto phonology.

Single letters

Letter	English	IPA
a	ah	[a, ɑ]
b	b	[b]
c	ts	[ʦ]
ĉ	ch	[ʧ]
d	d	[d]
e	eh	[e, ɛ]
f	f	[f]
g	hard g (as in go)	[g]
ĝ	j	[ʤ]
h	h	[h]
ĥ	loch	[x]
i	ee	[i]
j	y	[j] (also [i̯] in diphthongs aj, ej, oj, uj)
ĵ	zh	[ʒ]
k	k	[k]
(but kz	x	[kz, gz])
l	l	[l]
m	m	[m]
n	n	[n]
o	oh	[o, ɔ]
p	p	[p]
r	r (rolled)	[ɾ, r]
s	s	[s]
ŝ	sh	[ʃ]
t	t	[t]
u	oo	[u]
ŭ	–	[u̯] (only in diphthongs aŭ, eŭ)
v	v	[v, ʋ, w]
z	z	[z]

Diphthongs

Letters	English	IPA
aj	bye	[aɪ̯, ɑɪ̯]
aŭ	bough	[aʊ̯, ɑʊ̯]
ej	bay	[eɪ̯, ɛɪ̯]
eŭ	*	[eʊ̯, ɛʊ̯]
oj	boy	[oɪ̯, ɔɪ̯]
uj	booey (said as one syllable)	[uɪ̯, ʊɪ̯]

* Something similar to eŭ is sometimes heard for "oh" in exagerations of the Queen's English by American comedians such as Carol Burnett.

Esperanto pronunciation

Single letters

Diphthongs

See also