In many languages, when you read a word, you know how it sounds. Not in English. Reading an English word does not tell you how it is pronounced. For example, the words no and do both end in the letter o. However, no is pronounced like this, and do is pronounced like that. This means that, generally, you have to learn the pronunciation of every word that you're going to use.
How can you learn the pronunciation of an English word? You can look it up in a dictionary and read about how it is pronounced. Dictionaries tell you about pronunciation through a special system called phonetic transcription.
Phonetic transcriptions are written in a phonetic alphabet. The most popular phonetic alphabet is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Antimoon has also created the ASCII Phonetic Alphabet, which is suitable for typing on a computer.
Antimoon's software, PerfectPronunciation, helps you learn the pronunciations of the most important English words. It lets you record your voice and compare it with the correct pronunciation. Because it contains phonetic transcriptions and audio recordings, it can also teach you how to read phonetic transcriptions.
