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Jessicamessica
Hello! Could you help me please?
Which words should complete these sentences?
Sort this week’s words according to the number of phonemes (British English).
musician
mathematician
Does anyone know how to count those phonemes correctly?
musician (5 phonemes: /mjuˈzɪʃən/) or maybe 8 phonemes /mjuˈzɪʃən/ or maybe m-yu-z-i-sh-n (6 phonemes)?
I can't even find the rules...
Thank you!
Mar 22, 2025 6:24 PM
Answers · 7
1
“Mathematician” has more phonemes than “musician.” You can count them when you see how they are written in IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet). В принципе, это то же самое, что и транскрипция, как на tophonetics.com.
One letter in IPA represents one sound. Count the letters, and you’ll count the number of phonemes. But note that symbols such as ‘ and . are not letters, so don’t include those in the count!
Mathematician has 11 letters in IPA
/ˌmæθ(.ə)məˈtɪʃ.ən/
Musician has 8 letters in IPA
/mjuˈzɪʃən/
Mar 23, 2025 1:15 AM
1
I count 8 for musician: m - y - u -z - i - sh - i - n
(sorry, I never learned those symbols like ʃ and ə, but you get the idea)
Mar 23, 2025 12:21 AM
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Jessicamessica
Language Skills
English, Russian, Ukrainian
Learning Language
English
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