Phonetics is the branch of linguistics that examines sounds in a language. Phonetics describes these sounds using the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA uses a single symbol to desribe each sound in a language. If a letter in a word is silent, there will be no IPA symbol used in the transcriptions. This course introduces undergraduates (first year students at university) to the concepts, terminology and representations needed for an understanding of how English is pronounced around the world. Assuming no prior knowledge, the course guides readers through the vocal tract and explains how sounds of speech are made.