The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Belarusian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Belarusian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Belarusian.

Consonants
IPA Examples IPA Examples[1] English equivalents
b б б boot; beautiful
d д do
d͡z дз d͡zʲ дз birds, adze
d͡ʒ дж jewel
f ф ф fool; few
ɣ г ɣʲ г
k к к cooter; cute
l л[2] л loot; lute (for some dialects)
m м м moot; mute
n н н noon; new (for some dialects)
p п п poo; pew
r р trilled r, like in Spanish
s с с soup; super (for some dialects)
ʃ ш shop
t т tool
t͡s ц t͡sʲ ц tsunami, cats
t͡ʃ ч choose
v в[2] в voodoo; view
x х х bach; huge (for some dialects).
z з з zoo; azure (for some dialects)
ʒ ж rouge
Marginal consonants
ɡ г, ґ ɡʲ г, ґ goo; ague
Vowels
IPA Examples English equivalent
a а, я [3]
ɛ э, е [3] met
i і [4] meat
ɨ ы [4] bit
ɔ о, ё [3] born
u у, ю choose
Semivowels
IPA Examples English equivalent
j й[5] yes, boy
w ў[2] water
Other symbols
IPA Explanation
ˈ Stress (placed before the stressed syllable)
ː Gemination[6] (doubled consonant)
  1. Belarusian makes contrasts between palatalized ("soft") and unpalatalized ("hard") consonants. Palatalized consonants, denoted by a superscript j, ‹ ʲ› , are pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate, in a manner similar to the articulation of the y sound in yes. /j/ is also considered soft. /d, t, d͡ʒ, t͡ʃ, r, ʃ, ʒ/ are always hard.
  2. /v/ and /l/ merge into /w/ ‹ў› when in the syllable coda.
  3. Unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are reduced to [a]. Unlike Russian, this is reflected in writing.
  4. [i] and [ɨ] are in complementary distribution: [i] occurs word-initially and after soft consonants; [ɨ] occurs after hard consonants.
  5. The "soft" vowel letters ‹я, е, і, ё, ю› represent a /j/ plus a vowel when initial or following other vowels.
  6. Nine Belarusian consonants can be contrastively geminated: /d͡zʲː, lʲː, nʲː, sʲː, ʃː, t͡sʲː, t͡ʃʲː, zʲː, ʒː/.