Given that, there is an International Phonetics Alphabet to help speakers in knowing exactly which sound one is referring to. This IPA chart was created in order to separate pronouncing from spelling, as some words reveal to be very complicated in that matter. For example, the words who and shoe share the same vowel sound, but are spelled differently. As for the words heart and beat, which share the same vowel
This IPA chart occurs in the standard accent of British English (Received Pronunciation).
CONSONANTS:
[p] - pot
[t] - tie
[k] - keys
[b] - book
[d] - dog
[ɡ] - gasp
[m] - mine
[n] - not
[ŋ] - king
[f] - fly
[v] - vain
[θ] - think
[ð] - them
[s] - sand
[z] - zero
[ʃ] - shy
[ʒ] - cohesion
[h] - hell
[w] - work
[l] - lost
[ɹ] - ride
[j] - you
[tʃ] - church
[dʒ] - Georgia
VOWELS
[i:] - see
[I] - tip
[e] - bed
[æ] - and
[ɜ:] - bird
[ə] - along
[ʌ] - cut
[u:] - boot
[ʊ] - book
[ɔ:] - thought
[ɒ] - what
[ɑ:] - bath
DIPHTHONGS
[eɪ] - may
[aɪ] - buy
[ɔɪ] - toy
[əʊ] - boat
[aʊ] - how
[ɪə] - here
[ɛə] - hair
[ʊə] - tour
Source: Plag, I., Introduction to English Linguistics
I will explain the remaining terms in next session.