English Consonant Sounds

English Consonant Sounds

Compiled By:

Muhammad Babar Qureshi

Department of English Language and Translation

Buraydah Private Colleges

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 English Consonant Sounds

Consonant letters and their sounds

A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant

letters, for example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds.

Letters Sounds Examples

baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about,
b [b]
number, labor, robber, tub
City, center, cellar, cigarette, cinema, agency,
[s] notice;
c
[k] cake, come, cucumber, clean, cry, scratch, act,
panic, car, cattle, castle, company, care, cash
day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady,
d [d]
kind, ride, ended
fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often,
f [f]
deaf, cuff
game, gap, get, go, gun, great, global, google, ago,
[g] begin, dog, egg;
g [j] general, gin, giant, agent, suggest, Egypt, energy,
[zh] huge, manage;
mirage, garage, beige, rouge
hair, help, history, home, hotel, hunt, behind,
[h]
h inherit;
[-]
hour, honor, honest, heir, vehicle, Sarah
jam, Jane, jet, jelly, Jim, jingle, joke, John, June,
j [j]
just
Kate, kind, kill, kilogram, sky, blanket, break, take,
k [k]
look
late, let, live, alone, close, slim, please, old, nicely,
l [l]
table, file, all
make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common,
m [m]
summer, name, form, team
napkin, never, night, no, nuclear, funny, student,
n [n]
kindness, ton, sun, son

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 English Consonant Sounds

paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple,

p [p]
keep, top, crisp
[kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;
q (qu)
[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
rain, red, rise, brief, grow, scream, truck, arrive,
[r]
r hurry, turn, more, car
send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss,
[s] release;
s
[z] cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is,
was
task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive,
t [t]
student, boat, rest
vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give,
v [v]
move, active, invite, visit, vote,
wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear,
w [w]
swim, twenty, twist, away
exercise, exchange, expect, ex-wife, axis, fix,
[ks]
relax;
x [gz]
exam, exact, executive, exert, exist, exit, exult;
[z]
Xenon, Xerox, xenophobia, xylophone
zero, zoo, horizon, puzzle, crazy, organize, quiz,
[z]
z jazz;
[ts]
pizza, Mozart, Nazi, waltz

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 English Consonant Sounds

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 English Consonant Sounds

Note 1: The letter Y

The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the

vowel sounds [i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e.,
a semivowel sound), usually at the beginning of the word and only in the
syllable before a vowel.

[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;

[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;

[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.

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 English Consonant Sounds

Note 2: The letter W

The letter W represents the vowel sound [u:] in the diphthongs [au] and

[ou]: now, how, owl, brown; low, own, bowl.

The -s/es ending of nouns and verbs

[s] [z] [iz]

ribs [ribz], kids [kidz], legs
tapes [teips], pieces ['pi:siz], roses
[legz], leaves [li:vz],
streets [stri:ts], ['rouziz], prizes ['praiziz],
clothes [klouðz], girls,
parks [pa:rks], boxes ['boksiz], coaches
games, cars, boys, pies
chiefs [chi:fs], ['kouchiz], bridges
[paiz], cows [kauz], cities
myths [miθs] ['brijiz], dishes ['dishiz]
['sitiz]
(he) robs [robz], reads
(he) grips [grips], (he) kisses ['kisiz], loses
[ri:dz], digs [digz], saves
writes [raits], ['lu:ziz], relaxes, catches,
[seivz], falls, plans, swims,
takes [teiks], judges, manages, flashes,
offers, plays, cries, goes
sniffs [snifs] washes, rouges
[gouz], copies ['kopiz]
Pip's [pips], Kate's Chris's ['krisiz], Tess's
Abe's [eibz], Fred's [fredz],
[keits], Mike's ['tesiz], Rose's ['rouziz],
Meg's [megz], Olive's
[maiks], Jeff's Liz's ['liziz], Rex's
['olivz], Ben's [benz],
[jefs], Seth's ['reksiz], George's
Molly's ['moliz], Anna's
[seθs] ['jo:rjiz]

The -ed ending of verbs

[t] [d] [id]

stopped [stopt], liked
robbed [robd], saved
[laikt], coughed wanted ['wontid], hated
[seivd], seized [si:zd],
[ko:ft], crossed ['heitid], counted
called [ko:ld], planned,
[cro:st], released ['kauntid], started,
occurred, bathed [beiðd],
[ri'li:st], reached needed [ni:did], loaded
managed, played, tried,
[ri:cht], washed ['loudid], folded, added
studied
[wosht]

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 English Consonant Sounds

Consonant combinations

Letters Sounds Examples

[ks] accent, accept, access, eccentric, accident;
cc
[k] accommodate, account, accuse, occur, acclaim
chain, check, chief, choose, teacher, much,
ch
[ch] church;
tch
kitchen, catch, match, watch, pitch, stretch
character, chemical, Chris, archive, mechanic,
ch (Latin,
[k] technical, ache;
Greek)
[sh] champagne, charlatan, chef, chic, machine,
ch (French)
cache
black, pack, deck, kick, pick, cracker, pocket,
ck [k]
rocket
dge [j] bridge, edge, judge, knowledge, budget, badger
ghost, ghastly, Ghana, ghetto;
[g]
cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh;
gh [f]
though, through, weigh, neighbor, bought,
[-]
daughter
[g] guard, guess, guest, guide, guitar, dialogue;
gu
[gw] language, linguistics, Guatemala, Nicaragua
king, sing, singer, singing, bang, long, wrong,
[ŋ]
ng tongue;
[ŋ]+[g]
finger, anger, angry, longer, longest, single
phone, photograph, phrase, phenomenon,
ph [f]
biography
[kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;
qu
[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
[s] science, scissors, scene, scent, scythe;
sc
[sk] scan, scandal, scare, score, Scotch, scuba
[sk] school, scholar, scheme, schedule;
sch
[sh] schnauzer, schedule
sh [sh] share, she, shine, shoe, fish, cash, push, punish
thank, thick, think, thought, thunder, author,
[θ]
th breath, bath;
[ð]
this, that, then, though, father, brother,

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 English Consonant Sounds

breathe, bathe
what, when, where, which, while, why, whale,
[w]
wh wheel, white;
[h]
who, whom, whose, whole
exhibition;
[ks]
exhumation, exhume, exhale;
xh [ks]+[h]
exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort, exhume,
[g]+[z]
exhale
With silent
Sounds Examples
letters
bt, pt [t] doubt, debt, subtle; receipt, pterodactyl
knee, knife, know; gnome, sign, foreign;
kn, gn, pn [n]
pneumonia, pneumatic
lamb, climb, bomb, comb, tomb; calm, palm,
mb, lm [m]
salmon
ps [s] psalm, pseudonym, psychologist, psychiatrist
rh [r] rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhythm, rhyme
wrap, wreck, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, write,
wr [r]
wrong
Letters in the
Sounds Examples
suffix
nation, patient, special, vicious, pension, Asia,
ti, ci, si, su [sh]
sensual, pressure
vision, fusion, Asia, usual, visual, measure,
si, su [zh]
pleasure

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