Student’sCopy
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Consonant Spelling and Consonant Sounds
•
The symbols for many consonant sounds look the same as the letters usually used for
spelling. For example, lip would be transcribed as /lɪp/ and the /l/ and /p/ symbols
look just like the letters.
•
But a few consonants need special symbols since English spelling represents them by
using two letters (like ch in chore /tʃ/ or th in the /ð/).
•
In addition, sometimes a letter can represent two sounds (like x in fix /ks/).
•
Some letters may represent no sound at all (like the “l” in talk), or a sound may exist
without a letter (like the /y/ sound at the beginning of the word use).
For these reasons, we need special symbols for the pronunciation of consonant sounds.
These symbols are called phonetic symbols.
Spelling that looks like the symbols
pop
bib
tot
did
kick
gag
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
/g/
foe
view
so
zoo
hi
/f/
/v/
/s/
/z/
/h/
mom
nine
lull
roar
yeah
we
/m/
/n/
/l/
/r/
/y/
/w/
sing
box
cat
quick
cell
/ŋ/
/ks/
/k/
/kw/
/s/
Spelling that does not look like the symbols
think
the
/ɵ/
/ð/
shoe
chair
vision
jet
/ʃ/
/tʃ/
/ʒ/
/ʤ/
Student’sCopy
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Exercise 3
One of the three words does not have the same consonant sound as the other two. Listen
and click on the “odd word”. Then discuss what symbols should be used for the targeted
consonant sounds in each section.
Beginning Consonant Sounds
Example:
said
sugar
some
Note: said and some uses /s/, sugar uses /ʃ/
phones
gem
cheese
coast
fires
guess
chorus
kites
pines
joy
chores
cents
Middle Consonant Sounds
Example:
phoning
lazy
edges
pushes
machine
matching
ringing
loser
ladder
social
marching
signing
laces
rejoice
facing
Final Consonant Sounds
Example:
played
fines
books
spelled
these
fast
fits
fools
cared
this
freeze
passed
fees
coats
laughed
Student’sCopy
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Exercise 4
Each pair of words is pronounced differently. Look up the words and tell what sounds are
different by using the symbols.
Example:
loose
/s/
lose
/z/
The "s" letter sounds like /s/ in loose and /z/ in lose.
singer
kite
chicken
race
wins
version
tacks
jest
finger
quite
kitchen
raise
wings
virgin
fax
guest
Exercise 5
Write the textbook symbols and your dictionary symbols for all the consonant and vowel
sounds in the words.
Word
phoned
rang
fox
cinch
goes
blog
lazy
gem
shoe
beige
hats
plaid
view
wealth
this
quick
Textbook Symbol
/fond/
Your Dictionary