Teacher’sGuide
1
Consonant Spelling and Consonant Sounds
Unlike vowel sounds, many consonant sounds have a close correspondence between the
letters used to spell them and the phonetic symbols found in dictionaries. The major
differences are for those letters or letter pairs that are represented by unusual symbols
(like the “th” sounds, “ch”, “sh”, and “c”).
Exercise 3
This exercise helps learners to recognize that consonant sounds are not always
predictable from spelling.
Beginning Consonant Sounds
phones
gem
chorus
coast
fires
guess
cheese
kites
pines
joy
chores
cents
ringing
loser
ladder
social
singing
laces
rejoice
facing
fast
fits
books
cared
passed
fees
coats
laughed
Middle Consonant Sounds
phoning
lazy
edges
pushes
Final Consonant Sounds
played
fines
fools
spelled
Teacher’sGuide
2
Exercise 4
This exercise uses words that many students find confusing and asks them to identify the
differences.
Each pair of words is pronounced differently. Look up the words and tell what sounds are
different by using the symbols.
1.
singer
finger
singer has [ŋ] in the middle, finger has [ŋg]
2.
kite
quite
kite starts with [k] and quite with [kw]
3.
chicken
kitchen
kitchen chicken starts [tʃɪk] and kitchen starts [kɪtʃ]
4.
race
raise
[res] and [rez]
5.
wins
wings
[wɪnz] and [wɪŋz]
6.
version
virgin
[vʌrʒən] and [vʌrʤən]
7.
tacks
fax
[tæks] and [fæks]
8.
jest
guest
[gɛst] and [ʤɛst]
Exercise 5
Word
phoned
rang
fox
cinch
goes
blog
lazy
gem
shoe
beige
hats
plaid
view
wealth
this
quick
Textbook Symbol
/fond/
/ræŋ/
faks
/sɪntʃ/
/goz/
blag
/lezi/
/ʤɛm/
/ʃu/
/beʒ/
/hæts/
/plæd/
/vyu/
/wɛlθ/
/ðɪs/
/kwɪk/
Your Dictionary
/fəʊnd/
NA
/fɒks/
NA
/ɡəʊz/
/blɒɡ/
/leɪzi/
/dʒem/
/ʃuː/
/beɪʒ/
NA
NA
/vjuː/
/welθ/
NA
NA