PRONOUNCING ENGLISH
CONSONANTS
Consonant Sounds are produced by completely or partially
stopping the breath. Consonant Sounds can be voiceless (VL, no
vibration of the vocal cords) or voiced (VD, vibration of the
vocal cords) and often come in sound pairs.
The symbols used for consonants are shown in the following
table. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left is
voiceless, the one to the right voiced.
Bilabial
Stop
Labio- LabioPostDental Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
dental velar
alveolar
p b
t d
m
n
k g
Affricate
Nasal
Fricative
f v
s z
Approximant
W
Lateral
approximant













/p/: pit
/b/: bit
/t/: tin
/d/: din
/k/: cut
/g/: gut
/ /: cheap
/ /: jeep
/m/: map
/n/: nap
/ /: bang
/f/: fat
/v/: vat
(x)
h
j
l












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/ /: thin
/ /: then
/s/: sap
/z/: zap
/ /: she
/ /: measure
/x/: loch, Chanukah (often replaced by
/h-/ and /-k/)
/h/: ham
/ /: whine (also written /hw/), (only
when distinguishing whine/wine,
which/witch; otherwise replaced by /w/)
/w/: we
/ /: run (often written /r/ in broad
transcription)
/j/: yes
/l/: left
Voicing and aspiration
Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and
context, but a few general rules can be given:




Voiceless plosives and affricates (/p/, /t/, /k/, and / /) are
aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable—
compare pin
and spin
, crap
and scrap
.
o In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables
as well.
o In other dialects, such as Indian English, most or all
voiceless stops may remain unaspirated.
Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied
by a glottal stop in some dialects (e.g. many varieties of American
English)—examples: tap
, sack
.
Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects
(e.g. some varieties of American English)—examples: sad
, bag
. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but
only partially voiced in initial position.