Pronouncing English Consonants

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English language » English Pronunciation » Pronouncing English Consonants

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	Labio- dental	Labio- velar	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b				t d			k g
Affricate
Nasal	m				n
Fricative		f v			s z			(x)	h
Approximant			W				j
Lateral approximant					l

/p/: pit
/b/: bit
/t/: tin
/d/: din
/k/: cut
/g/: gut
//: cheap
//: jeep
/m/: map
/n/: nap
//: bang
/f/: fat
/v/: vat

//: 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

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