ENGLISH PHONOLOGY

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Consonants
Consonant is a speech sound made by stopping all or
some of the air going out of your mouth. Most
consonants are divided into voiced or unvoiced/
voiceless depending on the vibration of vocal cords.

Voiced Consonant Sounds

Symbol Examples
/b/ beach, web, subway
/d/ Dani, sad, add
/g/ girl, drag, clogged
/dʒ/ jam, gel, gin, joy, page, age
/v/ vehicle, live, move
/ð/ this, father, The, That
/z/ zoo, rose,compose,
/ʒ/ vision, pleasure, beige, change
/L/ Leg, girl, Light
/R/ Rat, Run, River
/H/ Home, House, His
/M/ Meet, Money, Me
/N/ Net, Run, clean
/ŋ/ Going, having, Long

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 voiceless Consonant Sounds
Symbol Examples
/p/ potato, tap, clapping
/t/ tea, pet, setting
/k/ car, key, trekking, chicken, accurate,
queen, thick, book, chaos, character
/f/ fast, phone, leaf, staff, enough
/s/ sell, city, pass, Mix, Fix, dance,cycle
/θ/ thin, teeth, thin, think, bath
/ʃ/ she, sugar, nation, leash,commercial
/tʃ/ charity, nature, teach, match, watch

Semivowels or semiconsonants

They are sounds that share some characteristics with

vowels and others with consonants. There are 2
semivowels in English. Here are they:

/w/ As in twelve, conquest, language

/j/ As in yes, uniform,Unit, Europe

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 1.2 Voiced vs. Voiceless Sounds
The concept of voiced and unvoiced sounds is
extremely useful particularly for –ed endings e.g. with
the second form (past) of regular verbs, words ending
with an “s,” and words spelled with “th.”. This concept
will also be helpful for discriminating between b/p, f/v,
k/g, s/z, and other pronunciation pairs. The correct
pronunciation of these letters can be achieved by
determining whether the sound is voiced or unvoiced
(also referred to as voiced and voiceless sounds).

Essentially, a “voiced” sound, or “voicing,” means that

we feel a vibration when we make the sound. The
vibration comes from our vocal chords. May be the best
way for determining whether the sound is voiced or not,
is by putting two or three fingers gently against our
throat and then make a sound. If we feel a vibration, the
sound is voiced.

Unvoiced sounds are also called “voiceless” sounds.

You can probably guess that an unvoiced sound is the
exact opposite of a voiced sound. When you put your
fingers against your throat and make a sound, if you do
not feel a vibration, then the sound (or letter) is
unvoiced (or voiceless).
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There are 3 different ways to pronounce the –ed at the
end of a word. How we pronounce it, depends on the
final sound of the word/verb in the stem/infinitive form.

1. The first case is when the verb/word ends with

unvoiced consonant sound then the –ed is also
pronounced as unvoiced sound that is /T/ e.g. the
verb ‘pack’ ends with a unvoiced consonant sound
/K/, when forming the past form the verb becomes
‘packed’ which is pronounced / pækt/. Other
unvoiced sounds are /p/, /f/, /s/, /θ (th)/, /ʃ (sh)/, and
/tʃ (ch)/.
2. The second case is when the verb ends with a voiced
consonant sound or a vowel or a diphthong, then
the –ed is pronounced as /d/ e.g. the verb ‘Save’,
pronounced /seɪv/, ends with the sound /V/ which is a
voiced consonant sound so the –ed will take the /d/
and the verb will be pronounced /seɪvd/. Other
voiced consonants that come at the end of words are:
/v/, /b/, /g/, /ð/, /z/, /dʒ/, /r/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ (ng)/, /L/, or
a vowel or a diphthong.
3. The final case is when the verb in the infinitive form
ends in /t/ or /d/ sound. In that case the –ed will
sound like /id/ e.g. the verb ‘Land’ is pronounced

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 /lænd/ so when forming the past form the verb will
become ‘Landed’ that is pronounced /lændɪd/.

Classify each the following verbs in the suitable list

in the table below:

Laugh Earn Invite Brush Allow Attend

End Collect Pass Cook Crack Appear
Start Watch Land Believe Count Walk
Follow Open Lock Destroy Arrive Contact
Wash Plan Shout Dance Crash Talk
Export Dress Look Enjoy Burn Defend
Afford Play Happen Invent Belong Live
Bake Agree Fix Answer Arrest Encourage
Carry Call Demand Help Close Expect
Finish Visit Divide Remember Miss Change
Rain Wait Escape like Cry Flood
Ask Advise Accept Decide Drop Treat

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Name:………………………………………………..
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Name:……………………………………..
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The ED sound
/T/ /D/ /ID/
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Name:………………………………………………..
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The S/ES sound
/S/ /Z/ /IZ/
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1.3Rules for Correct Pronunciation of
the –S Ending Words
There are three different sounds for pronouncing the –S
ending words, (plural nouns and third person singular –s),
theses three ways are /S/, /Z/, or /IZ/.

1. The first case: If a word ends with the sounds (/S/, /Z/,
/ʒ/, /ʃ /, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/), (-s, -x, -z, -ss, -ch, -sh, -ge, -ce), the
final –S is pronounced /IZ/.
2. The second case: If a word ends with any other
voiceless consonant sound (/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, or /θ/), (-p, -
k, -t, -f, -ph, -th), the final –S is pronounced /S/.
3. The third case: If a word ends with any other voiced
consonant sound (/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /l/, /r/, /m/, /n/, or
/ŋ/), or a vowel sound, the final –S is pronounced /Z/.

Exercise 1: Notice how these verbs are pronounced, then

complete the blanks
Reaches /IZ/ Remembers /Z/ Hopes /S/
Watches /IZ/ Tries /Z/ Expects /S/
Rises /IZ/ Drives /Z/ Moves ……..
Wishes /IZ/ Receives /Z/ Goes ……..
Fixes /IZ/ Blurs /Z/ Sees ……..
Kisses /IZ/ Rams /Z/ Looks ……..

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 Georges /IZ/ Measures /Z/ Needs ……..
Hangs /Z/ Works /S/ Calls ……..
Robs /Z/ Gorgeous /S/ Learns ……..
Bangs /Z/ Talks /S/ Plays ……..

Exercise 3. Try to correctly pronounce the following

sentences:
Samuel doesn’t like to go to school because:
 His mother keeps him at home to give him kisses
 He watches many programs on television late at night
 He misses the bus every morning
 He drinks many Hypnotics before sleeping

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