Voiced Consonants

Your vocal cords, which are actually mucous membranes, stretch across the
larynx at the back of the throat. By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the
vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs.
An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced or not is to place a
finger on your throat. As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your
vocal cords. If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one.

These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in the

word "then"), V, W, Y, and Z. But if consonants are only single letters, what
are Ng, Sz, and Th? They're common sounds that are produced by blending
the two consonants phonetically.

Here are some examples of words that include voiced consonants:

 traveled
 gloves
 shells
 started
 changed
 wheels
 lived
 dreams
 exchanged
 globes
 phones
 listened
 organized

Voiceless Consonants

Voiceless consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard,
percussive sounds. Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the
lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the
sound.

These are the voiceless consonants: Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th (as in

"thing"). Common words using them include:

 washed
 coats
 watched
 books
 seats
 dropped
 carts

Vowels
Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, U) and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel
sounds) are all voiced. That also includes the letter Y when pronounced like a
long E. Examples: city, pity, gritty.

Changing Voice

When consonants are put in groups, they can change the vocal quality of the
consonant that follows. A great example is the past simple form of regular
verbs. You can recognize these verbs because they end in "ed." However, the
consonant sound of this ending can change from voiced to voiceless,
depending on the consonant or vowel that precedes it. In almost all cases,
the E is silent. Here are the rules:

 If the "ed" is preceded by a voiceless consonant such as K, it should be

pronounced as a voiceless T. Examples: parked, barked, marked
 If the "ed" is preceded by a voiced consonant sound such as B or V, it
should be pronounced as a voiced D. Examples: robbed, thrived,
shoved
 If the "ed" is preceded by a vowel sound, it should be pronounced as a
voiced D because vowels are always voiced. Examples: freed, fried, lied
 Exception: If the "ed" is preceded by T, it should be pronounced a
voiced "id" sound. In this case, the "e" is pronounced. Examples:
dotted, rotted, plotted

This pattern can also be found with plural forms. If the consonant preceding
the S is voiced, the S will be pronounced phonetically as a Z. Examples:
chairs, machines, bags

If the consonant preceding the S is voiceless, then the S also will be

pronounced as a voiceless consonant. Examples: bats, parks, pipes.

Connected Speech

When speaking in sentences, the ending consonant sounds can change based
on the following words. This is often referred to as connected speech.

Here is an example of a change from a voiced B in the word "club" to a

voiceless P because of the voiced T in "to" of the following word: "We went to
the club to meet some friends."

Here is an example of a change from a voiced D past simple verb changed to

voiceless T: "We played tennis yesterday afternoon."
The 5 Short Vowel Sounds

 short -a- in and, as, after

 short -e- in pen, hen, lend
 short -i- in it, in
 short -o- in top, hop
 short -u- in under, cup

The 6 Long Vowel Sounds

 long -a- in make, take

 long -e- in beet, feet
 long -i- in tie, lie
 long -o- in coat, toe
 long -u- (yoo) in rule
 long -oo- in few, blue

The R-Controlled Vowel Sounds

 -ur- in her, bird, and hurt

 -ar- in bark, dark
 -or- in fork, pork, stork

The 18 Consonant Sounds

C, Q and X are missing as they are found in other sounds. (The C sound is
found in the k sounds and in the s sound in words like cereal, city and cent.
The Q sound is found in 'kw' words like backward and Kwanza. The X sound
is also found in ks words like kicks.)

 -b- in bed, bad

 -k- in cat and kick
 -d- in dog
 -f- in fat
 -g- in got
 -h- in has
 -j- in job
 -l- in lid

 -m- in mop
 -n- in not
 -p- in pan
 -r- in ran
 -s- in sit
 -t- in to
 -v- in van
 -w- in went
 -y- in yellow
 -z- in zipper

The Blends

Blends are 2 or 3 letters combined to form a distinct spelling-sound.

The blends sounds:

 -bl- in blue and black

 -c- in clap and close
 -fl- in fly and flip
 -gl- in glue and glove
 -pl- in play and please

 -br- in brown and break

 -cr- in cry and crust
 -dr- in dry and drag
 -fr- in fry and freeze
 -gr- in great and grand
 -pr- in prize and prank
 -tr- in tree and try
 -sk- in skate and sky
  -sl- in slip and slap
 -sp- in spot and speed
 -st- in street and stop
 -sw- in sweet and sweater
 -spr- in spray and spring
 -str- in stripe and strap

The 7 Digraph Sounds

 -ch- in chin and ouch

 -sh- in ship and push
 -th- in thing
 -th- in this
 -wh- in when
 -ng- in ring
 -nk- in rink

The Other Special Sounds Including Dipthongs

 -oi- in foil and toy

 -ow- in owl and ouch
 short -oo- in took and pull
 -aw- in raw and haul
 -zh- in vision
 and disk

 Vowel Sounds
 Minimal Pairs /ɪ/ and /i:/ sit seat
 Minimal Pairs /e/ and /ɪ/ desk disk
 Minimal Pairs /e/ and /eɪ/ wet wait
 Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /ʌ/ bat but
 Minimal Pairs /əʊ/ and /ɔ:/ so saw
 Minimal Pairs /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ not note
 Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /e/ bad bed
 Minimal Pairs /ɑ:/ and /ɜ:/ fast first

 Consonant Sounds
 Minimal Pairs /b/ and /v/ berry very
 Minimal Pairs /b/ and /p/ buy pie
 Minimal Pairs /n/ and /ŋ/ thin thing
 Minimal Pairs /l/ and /r/ alive arrive
 Minimal Pairs /ʧ/ and /t/ catch cat
 Minimal Pairs /s/ and /ʃ/ sea she
 Minimal Pairs /f/ and /v/ fan van
 Minimal Pairs /f/ and /h/ fat hat
 Minimal Pairs /f/ and /θ/ free three
 Minimal Pairs /s/ and /θ/ sink think
 Minimal Pairs /ð/ and /z/ with whizz
 Minimal Pairs /ʤ/ and /z/ page pays
 Minimal Pairs /d/ and /ʤ/ bad badge