There are 121 consonant words
which are made up of only consonants:
which are made up of only consonants:
which are made up of only consonants:
which are made up of only consonants:
which are made up of only consonants:
which are made up of only consonants:
List of Word Search Tools on Word Game Helper
| Word Search Tool | Link to the Tool |
|---|---|
| Browse All Words | Browse All Words |
| Scrabble Word Finder | Scrabble Word Finder |
| Scrabble Cheat Tool | Scrabble Cheat Tool |
| Words with Friends Word Finder | Words with Friends Word Finder |
| Words with Friends Cheat Tool | Words with Friends Cheat Tool |
| Crossword Solver | Crossword Solver |
| Hangman Solver | Hangman Solver |
| Anagram Solver | Anagram Solver |
| Jumble Solver | Jumble Solver |
| Unscramble Words | Unscramble Words |
When you are playing Words with Friends or Scrabble, it is important to understand how words are formed. You may look at your letter selections and realize that you have many more consonants than vowels. Fortunately, there are some consonant blends and combinations that can come to your rescue. There are even a few words made of consonants alone that are acceptable in most word games.
Common Consonant Blends
When you are playing a game where you must unscramble letters, you might assume that you will succeed by alternating consonants and vowels. However, there are some consonant combinations that you must take into account. Some of the most common consonant blends are at the beginning of words. Share, chance, small, snack, crab and blue are all good examples.
Words with Greek origins have combinations created by the ancient Greek alphabet. Pseudoscience includes a couple of blends. Philosophy has an f sound that comes from the Greek letter Phi. Chronology starts with a three-letter blend that was a two-letter blend in Greek, a combination of Chi and Rho.
There are also some common consonant combinations that you can find at the end of words. Trident, fish, communism and leech are all words that can help you get rid of a few tiles.
Double Consonant Words
It is not a Scrabble cheat to place some double consonant words when you have too many copies of the same tile. The name Scrabble itself is a perfect example. Most double letters are found in the middle of a word where they sit at a break between syllables: dollar, fissure, hammer and furry. There are a few double letters that sit at the end of words: fall, less, watt and buzz. Even fewer words begin with two copies of the same consonant. These are mostly words borrowed from other languages like the Spanish word llama.
Are there any words made up of only consonants?
Is Y a consonant?
When push comes to shove, you may want to expand your vocabulary to include some all consonant words. There is some debate over what counts as a word with only consonants. You probably learned in school that the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. In words like gym, glyph, myth, and nymph, the letter y is acting as a vowel, but some people would say that these are all consonant words.
Onomatopoeias
Another class of words with only consonants is onomatopoeic words. These are words that mimic sounds. Someone who is cold might say, Brr. Pfft is a common sound of dismissal. A curious person says, Hmm.
Foreign words
Finally, some consonant-only words have been handed to us from other languages. In Welsh, a cwm is a round valley often found in the mountains. From the same country, a crwth is a type of traditional fiddle.
When you know your consonant words, you have many more options to add to your word list. Your Scrabble and Word with Friends opponents will marvel at your ability to make words.
Why Final Consonant Clusters Are So Important
Pronouncing clusters and consonant blends correctly at the ends of words is particularly important for clear English.
This is for a few reasons.
Consonant Clusters Are Used To Differentiate Words
The main reason is that the sounds in clusters in many English words differentiate that word from other words. Another way to say this is that if a person leaves a sound out of the cluster, it means something else.
at vs act, fat vs fact, light vs liked, missed vs mixed, ascent vs accent,
The other reason, as I’ve mentioned is that word endings are where we mark many grammatical markers in English.
Final Consonant Clusters Examples For Grammar.
Regular past tense endings require adding the sound /t/ or /d/.
Examples of past tense cluster endings are: /kt/ in locked, /st/ in passed, /ft/ in laughed, /pt/ in shopped
Third person often requires adding /s/.
Examples of third person cluster endings are: she kicks, he lights, she packs, he lifts,
Plural endings often require adding /s/.
Examples of plural cluster endings are: locks, facts, desks, banks
If you’re not pronouncing consonant blends / clusters in English clearly then it will sound like you have poor grammar in your spoken English. You’ll be leaving off important endings for the past tense, plurals and other grammar markers too.
To a listener, this can be confusing and it can sound like obvious grammar mistakes.
Difficult English Consonant Clusters
Consonant clusters with 3 consonants are often particularly challenging for learners.
Let’s look at some consonant clusters with 3 consonants in a row.
We’ll start with final consonant clusters (in other words, consonant clusters at the ends of words) because for many people, these are often the most difficult English consonant clusters to pronounce.
Final Consonant Clusters With 3 Consonants
It helps to break it up. For example for the word ‘asks’ it helps to think of the word in two sections – ‘as’ and ‘ks’. Practise these two sections and then smoothly join them together, without adding a vowel in between.
asks – practice as ‘as-ks’
tasks – practice as ‘tas-ks’
desks – practice as ‘des-ks’
discs – practice as ‘dis-ks’
acts – practice as ‘ac-ts’
ducts – practice as ‘duc-ts’. See more help on pronouncing /ct/ endings here.
Consonant Clusters At The Start of Words With 3 Consonants
strong & strange – check your /str/ cluster
script & scrunch – check your /skr/ cluster
squint & square – check your /skw/ cluster
spray & sprint – check your /spr/ cluster
Consonant Clusters With 4 Consonants
Which words have 4 consonants in a consonant cluster? There are a number of words with 4 consonant sounds, luckily most of them are not common words.
Did you know that native speakers are actually quite lazy with pronouncing words with 4 consonants in a cluster. We often gloss over one sound. We don’t like 4 consonant clusters either!
texts – /teksts/ – to pronounce it perfectly, break it up and practise it as ‘teks-ts’ and then smoothly join them together. Actually many native speakers will pronounce it as ‘teks’ in natural speaking.
sixths – many non-native speakers will gloss over the ‘th’ and pronounce it more like ‘siks’ or ‘sikth’ in their natural speaking.
twelfths – don’t worry if you can’t make ‘th’ correctly – you can easily skip the ‘th’ in this word and no one will even notice! Luckily we don’t need to use this word very often. So you can cheat, and pronounce it like – ‘twelfs’.
tempts – practice as ‘temp-ts’ – make sure we can hear /p/ before /ts/.
The Most Difficult Consonant Clusters In English
In my experience the most difficult consonant blends or consonant clusters of all time are the /θs/ in months/mʌnθs/ and the /θr/ in three /θri:/.
The good news is that for most learners, correcting ‘th’ is not a high priority. Mispronouncing ‘th’ doesn’t negatively affect your speech clarity as much as other areas.
See more on improving your ‘th’ sound here: How To Pronounce the ‘th’ Sound
So, for most people, improving your word stress, vowel sounds and word endings will be more important and a higher priority than correcting ‘th’.
Perfecting your pronunciation of ‘months’ and ‘three’ will take practise. Many advanced learners will require quality specialised training and practise materials to correct their ‘th’ and master ‘th’ consonant clusters.
If you are happy to take a short cut to pronounce these I suggest the following:
months – /θs/ consonant cluster
When pronouncing the word ‘months’ just omit the ‘th’ here. Many learners make the mistake of omitting the /s/ sound in their effort to pronounce the ‘th’. If you are saying “4 month” this is an obvious grammar mistake to listeners as you’ve left off the plural /s/ sound.
If you omit the ‘th’ and say ‘mons’, no one will notice.
three – /θr/ ‘thr’ consonant cluster
If you have difficulty pronouncing the sound ‘th’ in clusters like in the word ‘three’, it’s most likely you are pronouncing this word more like ‘tree’ or ‘sree’.
Honestly, in most instances this won’t be a big problem for your listeners. For most non-native speakers, improving other areas of your English pronunciation will be more important for speech clarity.
For an easy cheat, you can go with ‘tree’ for ‘three’.
I would recommend focusing on improving other areas of your English pronunciation, such as consonant clusters, word endings, word stress and diphthong vowels. When you are confident that areas are sounding great, then move on to correcting ‘th’ and ‘th’ clusters.
How Are Consonant Clusters Shown in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?
The IPA in the dictionary is a fantastic tool for learners wanting to improve their English pronunciation skills. The IPA will tell us the exact sounds in each cluster.
So even if you don’t know every IPA symbol, it can still be a very useful tool to find our exactly what sounds you should be making in words with consonant clusters.
See these examples below.
These are words that non-native speakers often mispronounce. They often miss a sound in the cluster. See the IPA and look at how it shows you each consonant that you should be making.
This post is been for non-native English speakers looking for help with consonant clusters in English, in this guide, we’ve covered: typical consonant clusters problems and why they occur, how to improve pronunciation of consonant clusters, consonant clusters activities and exercises with video and audio MP3.
I hope this has helped you better understand consonant clusters and consonant blends in English. I hope it’s given you a good idea of the best way you can correct you pronunciation of consonant clusters for clearer English.
Here are some other articles that I’ve written that might help you.
English Word Stress Exercises: videos, audio and voice recorder exercises to help you improve your word stress and emphasis in English.
IPA Vowel Sounds (International Phonetic Alphabet).
Checklist For Choosing Accent Reduction Training.
Would you like more help with your English Pronunciation? Contact us on +61 411 295 828 or email info@speechactive.com to find out more about our English Pronunciation Courses.
Our training is tailored specifically for speakers of your language background. See more about our course for speakers of your first language here – Speech Active Course List
See our course tour video below.
Keep up the great work on your spoken English.
Please contact us to talk more about how we can help you improve : )
Remember, a little bit here and there every day all helps.
All the best
Georgie Harding
Page 1: ER, ME, one, AL, you, IN, on, Ate, no, Be, to, ay, AR, MA, en, CA, OR, la, Ta, Na, ab, ad, ion, MO, NE, DE, AN, BA, Es, ace, ap, go, re, el, et, op, ice, Ka, at, hi, AS, US, Ag, AM, os, em, HA, up, lo, and CO
| Word | Length | Consonants | Vowels | Syllables | Origin | Favourite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ER | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| ME | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| One | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Middle English | |
| AL | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| You | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Middle English | |
| IN | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| On | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Ate | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| No | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Be | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| To | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Ay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Old Turkic | |
| AR | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| MA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| En | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| CA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| OR | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| La | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Ta | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Na | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Ab | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Persian | |
| Ad | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Ion | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Ancient Greek | |
| MO | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| NE | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| DE | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| AN | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| BA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Es | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ace | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Ap | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Go | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Re | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| El | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Et | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Proto Indo European | |
| Op | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Dutch | |
| Ice | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Ka | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| At | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| Hi | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Proto Albanian | |
| AS | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| US | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ag | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Os | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Latin | |
| Em | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Old Portuguese | |
| HA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Up | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Old English | |
| Lo | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Middle English | |
| CO | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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Consonants
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In English, consonants can be distinguished by whether they are ‘sounds’ or ‘letters’. Sometimes they overlap. From the sharp ‘s’ sound to the gentle ‘m’ hum, consonants are the backbone of English speech. Explore our examples of English consonants and ways to identify them!
The meaning of ‘consonant’
A consonant is a speech sound made by either completely or partially obstructing breath. This is done by creating contact between two articulators.
Articulators are vocal organs such as the tongue, lips, teeth, hard and soft palate. These are what we use to create and manipulate speech sounds.
List of English consonants letters and examples
There are 24 consonant sounds in Englush. Some examples of how you use consonants in English are as follows:
-
/ p / as in pen, attempt, and top.
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/ b / as in brain, abstract, and cab.
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/ t / as in tell, realistic, and armpit.
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/ d / as in dad, under, and bed.
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/ tʃ / as in church, kitchen, and speech.
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/ dʒ / as in Jordan, angel, and change.
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/ k / as in kite, technical, and rock.
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/ g / as in girl, finger, and gang.
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/ f / as in photo, coffee, and laugh.
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/ v / as in van, convince and of.
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/ θ / as in think, athlete and month.
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/ ð / as in this, brother and clothe.
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/ s / as in sit, basic, and dance.
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/ z / as in zebra, crazy / cousin, and watches.
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/ ʃ / as in ship, pressure / nation / ocean, and wish.
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/ ʒ / as in genre, casual / leisure / vision, and beige.
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/ m / as in mother, common, and home.
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/ n / as in need, dinner, and fun.
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/ ŋ / used for the -ing form or sing.
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/ h / as in hat, who and behave.
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/ l / as in lion, help, and travel.
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/ r / as in right, wrong, and car (standard American English pronunciation) .
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/ w / as in wait / one, swim and quit.
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/ j / as in yellow, cute, few and lay.
You may notice that certain consonants can be combined. For example:
ch is usually pronounced / tʃ /, which combines / t / and / ʃ / so chat = / tʃæt /.
Here’s some trivia for you: in “Pacific Ocean” every c is pronounced differently: Pacific Ocean = [pəˈsɪfɪk ˈəʊʃən]. The reason this happens could be historical.
Fig. 1 — Vowel and consonant sounds are produced differently.
How are consonant sounds made?
Consonants have three characteristics:
- Voicing
- Place of articulation
- Manner of articulation
Let’s have a look at them all in more detail.
Voicing
Voicing refers to the activity of the vocal cords. The organs related to voicing are:
-
The vocal cords.
-
The glottis.
-
The larynx.
There are two types of voicing:
- Voiceless — When the vocal folds are wide apart and not vibrating, consonants are voiceless. For example, the consonant sounds of / p /, / t / and / s /.
- Voiced — When the vocal folds are close together and vibrating, consonants are voiced. For example, the consonant sounds of / b /, / d / and / z /.
You can feel when your vocal cords are producing ‘voiced’ consonants by putting your hand on your larynx (throat). Try it.
Can you feel the vibration?
Now try a voiceless consonant. Feel the difference?
Place of articulation
The place of articulation is where the airstream is obstructed to form consonant sounds. There are two types of articulators:
-
The active articulators are the parts that you can move, like your tongue or your lips.
-
The passive articulators are the immovable parts of your vocal tract that can be brought together, like the teeth or the palate.
These are the 8 places of articulation (with letters corresponding to the image below):
- Bilabial sounds are produced when the upper and lower lips are fully in contact. The bilabial consonant sounds are / p, b, m /. (H)
- Labiodentals are produced when the obstruction of the airstream is made by the top teeth touching the lower lip. The labiodental consonant sounds are / f / and / v /. (G)
- Dental sounds are produced when the tip of the tongue is just behind the top teeth (on rare occasions it may protrude between the teeth, but not commonly). The dental consonant sounds are / θ / and / ð /. (F)
- Alveolar sounds are produced by the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the alveolar ridge. The alveolar consonant sounds are / t, d, l, r, n, s, z /. (E)
- Post-alveolar sounds are produced with the blade of the tongue approaching the hard palate. The post-alveolar consonant sounds are / ʃ / and / ʒ /. (D)
- Palatal sounds are made a bit further back from an post-alveolar. The consonant sound / j / is in this category. (C)
- Velar sounds are produced with the back of the tongue against the soft palate. The velar consonant sounds are / k, g, ŋ /. (B)
- Glottals are made in the vocal folds. The glottal consonants are / h / and / ʔ /. (A)
Fig. 2 — The eight places of articulation range from the lips to the glottis
Remember: practise all the time. Help yourself by putting your finger or your hand on the throat, close your eyes and focus on the movement of the tongue. In this way, you will understand more which places of articulation you are using.
Use the same technique for the manner of articulation to understand how it works when you pronounce a word.
Manner of articulation
The manner of articulation refers to how the airstream is obstructed to produce consonant sounds. There are six different ‘manners of articulation’:
- Stops are produced by blocking the airstream completely and then releasing it in a burst. The stop consonant sounds are / p, b, t, k, g /.
- Fricative sounds are produced by a partial obstruction of the airstream. The airstream coming out is turbulent, and this turbulence causes friction. That’s why they are called fricatives. The fricative consonant sounds are / f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, h /.
- Affricates start with the symbol of a stop sound and end with a fricative sound. In this case, the release of the air is done progressively, producing friction. The affricate consonant sounds are / tʃ, ts, dʒ, ds /.
- Nasals are sounds produced when the air is redirected up through the nasal cavity. The nasal consonant sounds are / m, n, ŋ /.
- Liquid sounds are made when the airstream passes through the mouth in a fluid manner. The liquid consonants are / l / and / r /.
- Approximants are sounds made without any kind of friction or contact. The approximant consonants are / w / and / j /.
Differences between vowels and consonants
Consonants are speech sounds produced by the obstruction or constriction of the airflow in the vocal tract, involving either the lips, the glottis, or the tongue.
Vowels are speech sounds made when the mouth is open and the air is expelled freely through the vocal tract without being blocked in the mouth or larynx.
Let’s summarise:
- A consonant sound is produced with a complete or partial closure of the vocal tract.
- A vowel is produced with a complete opening of the vocal tract.
- Consonants are described according to voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
- Vowels are described according to height, frontness or backness, and roundness.
- There are 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds in English.
Examples of consonants and vowels
Now play a game to understand the examples of how to pronounce a vowel and how to pronounce a consonant:
- Make the vowel sound / u /. While you are making the sound, move your lips and your jaw. Even though there is a movement of the articulators, you can sustain the same sound. Do the same exercise with some other vowel sounds.
- Now try to make the consonant sound / b / without moving your mouth, lips, or tongue. It is impossible to do because to pronounce a consonant, you have to move the articulators.
Consonants — key takeaways
- A consonant is a speech sound made with a complete or partial closure of the vocal tract.
- There are 24 consonant sounds in the English language.
- Consonant sounds are described according to three criteria: voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
- There are eight places of articulation: bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, velar, and glottal.
- There are six manners of articulation: stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids, and approximants.
References
- Fig. 1. Image by brgfx on Freepik
Frequently Asked Questions about Consonants
A consonant is a speech sound, articulated with a complete or partial closure of the vocal tract.
The sounds ‘p’ and ‘l’ in ‘play’, and ‘b’ and ‘t’ in ‘rabbit’.
Consonants are speech sounds produced by the obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract. Vowels are speech sounds made when the mouth is open and the air is expelled freely through the vocal tract.
There are several types of consonant sound and you can define them based on voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
The following letters of the English alphabet are consonant sounds: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
Final Consonants Quiz
Consonants Quiz — Teste dein Wissen
Question
How many consonant sounds are there in the word doctor?
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Question
How many consonant sounds are there in the word utopia?
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Question
Which phoneme is considered both a vowel sound and a consonant sound?
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Question
How many consonants are there in the alphabet?
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Question
How many consonant sounds are there?
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Question
What type of consonant is the phoneme /k/?
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Question
What type of consonant is the phoneme /v/?
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Answer
Voiced labiodental fricative.
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Question
What type of consonant is the phoneme /ŋ/?
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Question
What type of consonant is the phoneme /ð/?
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Question
Which phoneme represents the consonants “th” in the word health?
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Question
The articulators can be passive or active based on their movement. TRUE OR FALSE.
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Question
A voiceless sound is produced when the vocal folds vibrate. TRUE OR FALSE.
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Answer
FALSE: A voiceless sound is produced when the vocal folds don’t vibrate.
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Question
The sounds /l/ and /r/ are nasal sounds. TRUE OR FALSE.
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Answer
FALSE: Both /l/ and /r/ are liquids.
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Question
The manner of articulation refers to how a consonant is produced. TRUE OR FALSE.
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Question
Alveolar sounds are made in the vocal folds. TRUE OR FALSE.
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Answer
FALSE: The alveolar sounds are produced by the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the alveolar ridge.
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Answer
A speech sound created by obstructing the airflow.
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Answer
Vocal organs that are used to create different consonant sounds. These include: lips, teeth, tongue, hard palate and soft palate.
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Question
What are the three characteristics of consonant sounds?
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Answer
- Voicing
- Manner of articulation
- Place of articulation
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Question
Which of these is not a place of articulation?
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Question
How many different manners of articulation are there?
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