What is a vowel consonant word

Vowels and consonants make up the alphabet.

What are the vowels and consonants in the Latin alphabet?

There are 26 letters in the letters of the alphabet. They are usually divided into 5 vowels and 21 consonants.

The Differences between the Vowels and the Consonants

Consonants and vowels make up the syllables in a word.

Vowels and consonants have different sounds.

Vowel sounds are made with our mouth and throat open, while consonants are made by blocking air.

Vowels vary in terms of quality, loudness and in length. The vowels cause different variations, such as stress, tone and intonation.

In the English language, for example, there are only five vowels: A, E, O, I and U.

Y and W sometimes act as a vowel.

For example, ‘Y‘ at the beginning of words, like yellow, is a consonant, but ‘y’ at the end of the word is a vowel, like sunny and baby.

There are 20 vowel sounds in English.

We make vowel sounds by opening our mouth more and allowing the flow of air, without closing any parts of the throat or mouth.

When two vowels are put together to make a sound, we call it a vowel digraph. For example, read, boat, foot, moon. and rain.

Every English word contains a vowel. These can be pure vowels (short and long vowel sounds) or glide vowels (diphthongs).

Short Vowel Sounds	Long Vowel Sounds	Diphtongs/ Glide Vowels
/e/ – went, intend, dead, bed	/Ɔ:/ – law, father, talk, all	/eɪ/ – space, rain,they
/Ɑ/ – top, off and cloth	/i:/ – each, see, be, city, people	/ɪə/ – beer, ear, near
/Ə/ – us, even, the, just, other	/Ɛ:/ – bed, best, get, friend	/ʊə/ – poor, during, security
/Ɪ/ – it, give, enough, become	/u:/ – who, food, you, through	/ɔɪ/ – noise, joy, employ
/Ʊ/ – push, up, took	/ɑ:/ – car, are, hard, bath	/eə/ – hair, pear, there
/ʌ/ – cup, money, fun, London		/aɪ/ – my, flight, dice
/Æ/ – mat, have, sad		/əʊ/ – no, vote, don’t, go
		/aʊ/ – out, cow, mouth

The Consonants

The 21 consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

There are 24 consonant sounds.

We make consonant sounds by blocking air flow in some kind of way using our tongue, lips, teeth or the roof of our mouth.

Voiced Consonants: voiced sounds are produced with the vocal cords, for example, B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th.

Unvoiced or Voiceless Consonants: whispery sound without pitch, for example,  Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th.

When two consonants are put together to make a sound, we call it a consonant digraph. For example, nephew, chip. phone and bath.

Vowels and Consonants in Primary School

At the nursery and reception years, students learn the alphabet and their sounds.

They then move on to learn CVC words (consonant vowel consonant) words like tap, pat, nap and can.

Students will eventually progress to CVCC words (consonant vowel consonant consonant) such as sink, belt, cold.

Students will also learn how to read words with two vowels together to make a sound, such as book, rain, lie, read. When the two vowels combine to make a different sound it’s called a vowel digraph.

Students will also learn how to read words with two consonants to make a sound, such as thank, chart, sheep, shop. When the two vowels change to make a different sound it’s called a consonant digraph.

Types of Consonant Sounds

• Stop Consonants: airflow is stopped by the mouth and released, (p, b, t, d).
• Fricative Consonants: airflow has only a small space to travel, making it sound more noisy, ( f, v, s, z etc).
• Nasal Consonants: airflow passes through the noise instead of the mouth, (m, n, ).
  
• Affricate Consonants: begins like a stop consonant but ends with a fricative, (the ‘ch sound’ /ʧ/ and ‘j sound’ /ʤ/ ).
• Glide Consonants: similar to a vowel sound in which the air is stopped, but not as much as the fricitative or stop consonants, (w, j).

Places of Articulation

The place where the sounds are produced for consonants are as follows:

1. Bilabial sounds: sounds made with two lips (p, b, m)
2. Labia-dental sounds: sounds (f, v), made with the lower lips and upper front teeth
3. Dental sounds: sounds produced with the tips of the tongue and upper front teeth contact ( l, t, d, and n)
4. Alveolar sounds: sounds made by the touch of the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge (t, n and d)
5. Palatal sounds: sounds made when the tongue’s blade strikes the hard palate (j)
6. Velar sounds: requires the back of the tongue and soft palate to come into touch with each other (k, g, ŋ)
7. Glottal sounds: the sound made in the larynx (h)

The International Phonetic Alphabet

It’s often very hard to predict the English pronunciation of words when reading new words.

It is useful to show the English language through a set of symbols called the international phonetic alphabet (IPA).

An international phonetic alphabet is a useful tool for learning vowels and consonants in any language. The benefit of using this is that it can be applied to many languages.

This can help you improve your pronunciation but doesn’t necessarily provide a fix for the various nuances and tonality in languages like Mandarin and Vietnamese.

You can find the full International Phonetic Alphabet Chart here.

International Phonetic Alphabet: Consonants Description

/P/

The /P/ sound is a voiceless bilabial stop.

It is usually represented as the letter p.

We make the sound by using both of our lips to block the mouth.

It is found in words like place, play, help and happy.

/B/

The /B/ sound is a voiced stop made by a quick puff of air forced through the mouth.

It is usually represented as the letter b.

It is found in words like boy, baby, bed and web.

/T/

The /T/ sound is an unvoiced stop made with the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge.

It is usually represented by the letter t.

It is found in words like toy, late, top and sting.

/D/

The /D/ sound is a voiced stop made by a quick puff of air forced through the mouth. Touch the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge to make this sound.

It is usually represented by the letter d.

It is found in words like sad, dad, do and made.

/K/

The /K/ sound is a voiceless stop made by blocking the airflow from the throat with the back of the throat.

It is usually represented by a number of different consonant letters, such as C, CC, K, CK, QU and sometimes CH.

It is found in words like can, kid, cat and chaos.

/G/

The /G/ sound is a voiced stop made by positioning the back of the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

It is usually represented by the letter g.

It is found in words like go, girl, get and big.

/F/

The /F/ sound is an unvoiced fricative made by placing the upper front teeth on the lips and blowing out.

It is represented by the letters f, ph and sometimes gh.

It is found in words like friend, laugh, stuff and phone.

/V/

The /V/ sound is a voiced fricative made by also placing your upper front teeth on your lips and blowing out.

It is represented by the letter “v” and rarely spelled with the letter “f.”

It is found in words like very, never and of.

/Θ/

This /Θ/ sound is an unvoiced fricative that is made by blowing air between the tip of the tongue and the top teeth. You have to stick your tongue out a bit to make this sound.

It is represented by the letters “th.”

It is found in the words three, something and month.

/Ð/

The /Ð/ sound is a voiced fricative that is made by blowing air between the tip of the tongue and the top teeth. You have to stick out your tongue to make this sound, just like the /Θ/ sound.

It is also represented by the letter cluster “th.”

It is found in words like this, that and other.

/S/

It is a voiceless fricative made by directing air with the tongue towards the edge of your teeth. Put your tongue near the alveolar ridge and blow out.

It is represented by the ‘s’ or sometimes ‘c’ letter.

It is found in words like see, once, sell and city.

/Z/

This is a voiced fricative made by directing air with the tongue towards the edge of your teeth. Put your tongue near the alveolar ridge and blow out.

It is represented by ‘z’ and sometimes ‘s’ and ‘th.’

It is found in words like as, his, rose and clothes.

/ʃ/

This is a voiceless fricative made by placing the tongue a little bit past the alveolar ridge. It is the sound we make when we ask for everyone to be quiet: “Shh!”

It is represented by the letters “sh,” “si” and “ti.”

It is found in words like she, sure, leash, national, information and should.

/Ʃ/

This is a voiced fricative that is made by placing the tongue a little bit past the alveolar ridge. It is the voiced counterpart of /ʃ/ .

It is represented by the letters “g,” “s,” “z,” “ti” and “si.”

It is found in words like “conclusion,” “vision,” “decision,” “visual” and “genre.

/TƩ/

This is a voiceless affricate made by touching the alveolar ridge with the tip of the tongue,

It is represented by the letters “ch” or sometimes “t.”

It is found in words like “China,” “teacher,” “chat” and “chair.”

/DƷ/

This is a voiced affricate made by touching the alveolar ridge with the tip of the tongue.

It is represented by the letters “j,” “g,” and “dj.”

It is found in words like “judge,” “ginger,” “suggest” and “adjust.”

/H/

This is a voiceless fricative which is made by constricting the throat and breathing out. The mouth does not take a particular shape.

It is represented by the letters “h” and “wh.”

It is found in words like “who,” “ham,” “behind” and “help.”

/ʔ/

This is known as a glottal stop. It is a voiceless fricative made by stopping the airflow through the glottis.

It is represented by the letters “t” or “-.”

It is found in words like “Manhattan,” “kitten” button, and “uh–oh.” This stop is more common in American accents. Most Americans don’t use a harsh “t” sound to pronounce “Manhattan” but use a /ʔ/ sound instead.

/M/

This is a voiced nasal sound made when the lips are shut. This sound is like a vowel sound but made in the nasal cavity.

It is represented by the letter “m,” “mn” and “mb.”

It is found in words like climb, movie, man and column.

/N/

This is a voiced nasal sound made by placing the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge.

It is represented by the letter “n,” “ne,” “kn,” and “gn.”

It is found in words like now, resign, knight and dinner.

/Ŋ/

This is a nasal sound made by touching the tongue against the back of the mouth so it blocks the throat.

It is represented by the letters “ng” and sometimes “nk.”

It is found in words like sing, something, drink and young.

The /Ŋ/ sound is not found in every “ng” word. For example, the word finger has the /g/ sound. If the word ends in ng, then it should be /Ŋ/ sound.

/ɾ/

This is an alveolar tap whereby the tip of the tongue lightly throws itself against the alveolar ridge.

It is usually represented by a “t” or “d.” It is more likely to be heard in American English.

It is found in words like water, better, party and odor.

The /ɾ/ sound is also pronounced as the letter “r” in many languages.

/X/

The /X/ sound is a voiceless fricative made by putting the back of your tongue near the soft palate.

It is usually represented by the letters “gh.”

This does not occur in English, except for the Scottish word “loch.” It can also be found occasionally in words like “ugh” to make it sound more exasperated.

International Phonetic Alphabet: Approximants Description

Approximants are sounds that lie somewhere between consonants and vowels. They are vowel-like consonants that occur as “glides” or “liquids.”

/L/

This liquid is made by keeping the tip of the tongue on the upper teeth.

It is represented by the letter “l.”

When it is followed by a vowel, it is called a “clear l,” for example, late, land, elegant.

Otherwise, it can be known as a “late l,” when it is followed by a consonant or a pause. It is found in words like full, milk, illness and bull.

/ɹ/

This is one of the more awkward English sounds and one of the least common “r” sounds in English.

The /ɹ/ is made by curling the tongue into itself, to the back of the mouth.

It is found in words like real, wrong, run and earnest.

The English sound is often written as /r/ for simplicity, but the actual symbol /r/ is a trill style R in Spanish and Italian, like in the Spanish word “perro.”

/J/

This is a voiced palatal approximate made by bringing your tongue close to the roof of your mouth and releasing it.

It is usually represented by the letter “y” or some vowels.

It can be found in words like year, view, beyond and billion.

It can also be heard in words with the letter “u,” like cute and pure.

International Phonetic Alphabet: Vowels Description

Vowels are moreso approximations in the IPA as vowels are often pronounced differently depending on the accent.

• Close vowel: produced if the mouth is more closed.
• Mid vowel: produced when the mouth is open slightly.
• Open vowel: occurs when the mouth is more open.

Here is a chart that shows the placement of the vowels on the IPA graph. For example, a close or high front vowel like the vowel /i/ is produced with a tongue elevation in the front of the mouth while the low back vowels like /ɑ/ is produced with the lowest tongue elevation with the tongue positioned in the back.

The vowel length is marked as long by adding a colon-like symbol to the word. For example, clean is written as .

Here are some of the pure vowels:

/Æ/

This is a voiced sound created by putting your tongue low in your mouth and stretch your lips.

This is usually represented by the letter “a.”

It is found in words like mat, have, sad.

/Ɑ/

This is a voiced sound created by opening your mouth wide and flattening the tongue in the mouth. Your lips should be relaxed. The tip of your tongue should be touching the back of your lower front teeth.

This is usually represented by the letter “o” or “a.”

It is found in words like top, off and cloth.

/Ɔ/

/Ɔ/ is an open-mid back rounded vowel. Open your mouth wide as possible and round your lips. Flatten your tongue low in your mouth. The tip of your tongue should be touching the back of your teeth.

This is usually represented by letters such as “aw,” “a,” “au” and “al.”

It is found in words like law, father, talk and all.

This sound is less popular nowadays as more people with a general English American accent are starting to pronounce words like “cot” and “caught” with the /a/ sound, and disregarding the /Ɔ/ sound altogether.

/Ə/

This is known as the “schwa.” It is used for unstressed vowels. Place tongue in the middle and center of the mouth and make a short guttural noise to produce the sound.

It is often represented by the letters u, er and ou and even l. It is a very common sound and almost any vowel letter can make the “schwa” sound. It is used for unstressed vowels whereas stressed vowels with a similar sound are represented by the

It is found in words like us, even, the, just, people and other.

/Ɪ/

The /Ɪ/ sound can be made by placing the tongue close to the top and front of the mouth. The lips are stretched out as if you are smiling. It is similar to the “e” sound but shorter. Make the sound with your mouth slightly opened.

It is represented by the letter “i” and sometimes “e.”

It is found in words like it, give, enough, become and amiss.

/i:/

To make the /i/ sound, raise the tongue high and push it to the front of the mouth, lowered behind the bottom front teeth.

It is represented by the letters “ee,” “ea,”

It is found in words like each, see, be, city and people.

/Ɛ/

To make the /Ɛ/ sound, push the tongue to the front of the mouth with the tip of the tongue lowered behind the bottom front teeth.

This sound is represented by the letters “e” and “ea.”

It is found in words like bed, best, get and friend.

This sound is entirely replaced by the /e/ sound in Australian English and other accents.

/ɹ̩/ Or /ɚ/

These are represented by the letters “er,” “ear,” “eur,” “or,” “ur” and “ir.”

It is found in words like burn, earth, worm, winner, after and amateur.

The markings on these sounds indicate they can constitute their own syllable without any help from the vowels.

/Ɜ/

This is the open mid-central unrounded vowel. The tongue is low in the center of the mouth. It is a long sound.

This sound is represented by the letters “er,” “ear,” “ir,” “eur,” “ur,” and “or.”

This sound is found in words like person, word, turn, earth, worm and bird.

/Ʌ/

The /Ʌ/ sound is made when the tongue is low and in the middle and back of the mouth. Place the tongue low in the middle and back of the mouth. Make a short voiced sound with the mouth open.

It is found in words like but, up, another, other and come.

/Ʊ/

To make this sound, the front of the tongue stays down but pulled slightly pulled back so it is not quite touching the back of the front teeth.

This is similar to the “shwa” sound but it is usually reserved for stressed vowels.

It is represented by the letters “oo,” “u” and “oul.”

It is found in words like “push,” “up,” and “took.”

/U/

This is a close back rounded vowel. Put the tongue high, at the back of the mouth and lightly push the lips together while making a voiced sound.

It is represented by the letters “oo,” “u,” “ou,” “ugh,” “ew,”

This is found in the words like to, you, who, issue, through and threw.

This is usually used to represent the “u” in Spanish words like “luna” and “tu.”

/O/

To make this sound, pull the tongue back and tense it. The jaw should be partially lowered and the lips should be rounded and tensed, making a tighter circle.

This is found in words like go, foe, throw, soap and though.

This is usually used to represent the “o” in Spanish words like “hola” and “gato.”

In Conclusion

Vowels and consonants have different sounds.

We make vowel sounds by opening our mouth and allowing the flow of air, without closing any parts of the throat or mouth.

We make consonant sounds by blocking air flow in some kind of way using our tongue, lips, teeth or the roof of our mouth.

The IPA can help improve the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants.



What is the difference between a vowel and a consonant?

To avoid giving an intense linguistic definition, I will try to keep things very easy and give a simple explanation about the difference between a vowel and a consonant.

What is a vowel?

A vowel sound is pronounced with the mouth open and allows the air to flow freely through it from the lungs.

When the doctor tells you to open your mouth and say Aaah… You can open your mouth wider, move your tongue in the mouth (without touching another part of your mouth) and move your jaw up and down and it will produce the A sound. You have not restricted the movement of air from your lungs through your mouth so it is a vowel.

The following letters represent a vowel sound: A E I O U

What is a consonant?

A consonant sound is pronounced with some type of constriction of the flow of air that involves either the lips or the tongue.

For example with the consonant P. Just before you pronounce the letter P, notice how your lips are pressed together stopping the air from coming out of your mouth. When you quickly release your lips, it produces the P sound. This constriction means you are producing a consonant sound.

A consonant requires the mouth and tongue to “shape” the sound.

The following letters represent a consonant sound: B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z

Try the following

Try to make a vowel sound (such as an A) without moving your mouth (touching your lips/tongue) … yes, you can do it.
Try to make a consonant sound (such as an F) without moving your mouth (touching your lips/tongue) … no, you cannot do it.

That is the difference.

More about Vowels and Consonants

You may be interested in our basic lesson about vowels in English and consonants in English.

The letter Y

Did you know that the letter Y represents a vowel sound AND sometimes a consonant sound. See our lesson about Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant? (Coming Soon)

We explain what vowels and consonants are and how primary-school children are taught to identify CVC, CCVC and CVCC words, vowel digraphs and consonant digraphs.

Mark asks: Why is “y” only sometimes a vowel? When is it a vowel and when is it a consonant?

You already know that vowels in the English alphabet are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y, while the rest of the letters are called consonants. But did you ever ask yourself why the letters were divided into two separate groups?

Basically, a vowel is a sound that is made with the mouth and throat not closing at any point. In contrast, a consonant is a sound that is made with the air stopping once or more during the vocalization. That means that at some point, the sound is stopped by your teeth, tongue, lips, or constriction of the vocal cords.

The difference explains why “y” is only “sometimes” a vowel. Depending on which word “y” is being used in, it can represent different sounds. In words like “myth” or “hymn,” the letter takes on a sound like a short “i” and the mouth and throat don’t close when the sound is made. However, in words like “beyond,” it acts as a bridge between the “e” and the “o,” and there is some partial closure, making “y” a consonant.

Another forgotten letter that has the same qualities as “y” is “w.” While “w” is almost always a consonant, it is considered a vowel at the end of words like “wow” or “how.” You can see for yourself when saying these words that your mouth doesn’t fully close while pronouncing the letter.

There are, of course, other differences between vowels and consonants. For instance, in English you can have vowels that are entire words, such as “a” or “I.” You won’t see a consonant that is a word by itself, however. Words in English need vowels to break up the sounds that consonants make. So, while every word has to have a vowel, not every word has to have a consonant.

There are strings of consonants that are sometimes written like full words, like “hmm.” However, these are just sounds rather than actual words. You will also find that most words in English won’t have more than three consonants in a row, because otherwise it gets to be too difficult for English-speakers to say it. There are exceptions, of course—take the word “strengths” for example, which has a string of five consonants (though it only has three consonant sounds in a row: ng, th, and s). In other languages, like Polish, long strings of consonants are more common.

Of course, there are also sounds made by consonants that can be repeated over and over without a vowel sound. If you were to repeat “z” over and over, like the sound of a buzzing bee, you would find that your mouth remains slightly open and the sound is seemingly unobstructed—so shouldn’t it fall under the “vowel” category? The letter “z,” along with the letter “s,” actually fall under a subcategory of consonants called “fricatives.” Fricatives are sounds you make by pushing air through a small gap in your teeth.

As you can see, the differences between vowels and consonants are more complex than you were probably taught in elementary school. It’s less about the letters and more about how your mouth moves when you’re saying them.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:

• Why Do the British Pronounce “Z” as “Zed”?
• The Differences Between British and American English
• Mozart and the Alphabet Song
• “Ye” in Names Like “Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe” Should Be Pronounced “The”, Not “Yee”
• The Origin of the English Alphabet

Bonus Facts:

• The word “vowel” comes from the Latin word vox, which means “voice.” The word “consonant” also has a Latin root, con sonare, which means “with sound.”
• There aren’t any words in the English language that have all five vowels in a row without any consonants in between. There is one word that has five vowels, with a repeated a, in a row: Rousseauian. It means “relating to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.” More commonly, “queuing” also has a lengthy string of vowels, but without an “a” or an “o.”
• There are also words in English which contain all five vowels (with consonants in between) in order. Some of these include facetious (“treating serious situations with inappropriate humour”), abstentious (“abstinent”), and caesious (“bluish or greyish green”).
• Ever wonder why “w” is pronounced “double-u” and not “double-v?” The Roman Latin alphabet was adapted to be used for Old English. Old English had a “w” sound, but back then the alphabet didn’t have a “w.” Instead, the “v” sound was pretty close, so words that required a “w” were often represented by a “v” instead. In the 7^th century, scribes started using “uu” to represent the “w” sound, which is how it got its name. However, printers used to use “vv” to represent the sound, which is how it got its shape.
• There are very few words in the English language that have two u’s in a row, and the only two that are used frequently are “vacuum” and “continuum.”  Nearly all of the “double u” words were adapted from Latin, such as “duumvir,” meaning “each of a pair of magistrates holding joint office in ancient Rome.” A few are adapted from other languages, such as “muumuu,” a loose dress that is traditionally worn in Hawaii.
• Just as you won’t find long strings of consonants in English, you also won’t find long strings of the same letter. No word in the English language contains more than a double letter, so you’ll never see three directly in a row. If a word seems to call for three, it will be hyphenated. For instance, the word for something without a shell is “shell-less” not “shellless.” In other cases, a letter is dropped. For instance, “seer” has only two e’s instead of the called-for “seeer” or “see-er.” The only exceptions to this rule are things like “shhh” or “brrr,” but these aren’t really words.

Expand for References

(and how to teach your students)

Single consonant sounds, consonant-vowel-consonant words, consonant blends, and consonant digraphs (two or more consonant letters which represent a single sound) can be taught using charts and proper demonstration.

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Single Consonant Sounds

Students learn how consonant sounds change depending on the letter before and after. For example, the ‘c’ in “consonant” makes the same sound as:

• the c in cat
• the c in castle
• the c in tractor
• the c in back

However, when a “c” is followed by an “i” or “e,” the “c” then makes an “s” sound, as in the following words:

• cinder
• circle
• incident
• exercise
• trace
• receive
• recent
• ‘crescent

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Consonant Blends

Two consonants blend together to make a new sound. The most common consonant blends include:

• bl- blue
• br- bread
• cl- clock
• cr- cream
• dr- draw
• fr- friend
• tr- trap
• fl- flower
• gl- glow
• gr- great
• pl- play
• pr- press
• sl- slim
• sm- smart
• sp- sport
• st- start

Some of these blends can also occur at the end of words, such as “last” or “gasp.” Blends can also contain three consonants, such as:

• str- straight
• spl- splash
• spr- spring

When teaching blends, it is effective to introduce them in groups. For example, a teacher may introduce the l-blends first:

• bl – block, blast, blow
• cl – clap, clam, cloud
• fl – flower, flood, fling
• gl – glow, gloomy, glad
• pl – play, pluck, plow
• sl – slow, slime, sleep

Then the r-blends:

• br – brave, brown, broke
• pr – practice, prance, proud
• dr – drive, dread, drink
• tr – trace, trick, treat
• gr – great, grow, grasp
• cr – crazy, crush, creep
• fr – fruit, friend, fresh

Then the s-blends:

• sp – spaghetti, spoil, spring
• sk – skeleton, sketch, skate
• sn – snake, snicker, snow
• sm – smile, smell, smoke
• st – store, stale, stick
• sw – swallow, swing, swear
• sc – score, scare, scratch
• sq – square, squint, squirrel

Introducing blended sounds in groups is most effective.

Consonant digraphs: Two consonants that make a single sound when paired together, such as the “ph-” in “phonics.” The most common digraphs include:

• ch- cheese
• th- thought
• wh- whistle
• sh- shower

When introducing the concept of blends and digraphs, visuals such as cue cards often help.

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Vowel Sounds

Some vowels sound similar to the non-English speaking ear and time should be spent practicing sound differentiation at the beginner levels. Picture cues can be displayed in the classroom so students have a reminder of vowel sounds when required.

There are three types of vowel sounds:

• monophthongs (single vowel sounds)
• consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words
• diphthongs, otherwise known as vowel glides

Monophthongs (simple vowels) – Vowel sounds that do not require tongue movement (glide) to pronounce.

• /i:/ – bean, seat
• /i/ – bin, sin
• /e/ – hen, send
• /æ/ – hand, sand
• /a:/ – bar, start
• /o:/ – born, scorn
• /o/ – bond, somber
• /u:/ – boom, shoe
• /yu:/ – beauty, few
• /u/ – book, shook
• /ər/ – burn, stern
• /ə/ – bun, sun

Consonant-vowel-consonant words (CVC) – Three-letter words with consonants at beginning and end and a short vowel in the middle.

• /i/ – bin, sin, tin, fin, did, bit, sit, lit
• /ə/ – sun, bun, fun, done, ton, cut, but
• /e/ – ten, set, get, let, jet, gem, pen, tell
• /æ/ – fan, fat, man, mat, pad, bad, jam
• /o/ – tot, rot, pot, fog, sock, cod, jog, top

Diphthongs – Vowel sounds which glide one into the other, such as /ei/, /au/, or /ʊə/. Take a look at the following diphthong chart:

• /ɪə/ – ear, hear, cheer, deer, beer
• /eə/ – air chair, rare, bare, their
• /ʊə/ – tour, poor, sure, cure
• /eɪ/ – day, say, pray, pay
• /aɪ/ – I, eye, pie, sight, fight
• /ɔi/ – oil, coin, voice, boy, boil
• /eʊ/ – go, slow, so, bow, sow
• /aʊ/ – owl, out, count, found, bow

A good exercise to practice identifying the difference between single-vowel sounds and diphthongs is to give students a handout which contrasts monophthongs and diphthongs. Teachers read aloud one of the words and students circle the word that they hear.

For example:

1. bet
2. lord
3. far
4. man
5. ride
6. get
7. let
8. cough
9. trick
10. got
11. bird
12. Through

• bait
• load
• fair
• main
• red
• gate
• late
• cow
• trek
• goat
• beard
• throw

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Practice Activity

The following exercise is also effective for practicing single vowel sounds and diphthongs:

1. Break students into pairs and provide each student with two reading passages.
2. One passage has the vowels/diphthongs highlighted that on their partner’s corresponding sheet are left blank. Instruct the students to read the passages to each other, one by one, allowing their partners to fill in the blanks based on what they hear.
   1. Partner A – “The fair was very far from Joey’s house. So he had to get ready quickly so he could make it on time. He trimmed his beard and fed his pet bird. He left through the back door to throw out the garbage. Then he took the ride on his red bicycle. When he arrived, he could feel the weight of his wet t-shirt from sweating so much. Luckily, he made it on time”.
   2. Partner B – “As soon as you get through the gate, turn left. You will see the goat that I got bitten by last year. On your right, you will see the horse with its mane in a braid, and a girl feeding it some bread. The man you are looking for will be in the main office building. If he’s not there, his secretary will let you know if he will be late. When he is ready, he will shout your name and ask you to shut the door behind you.” 
   3. Partner A – “As soon as you _____ through the ______, turn left. You will see the ______ that I _____ bitten by last year. On your right, you will see the horse with its mane in a _______, and a girl feeding it some ________. The ______ you are looking for will be in the _______ office building. If he’s not there, his secretary will _____ you know if he will be ______. When he is ready, he will ______ your name and ask you to ______ the door behind you”.
   4. Partner B – “The _____ was very ____ from Joey’s house. So he had to get ready quickly so he could make it on time. He trimmed his ______ and fed his pet ______. He left _________ the back door to _______ out the garbage. Then he took the ______ on his _____ bicycle. When he arrived, he could feel the ________ of his _____ t-shirt from sweating so much. Luckily, he made it on time.”

Each student repeats the passage a few times depending on student level and ability.

Minimal pairs are words whose pronunciation differs by only a single sound, causing confusion for many EFL students. Teachers use these pairs of words to practice listening and pronunciation and help students recognize the minor differences between muted vowel sounds in English.

For example:

Vowels:

• sheep and ship
• sit and seat
• desk and disk
• wet and wait
• bat and but

Consonants:

• lice and rice
• thin and thing
• alive and arrive
• catch and cat
• sea and she

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Word Stress

To understand stress, students should first be able to distinguish syllables. Every word in the English language can be broken down into syllables. Take a look at the following chart:

It is important to point out that every syllable has at least one vowel in it (with the exception of a rare few words).

To practice syllables and word stress, write a few words of varying lengths on the board. While reading them out loud, students clap their hands on each syllable. Additional words can be taken as needed from the text. With practice, students will be able to distinguish syllables on their own.

Once students are comfortable with syllable counts, they should start to listen for the accented syllable. Have students listen carefully as you enunciate the words. Let them guess which syllable is the stressed one. Students tend to pick on word stress quickly as well.

Afterwards, have students record how many syllables each word has, and which one is stressed. This can be followed up with a handout of words that students complete individually.

For example: (the | indicates the clapping of the hands, the underlined bold part is the stress)

• |din|ner
• |to|mor|row
• |yes|ter|day
• |un|be|lieve|a|ble
• |ex|plain

With word stress, there are two rules to explain. The first one is: The stress in every word is almost always on a vowel. No matter what the word is, its stress occurs on one of its vowel sounds as vowels are the voiced parts of words.

You cannot stress a consonant by itself. Take a look at the following examples:

• |op|en (1st syllable)
• |re|peat (2nd syllable)
• |ge|o|gra|phic (3rd syllable)
• |de|pen|da|bil|i|ty (4th syllable)

An example for where this rule doesn’t apply would be on a word that uses a “y” in place of a vowel, for example “pry.”

The second most important rule is: Every word only has ONLY ONE stress. If two different stresses are heard, then two different words are heard! However, there are several two-syllable words in English whose meaning and part of speech change when the stress is placed on different vowels.

Take a look at the following example:

• |pre–|sent = a noun meaning “a gift”
• |pre-|sent = a verb meaning “to show/offer”

There are other rules that can be introduced to advanced students to help with pronunciation training. They are more complex in nature, dictating where stress is placed according to part of speech, syllable count, and composition.

Students shouldn’t rely solely on these rules as there are many exceptions to them. A combination of repeated exposure and practice with application of the rules will yield the best results.

The following charts demonstrate stress rules.