Department of English SPOKEN

ENGLISH
Faculty of Arts and Humanities - Dhar El Mahraz
SEMESTER 1
Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University
Fez, Morocco. Profs. Fassi
Fihri, Chemlal & Bouhout.
Academic Year: 2020-2021

The Pronunciation and Phonetic Symbols of

Consonant Sounds + Phrasal Verbs + Proverbs

1. INTRODUCTION
In spoken English, there are 24 consonant sounds and 25 vowel sounds (including
diphthongs and triphthongs). Each sound is represented by a phonetic symbol (enclosed between
slashes /b/) that stands for the pronunciation of that sound. For example, ‘ch’ in church is
pronounced and represented as /ʧ/.
Spelling and sound
You should not confuse spelling (letters) with pronunciation (sounds). These are different.
For example, there are 9 letters in the word ‘neighbour’, but only 4 sounds: /n/, /ei/, /b/, /ə/.
There are no fixed rules, and an accurate pronunciation is only obtained through practice and
frequent exposure to the English language.
✦ English spelling does not always indicate pronunciation. ‘gh’ in ‘enough‘ is pronounced /f/.
‘o’ in ‘women’ is pronounced /ɪ/ ‘ti’ in ‘motion’ is pronounced /ʃ/ So ‘ghoti’ could be
pronounced /fɪʃ/ !
✦ It should be mentioned that the pronunciation of many English sounds can be predicted by
their spelling.
Exercise1: Each group of words contains an identical spelling. Transcribe the words and
circle the one that is pronounced differently from the others.

goose – loose – choose played- stopped- liked father – author – northern

/guːs/ /luːs/ /ʧuːz/ /pleɪd/ /stɒpt/ /laɪkt/ /ˈfɑːðə/ /ˈnɔːðən/ /ˈɔːθə/

paid – maid – said put – but – hut none – done – gone

/peɪd/ /meɪd/ /sɛd/ /pʊt/ /bʌt/ /hʌt/ /nʌn/ /dʌn/ /gɒn/

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foot – book – food slow – now – cow word – work – wor
/fʊt/ /bʊk/ /fuːd/ /sləʊ/ /naʊ/ /kaʊ/ /wɜːd/ /wɜːk/ /wɔːn/

watch – wall – was

/wɒʧ/ /wɔːl/ /wɒz/

What is a Minimal Pair?

Every sound is different from all the other sounds, because if you change one for another in
some words, the meaning changes. This is, in fact, a test that we use to distinguish sounds in
languages. For example, if you change /b/ in ‘bull’ to /p/, it will become ‘pull’, which is a
different word. This is what we call
A minimal is a pair of two words (or more than two) which have the same number of sounds,
which are similar, except for one sound, and this sound should be in the same position
(environment), so there are three conditions.
Example:
a. Hit - 3 sounds: /h/, /i/, /t/ Hot - 3 sounds: /h/, /ɒ/, /t/ b. only /i/ and
/ɒ/ are different (only one sound is different in each word). c. /i/ and /ɒ/ occur in the
same position.
2. CONSONANTS
Some consonants can be classified in pairs because they are related in some way but different in
terms of voicing, which has to do with the position of the vocal cords.

The consonants of English are:

Type of sound Sound Examples

Plosives: complete /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, pin, cap, bag, robe, time, late, door, feed, cash,
block of air followed

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by explosion / ʔ/ chock, girl, flag, football.

Fricatives: constant /f/, /v/, /ɵ/, full, knife, vest, cave, earth, bathe, kiss, nose,
flow of air squeezed crash, pleasure, high.
through a block) /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/

Affricates: closure /ʧ/, /ʤ/ choose, catch, joy, stage.

followed by friction)

Nasal /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ mood, calm, now, turn, bang.

/w/, /j/, /l/, /r/

Approximants yellow, mall, room, law, pill.

(vowel-like
consonant, no block of
air.

Exercise2: For each sound below, write down to which category of sounds it belongs,
whether the sound is voied or voiceless and give examples

Soun Categor Voice Words that contain the sound

d y

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/tʃ/ Aff Voiceless church-

/θ/ Fricat Voicless Thin, thing, thrive

/ŋ/ Nasal Voiced finger, sing, ring, along

/ʒ/ Fricative Voiced Measure, vision, seizure

/r/ Approx Voiced Rapid, bring, remove, bright.

/j/ Approx Voiced Yes, you

Exercise3: Using the consonants of English, find more examples of words which make minimal
pairs, and in which the contrasting consonant can be in three different positions:
Initial (e.g. hit -sit):
medial (e.g. broom – bloom; later – labour);
final (e.g. break – brave; duck – dull).

Exercise 4: Write the phonetic symbol for the initial sound in each of the following words
Giant Carol Pscyho Thinker
/ˈʤaɪənt/ /ˈkærəl/ /ˈsaɪkəʊ/ /ˈθɪŋkə/
Central Philosophy Knife justice
/ˈsɛntrəl/ /fɪˈlɒsəfi/ /naɪf/ /ˈʤʌstɪs/

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Exercise 5: Write the phonetic symbol for the last sound in each word.

Wires Following Baked Language Catch Match

/ˈwaɪəz/ /ˈfɒləʊɪŋ/ /beɪkt/ /ˈlæŋgwɪʤ/ /kæʧ/ /mæʧ/
Mashed Passed Mixed Filth Talked Lamb
/mæʃt/ /pɑːst/ /mɪkst/ /fɪlθ/ /tɔːkt/ /læm/

1. PHRASAL VERBS (10)

Read the flowing sentences and underline the phrasal verb.
To answer for I expect parents to answer for their children's behaviour
to take responsibility for (something)/ to be punished for (something)/ to
be used or serve as (something) (The old bucket answered for a sink.)
To allow for We have to allow for the possibility of the project being delayed.
to plan on the possibility of something.
To agree with You look well - the mountain air must agree with you.
to be in accord with something else. Your analysis agrees with mine.
To abide by Competitors must abide by the judge's decision.

To bang into Why did you bang into me with your car?
To hit or smack against something, usually accidentally.
To back off Back off that other runner so you don't collide with her.
draw back from action or confrontation./ withdraw a claim or assertion in
the face of opposition.
To be after That hawk is after the rabbit. What sort of answers are you after?
be looking for someone or something
To belt up be quiet.
"for God's sake, belt up"
OK, the kids are belted up—let's hit the road!
put on a seat belt.
To back up OK, please back me up on this, so the boss doesn't think I'm an idiot.

To be over no longer be affected by.

"we were over the worst"
to no longer have strong emotions about someone or something; to
be unenthusiastic about someone or something.
It took a long time to get over his dead wife.

PROVERBS (5)
Read these proverbs and guess when they are used:

1. Prevention is better 3. Two’s a company;

than cure three’s a crowd
2. Silence means consent 4. Variety is the spice of
life
5. Like father, like son

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