Stops. /p b t d k g m n ŋ ʔ/. Listen and repeat each word.
1. | initial /p t k/ | pear | tin | cow | planning | topic |
2. | initial /b d g/ | big | done | gold | butter | debit |
3. | medial /p, t, k/ | ample | attack | clapping | tomato | |
4. | medial /b, d, g/ | rabbit | daddy | migrant | husband | middle |
5. | final /p, t, k/ | cup | doubt | cock | gasp | date |
6. | final /b, d, g/ | cab | dead | bag | lobe | road |
7. | initial /m, n/ | mist | new | mean | niece | medal |
8. | medial /m, n, ŋ/ | amber | grand | think | simmer | annex |
9. | final /m, n, ŋ/ | climb | known | ring | hymn | button |
10. | glottal /ʔ/ | matter | butter | letter | what | fountain |
Stops. /p b t d k g m n ŋ/. Listen and repeat each minimal pair.
1. | pack, back | cap, cab |
2. | tale, dale | court, chord |
3. | ankle, angle | frock, frog |
4. | mighthy, nightie | system, cistern |
5. | mountain, mounting | thins, things |
6. | sinning, singing | banner, banger |
Stops. /p b t d k g m n ŋ/. Identification. Identify the stop sound in each of the following words: initial (1-5), medial (6-10), final (11-15)
1. bin /b/ | 2. dip /d/ | 3. coat /k/ | 4. garden /g/ | 5. poor /p/ |
6. kept /p/ | 7. cotton /t/ | 8. spy /p/ | 9. enquire /ŋ/ | 10. comfort /m/ |
11. sudden /n/ | 12. take /k/ | 13. cod /d/ | 14. long /ŋ/ | 15. psalm /m/ |
Stops. /p b t d k g m n ŋ/. Production. After hearing the number, pronounce the word carefully, paying special attention to all the stop sounds. When you hear the word, repeat it again carefully.
1. | paddle /ˈpædl̩/ | |
2. | book /bʊk/ | |
3. | credit /ˈkredɪt/ | |
4. | heard /hɜːd/ | |
5. | cattle /ˈkætl̩/ | |
6. | grab /grӕb/ | |
7. | mandarin /ˈmӕndərɪn/ | |
8. | needle /ˈniːdl̩/ | |
9. | link /lɪŋk/ | |
10. | butter /ˈbʌtə/ |
Fricatives. /f v ɵ ᵭ s z ʃ ʒ h/. Listen and repeat each word.
1. | initial /f v / | fair | vamp | fox | verb | French |
2. | medial /f v/ | office | civil | after | beaver | advance |
3. | final /f v/ | graph | valve | cough | give | laugh |
4. | initial /ɵ ð/ | thank | that | three | then | thunder |
5. | medial /ɵ ð/ | author | another | nothing | together | wealthy |
6. | final /ɵ ð/ | death | bathe | faith | smooth | clothe |
7. | initial /s z/ | sea | zip | city | zoom | celery |
8. | medial /s z/ | dancer | music | wizard | whistle | busy |
9. | final /s z/ | ice | please | fox | dress | scissors |
10. | initial /ʃ ʒ/ | shade | genre | shampoo | ||
11. | medial /ʃ ʒ/ | cushion | measure | fashion | measure | leisure |
12. | final /ʃ ʒ/ | brush | rouge | splash | beige | wish |
13. | initial and medial /h/ | heart | high | ahead | perhaps |
Fricatives. /f v ɵ ᵭ s z ʃ ʒ h/. Listen and repeat each minimal pair.
1. | fine, vine | infest, invest | define, divine | half, halve | belief, believe |
2. | mouth, mouth (v) | teeth, teethe | sooth, soothe | ||
3. | ceasing, seizing | race, rays | sue, zoo | decease, disease | sauce, saws |
4. | mesher, measure | dilution, delusion | |||
5. | censer, censure | fist, fished | sake, shake | person, Persian | Iris, Irish |
6. | fizzy, fishy | cherries, cherish | zone, shown | whizzes, whishes | was, wash |
7. | first, thirst | infuse, enthuse | roof, Ruth | fort, thought | |
8. | cupboard, covered | curb, curve | banish, vanish | marble, marvel | dub, dove |
Fricatives. /f v ɵ ᵭ s z ʃ ʒ h/. Identification. Identify the fricative sound in each of the following words: initial (1-5), medial (6-10), final (11-15).
1. village /v/ | 2. zero /z/ | 3. shoe /ʃ/ | 4. hymn /h/ | 5. theatre /θ/ |
6. zigzag /z/ | 7. rhythm /ð/ | 8. seventy /v/ | 9. leisure /ʒ/ | 10. inhale /h/ |
11. enough /f/ | 12. jazz /z/ | 13. teethe /ð/ | 14. birth /θ/ | 15. love /v/ |
Fricatives. /f v ɵ ᵭ s z ʃ ʒ h/. Production. After hearing the number, pronounce the word carefully, paying special attention to all the fricative sounds. When you hear the word, repeat it again carefully.
1. | anyhow /ˈenɪhaʊ/ |
2. | invest /ɪnˈvest/ |
3. | sleep /sliːp/ |
4. | other /ˈʌᵭə/ |
5. | shrew /ʃruː/ |
6. | monthly /ˈmʌnɵli/ |
7. | laungh /lɑːf/ |
8. | live /laɪv/ |
9. | fizzy /ˈfɪzi/ |
10. | feather /ˈfeðə/ |
Affricates. /ʧ ʤ/. Listen and repeat each word.
1. | initial /ʧ ʤ/ | chilly | gin | channel | jelly | champion | |
2. | medial /ʧ ʤ/ | teacher | legion | voucher | patchwork | suggest | kitchen |
3. | final /ʧ ʤ/ | fetch | cage | reach | Norwich | itch |
Affricates. /ʧ ʤ/. Listen and repeat each minimal word pair.
1. | riches, ridges | etch, edge | choke, joke | searching, surging | leech, liege |
2. | mashed, marched | cash, catch | sherry, cherry | fuchsia, future | dish, ditch |
3. | marshy, Margie | bash, badge | shell, gel | cashing, cadging | languish, language |
4. | lesion, legion | pleasure, pledger | version, virgin |
Affricates. /ʧ ʤ/. Identification. Identify the affricate sound in each of the following words: initial (1-4), medial (5-8), final (9-12).
1. joke /ʤ/ | 2. cherry /ʧ/ | 3. gel /ʤ/ | 4. chain /ʧ/ | 5. ledger /ʤ/ | 6. future /ʧ/ |
7. virgin /ʤ/ | 8. butcher /ʧ/ | 9. sandwich/ʤ/ | 10. charge /ʤ/ | 11. church /ʧ/ | 12. age /ʤ/ |
Affricates. /ʧ ʤ/. Production. After hearing the number, pronounce the word carefully, paying special attention to all the affricate sounds. When you hear the word, repeat it again carefully.
1. | search /sɜːʧ/ |
2. | jargon /ˈʤɑːgn̩/ |
3. | punctual /ˈpʌnʧʊəl/ |
4. | digest /daɪˈʤest/ |
5. | nature /ˈneɪʧə/ |
6. | emerge /ɪˈmɜːʤ/ |
7. | choice /ʧɔɪs/ |
8. | digital /ˈdɪdʒɪtl̩ / |
9. | actual /ˈӕkʧʊəl/ |
10. | century /ˈsenʧri/ |
Approximants / l r j w/. Listen and repeat each word.
1. | initial /l, r/ | lake | ring | leaf | write | rug |
2. | initial /j, w/ | yell | wet | you | wish | watch |
3. | medial /l r/ | block | fold | carry | fellow | children |
4. | medial /j, w/ | onion | choir | hallelujah | queen | tortilla |
5. | final /l, r/ | girl | candle | table |
Approximants. / l r j w/. Listen and repeat each minimal pair-and triples)
1. | lap, rap | bloke, broke | alive, arrive | laughed, raft | belly, bury | |
2. | you, jew | yet, jet | use, juice | yacht, jot | ||
3. | good, wood | got, what | guest, west | gun, one | ||
4. | yes, chess | yellow, cello | York,chalk | year,cheer | use,choose | |
5. | vine, wine | visor, wiser | vary,wary | |||
6. | raced, waist | array, away | rag, wag | overrate, overweight | rail, whale | rude, would |
7. | rear, year | strewing, stewing | screw, skew | rank, yank | drooping, duping | drew, due |
8. | flew, few | flume, fume | lard, yard | leer, year | let, yet | |
9. | late, rate, weight | click, crick, quick | lake, rake, wake | lays, raise, ways | ||
10. | clue, crew, cue | law, raw, your | let, ret, yet | lot, rot, yacht |
Approximants. /l r j w/. Identification. Identify the approximant sound in each of the following words: initial (1-5), medial (6-10), final (11-15).
1. would /w/ | 2. rude /r/ | 3. yellow /j/ | 4. war /w/ | 5. lunatic /l/ |
6. quite /w/ | 7. regular /l/ | 8. new /j/ | 9. quick /w/ | 10. during /r/ |
11. label /l̩/ | 12. castle /l̩/ | 13. people /l̩/ | 14. camel /l̩/ | 15. all /l/ |
Approximants. / l r j w/. Production. After hearing the number, pronounce the word carefully, paying special attention to the approximant sounds. When you hear the word, repeat it again carefully.
1. | triple /ˈtrɪpl̩/ |
2. | play /pleɪ/ |
3. | rarely /ˈreəli/ |
4. | yellow /ˈjeləʊ/ |
5. | quote /kwəʊt/ |
6. | dune /djuːn/ |
7. | wolf /wʊlf/ |
8. | quality /ˈkwɒlɪti/ |
9. | quest /kwest/ |
10. | wine /waɪn/ |
Challenging words. Production. After hearing the number, pronounce the words carefully. When you hear the word, repeat it again carefully.
1. therewith | 2. machine | 3. question | 4. ancient | 5. fortune |
6. digestion | 7. language | 8. literature | 9. scissors | 10. smoothly |
11. thistle | 12. clothes | 13. deterioration | 14. unfortunately | 15. decision |
16. challenge | 17. adjective | 18. equivocal | 19. hypothesis | 20. mutual |
21. sixth | 22. usually | 23. statistics | 24. ethnicity | 25. provocatively |
26. regularly | 27. February | 28. particulary | 29. rural | 30. situation |
31. disadvantage | 32. truth | 33. vocabulary | 34. squirrel | 35. specifically |
36. Wednesday | 37. Ireland | 38. athlete | 39. distinguish | 40. rarity |
(word-final consonant clusters): Say the following words aloud, taking special care to pronounce every element of the final consonant clusters. Then listen to the recording and say the word again, correcting any mistakes you’ve made.
TIP! Remember that in real communication incomplete consonant clusters may easily lead to misunderstandings.
1. stopped | 2. housed | 3. clothes | 4. robbed |
5. knives | 6. lungs | 7. charged | 8. texts |
9. roughed | 10. blinked | 11. pigs | 12. hurled |
13. cracks | 14. travelled | 15. mixed | 16. strength |
17. trained | 18. lamps | 19. oaths | 20. edged |
21. twelfh | 22. sniffed | 23. watched |
(word-initial s- clusters): Listen and repeat the following words with initial s- clusters. Be careful not to insert a vowel before each cluster.
1. slim | 2. special | 3. square |
4. spear | 5. strong | 6. skin |
7. scream | 8. smile | 9. splash |
10. snail | 11. swan | 12. spring |
(English consonants not present in Spanish) [contrastive]: The following pairs of words illustrate the difference between English consonants /ʃ ʒ ʤ v ð ŋ ɹ z/ and the Spanish consonants for which they are most commonly mistaken. For each pair of words, listen carefully and repeat, paying special attention to the difference in consonant quality.
Spanish | English |
/s/ | /ʃ/ |
sal | shall | ases | ashes |
/s/ | /ʒ/ |
mesa | measure |
esa | Asia |
/ʧ/ | /ʤ/ |
chal | gel |
hachar | ajar |
/b/ | /v/ |
visa | visa |
Eva | ever |
/d/ | /ð/ |
Aida | either |
boda | bother |
/n/ | /ŋ/ |
sin | sing |
pan | pang |
/r/ | /ɹ/ |
red | red |
corran | current |
/s/ | /z/ |
deis | daze |
su | zoo |
(English consonants not present in Spanish): The following words all contain an English consonant which is not present in Spanish. For each word, listen carefully and fill in the gap with the sound you hear. Then check your answers, listen again and repeat each word after you hear it.
1. əˈ__eɪmd | 5. ˌ__enəˈfəʊbiə | 9. ˈfren__i | 13. ɪˈ__ekt |
2. prɪˈ__ent | 6. klæ__ | 10. əˈbæ__ | 14. __ens |
3. ˈʌ__ə | 7. ˈɔː__əl | 11. __ɔːlt | 15. ˈsɪ__ə |
4. ˈ__endə | 8. ˈple__ə | 12. ˈbæ__ən | 16. ˈvɪ__ən |
1. /ʃ/ ashamed | 5. /z/ xenophobia | 9. /z/ frenzy | 13. /ʤ/ eject |
2. /v/ prevent | 6. /ŋ/ clang | 10. /ʃ/ abash | 14. /ð/ thence |
3. /ð/ other | 7. /r/ oral | 11. /v/ vault | 15. /ŋ/ singer |
4. /ʤ/ gender | 8. /ʒ/ pleasure | 12. /r / barren | 16. /ʒ/ vision |
(syllabic consonants): Listen and repeat the following words which contain syllabic consonants.
1. awful | 2. rhythm | 3. cotton | 4. whistle | 5. hospital |
6. altruism | 7. London | 8. table | 9. seven | 10. cattle |