Mastering Stop Consonants in English Pronunciation

1. Kurdistan Regional GovernmentMinistry of Higher Education and Scientific ResearchSalahaddin University – HawlerCollege of Languages Stop Consonants A lecture for the first year English students Prepared by:Kafi R. Ahmed M.A. – Entire English

3. /p/ & /b/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like pack & back Middle of the word, like happy & hobby End of the word, like lap& lab Beginning and end of the word, like pop & bob

4. /t/ & /d/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like tie& die Middle of the word, like metal & medal End of the word, like bat& bad Beginning and end of the word, like taught&dad

5. /k/ & /g/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like card& guard Middle of the word, like baker & beggar End of the word, like back& bag Beginning and end of the word, like cake & gig

6. Voiced = you feel vibration in the vocal cords Voiceless = you don not feel vibration in the vocal cords How???. Let’s try…..

7. Consonants can be classified according to: • Place of articulation • Manner of articulation • Place of articulation means the place where the sound is produced. • Manner of articulationmeans the way that the sound is produced.

8. Characteristics of /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /tʃ, &dʒ/ Sounds: /p/ is a bilabial, stop and voiceless consonant sound. /b/ is a bilabial,stop and voiced consonant sound. /t/ is an alveolar,stop and voiceless consonant sound. /d/ is an alveolar,stop and voiced consonant sound. /k/ is a velar,stop and voiceless consonant sound. /g/ is a velar,stop and voiced consonant sound. /tʃ/ is a post-alveolar, stop and voiceless consonant sound /dʒ/ is a post-alveolar, stop and voiced consonant sound

9. /p/ /p/ is made from the following letters: (p) Such as: park, perfect, explain, compose, pump (pp)Such as: supper, happy, suppose, support, opposite (p) is not pronounced in words that contain (ph) except the word shepherd (p) Is not pronounced in the following words psychology, psalm, coup, cupboard, receipt.

10. /b/ /b/ is made from the following letters: (b) Such as: boy, able, bring, above, problem (bb)Such as: rubber, hobby, chubby (b)is not pronounced at the end of the word when preceded by (m) such as: lamb, dumb, comb, thumb, climb, tomb (b) Is not pronounced in the following words plumber, debt, doubt

11. /t/ /t/ is made from the following letters: (t) Such as: time, tea, start, water, sit, hut (tt)Such as: letter, cattle, battle. latter (ght) Such as: right, bought, night, flight Suffix (ed) is pronounced as /t/ when it is preceded by sounds/p, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, ʧ/. Such as: helped, locked, laughed, missed, watched, washed, faced, except wicked (t) Is not pronounced in (tch), such as: catch, watch, switch, fetch. (t) Is not pronounced in the following words: Wrestle, castle, whistle, Christmas, soften, often, listen, fasten, mustn’t, postpone

12. /d/ /d/ is made from the following letters: (d) Such as: do, day, under, today, bad (dd)Such as: middle, add, ladder, suddenly Suffix (ed) is pronounced as /ɪd/ when it is preceded by sounds/t & d/. Such as: wanted, hated, demanded, added, Suffix (ed) Is pronounced as /d/ when it is preceded by all the vowels and consonant sounds except / p, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, ʧ, t, d/ such as: played, remained, studied (d) Is not pronounced in (edg) group, such as: edge, bridge, judge, budget (d) Is not pronounced in the following words: Handsome, grandmother, adjective, Wednesday

13. /k/ /k/ is made from the following letters: (k) Such as: keep, market, baker, park (ck)Such as: clock, neck, luck, sick, duck, black (q)Such as: queen, quick, quite (ch)Such as: ache, school, mechanic, stomach, character (c) is pronounced as /k/ when it is not followed by (i, e, y). Such as: cash, come, coin, act, cure, cat, action, clear, cry (cc) Such as: accurate, according, occur, accuse (cc) Is pronounced as /ks/ such as: accident, succeed (k) Is not pronounced at the beginning of a word when followed by (n), such as: knight, knee, knock, knife, know (x) When it is not followed by (a), such as: fox,fix,ox,mixed

14. /g/ /g/ is made from the following letters: (g) Such as: game, go, gold, regret, regard, (gg)Such as: bigger, beggar, dagger, egg (g) Is not pronounced in (ign & ght & gh), such as: knight, right, though, high, weight, through, sign, neighbour, sovereign, design, foreigner, designer, reign, resign, foreign (x) When it is followed by (a), such as: examination, exam, example, exact, exhaust, /g/is found in words like exist & exhibit

15. /tʃ/ /tʃ/ is made from the following letters: (ch) Such as: cheap, chance, merchant, teacher, church, lunch, choose, rich, munch…. (tch)Such as: switch, watch, catch, butcher, match, kitchen (tu) Such as: picture, capture, adventure, future, century, mixture, furniture, actually, lecture, fortune, situation, statue, congratulation…. (ti) Such as: question, suggestion, indigestion, Christian

16. /dʒ/ /dʒ/ is made from the following letters: (j) Such as: join, just, project, reject, major, job…. (g + e, i, y)Such as: surgery, gentle, village, suggest, religion, origin, engine, age, gypsy, zoology, judge, bridge, fridge…. Except the following words, Such as: (get, girl, give, eager, forget, forgive) (du) Such as: gradually, education, graduate, individually, procedure… /dʒ/ can be found in these two words: (soldier & sandwich)

17. Friction Consonants There are nine consonants whose main sounds all have friction as their most important feature. They are: /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ ,ʒ, h/

18. /f/ & /v/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like fast& vast Middle of the word, like sofa & over End of the word, like life & live

19. /θ/ & /ð/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like thin & then Middle of the word, like author & mother End of the word, like bath & breathe

20. /s/ & /z/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like said & zed Middle of the word, like racing & raising End of the word, like bus & buzz

21. /ʃ/ & /ʒ/ sounds. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like shock & genre Middle of the word, like rational & casual End of the word, like bush & rouge

22. /h/ sound. You can hear them at the: Beginning of the word, like hello, how Middle of the word, like behind, behave It never occurs at the end of the word

23. Characteristics of /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ ,ʒ, h/ sounds: /f/ is a labio-dental, fricative and voiceless consonant sound. /v/ is a labio-dental,fricative and voiced consonant sound. / θ / is a dental,fricative and voiceless consonant sound. / ð / is a dental,fricative and voiced consonant sound. / s / is an alveolar,fricative and voiceless consonant sound. / z / is an alveolar,fricative and voiced consonant sound. / ʃ / is a post-alveolar,fricative and voiceless consonant sound. / ʒ / is a post-alveolar,fricative and voiced consonant sound. / h / is a glottal,fricative and voiceless consonant sound.

24. /f/ /f/ is made from the following letters: (f) Such as: fox, free, defend, deaf, refuse, roof, fear, etc. (ff)Such as: offer, different, off, coffee, office, etc. (ph)Such as: phone, philosophy, photograph, elephant, etc. (gh) Such as: enough, laugh, draught, rough, cough, tough, laughter, etc.

25. /v/ /v/ is made from the following letters: (v) Such as: very, voice, verse, over, level, advice, move, have, leave, etc. (f)Such as: of

26. /θ/ /θ/ is made from the following letters: (th) Such as: thin, thousand, thought, throat, method, wealthy, tooth, teeth, cloth, length, truth, threat, breath, both, healthy, through, throw, thunder, thick, faith, bath, etc.

27. /ð/ /ð/ is made from the following letters: (th) Such as: this, those, that, with, either, mother, clothes, they, these, feather, neither, their, brother, etc.

28. /s/ /s/ is made from the following letters: (s) Such as: see, sit, beside, most, gas, bus, slow, etc. (ss)Such as: pass, glass, miss, lesson, essay, class, etc. (x) Contains /s/ when it does not follow by (a) except the word relaxation. Such as: external, extinguish, box, fox, reflex, expansion, etc. (c + i, e, y = /s/) Such as: city, centre, circle, cylinder, etc. Suffix (s) is pronounced as /s/ when preceded by /p, t, k, f, θ/ such as: stops, hopes, cats, looks, roofs, picnics, laughs, months, aches

29. /z/ /z/ is made from the following letters: (z) Such as: zero, zone, zoo, crazy, horizon, freeze, (zz)Such as: puzzle, buzz, (s) Such as: busy, easy, as, is, has, (vowel + s + vowel) Such as: nose, rose, business, those, advise, close, rise, confuse, refuse, houses, thousand. (ss) scissors (x + a) Such as: exam, exact, exhaust, (also in exhibit, exist) (s) is pronounced as /z/ when it is not preceded by /p, t, k, f, θ, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ such as: plays, tries, sings, waves, happens (s) Is pronounced as /ɪz/ when preceded by /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ Such as: buses, faces, washes, boxes, watches, wages, etc.

30. /ʃ/ /ʃ/ is made from the following letters: (sh) Such as: she, show, bushes, wash, push, shy, fashion… (ch)Such as: machine, parachute…. (su) Such as: sure, ensure, sugar, issue, pressure, tissue…. (si) Such as: impression, confession, expression, passion, expansion, mansion, mission, dimension, comprehension.. (ti) Such as: partial, patient, essential, nation, national, emotion….. (ci) Such as: social, official, artificial, special, crucial, musician /ʃ/ Can be found from the following words: Such as: Ocean, anxious, ancient, conscience, conscious, precious.

31. /ʒ/ /ʒ/ is made from the following letters: (su) Such as: usually, pleasure, measure, leisure, casual, exposure, enclosure, treasure…. (si) Such as: occasion, illusion, explosion, confusion, division, revision, decision, television, conclusion, provision, vision... (ge) Such as: garage, prestige, massage….

32. /h/ /h/ is made from the following letters: (h) Such as: he, behind, home, humble, perhaps, hole…. (h) Is not pronounced when it is at the beginning and followed by (o): hour, honour, honest, honourable (h) Is not pronounced in (ght & gh). Such as: high, thigh, neighbour, right, might…. (h) Is not pronounced when it is at the beginning and preceded by (w) Such as: which, what, when, where, why, whisper, whistle. But it is pronounced in the following words, Such as: Who, whom, whose, whole, wholly.