PHONEMES

ENERGIZER/ACTIVITY
I take it you already know

of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.
• Vowel sounds
PHONEMES • Consonant sounds
WHAT IS PHONEMES?
A phoneme is a single "unit" of sound that has
meaning in any language. There are 44 phonemes
in English, each one representing a different sound
a person can make. Since there are only 26 letters
in the alphabet, sometimes letter combinations need
to be used to make a phoneme. A letter can also
represent different phonemes.
chef = /ʃef/
choir = /kwaɪə/
cheese = /tʃi:z/
➢The "ch" letter combination has three different

pronunciations, which are represented by three
different phonemes: /ʃ/, /k/ and /tʃ/.
➢English spelling is not phonetic.
Sometimes, there is more than one way to pronounce
a phoneme. These different pronunciations are
called allophones. They are not phonemes, because
they do not change the meaning of the word.
Allophones often show up when people have
different accents.
TYPES OF PHONEME
The two major phoneme categories

are vowels and consonants.
VOWELS
In the English alphabet, there are 5 vowels: A, E, I,
O, U. But there are many more vowel sounds in the
English language. For example, the /e/ vowel sound
is usually represented by the letter "E". But when
you put two "E" letters together, like in "speed"
(/spi:d/), you get a long vowel sound: /i:/.
SINGLE VOWEL
A single vowel sound is any vowel that is not a

diphthong. A single vowel can be short or long.
➢Short vowels
➢Schwa - /ə/
➢Long vowels
SHORT VOWELS
▪/ɪ/ as in ship
▪/ʊ/ as in book
▪/e/ as in egg
▪/æ/ as in cat
▪/ʌ/ as in cup
▪/ɒ/ as in hot
SCHWA - /Ə/
The schwa is a special type of short vowel. It is a
very "weak" sound that is never stressed. This
means you often find the schwa in words with
more than one syllable.
▪mother: /'mʌðə/
▪America: /ə'merɪkə/
LONG VOWELS
Some long vowels are basically longer versions of
short vowels (like /ɪ/ and /i:/).
▪/i:/ as in sheep
▪/u:/ as in boot
▪/ɜ:/ as in learn
▪/ɔ:/ as in door
▪/ɑ:/ as in car
DIPHTHONGS
A diphthong is a two vowel sounds, one after the
other. There is movement or "glide" between the two
parts of the sound. For example, to say the /eɪ/
dipthong, like in the word "cake" (/keɪk/) first say
/e/, then say /ɪ/ without stopping. Your mouth will
move from the /e/ shape to the /ɪ/ shape. This is the
"glide".
▪/ɪə/ as in beer
▪/eɪ/ as in same
▪/ʊə/ as in tour
▪/ɔɪ/ as in coin
▪/əʊ/ as in nose
▪/eə/ as in hair
▪/aɪ/ as in fly
▪/aʊ/ as in house
CONSONANTS
Consonants are sounds where there is obstruction or

"blocking" of the airflow caused by your lips (/m/),
teeth (/θ/), tongue (/l/), palate (/ŋ/) or even deep
down in your larynx (/h/). The two major categories
of consonants are voiced and unvoiced consonants.
VOICED CONSONANTS
Voiced consonants make sound using the

vibration of your vocal folds in your larynx -
the "voice box".
▪/b/ as in ball ▪/z/ as in zoo ▪/r/ as in right
▪/d/ as in dog ▪/ʒ/ as in vision ▪/w/ as in why
▪/ʤ/ as in joke ▪/m/ as in mouth ▪/j/ as in you
▪/g/ as in good ▪/n/ as in no
▪/v/ as in van ▪/ŋ/ as in thing
▪/ð/ as in that ▪/l/ as in love
UNVOICED CONSONANTS
Unvoiced consonants do not use this vibration.

Instead they make sound using the movement
of air through your teeth, tongue, lips and
other articulators.
Unvoiced consonants in ▪/s/ as in see
English: ▪/ʃ/ as in she
▪/p/ as in pea ▪/h/ as in he
▪/t/ as in tea ▪
▪/ʧ/ as in cheap
▪/k/ as in coffee
▪/f/ as in fat
▪/θ/ as in thin

PHONEMES

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ENERGIZER/ACTIVITY

I take it you already know

➢The "ch" letter combination has three different

The two major phoneme categories

A single vowel sound is any vowel that is not a

Consonants are sounds where there is obstruction or

Voiced consonants make sound using the

Unvoiced consonants do not use this vibration.

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