Week 4 Pronunciation Class

The Consonant Chart

Consonants:

Plosive Consonants - please see week 1 notes for p, b, t and d.

Dictionary/phonetic Symbol Sound Organ placement

/k/ kuh The back of the tongue touches the soft palate.
Sound is unvoiced.

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

Sentence to practice
The cute cat can’t have cake.
The kangaroo kicked the kite

K is silent in the following words:

Knew
Knit
Knife
Knee
Knot

G
Dictionary/phonetic Symbol Sound Organ placement
/g/ guh The back of the tongue touches the soft palate.
Sound is voiced.

The goose gave the goat a gift of a guitar

The goat gave a grunt and pushed the gate which sagged and fell to the ground

G is silent in the following words

Gnat
Gnaw
Diaphragm
Sign
Reign

Affricate Consonants:
A complete stoppage of air followed by a gradual release.

TR ​/tr/​ and DR ​/dr/

The centre of the tongue is hollowed ready for the R sound. The release is slow.
E.g. Tree, trick, trap, poetry, entrance, dream, drab, dreary, address.

Sentence to practice:

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 1. Audrey tried to drive the dray cart through the country roads.

* Make up your own sentence with at least two words that have a TR or DR
sound.

CH /​tʃ​/

This consonant is formed by the tip blade and rims of the tongue stopping the
breath flow as they meet the teeth ridge and side teeth. At the same time the
tongue is raised towards the hard palate ready for the SH sound. It is released
slowly with a sound like air escaping.

- Chuh sound

E.g. Chair, choke, match, nature, question, mischief, chief, posture, lecture.

Please note that CH can also be a SH sound:

E.g Chef, machine, brochure

Also CH can be a K sound:

E.g. Headache, anchor, archeology, archive, chaos

Sentence to practice:
1. Charles's children ate rich cheese cakes instead of cheap chips from choice.
2. The archeologist had an awful headache with all the chaos.

J /​dʒ/

The formation of this is the same as CH but it is voiced.

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 - Juh sound

E.g. Gin, jest, suggest, adjacent, avenge, soldier, Belgian, ridge, gauge.

Sentence to practice:
George jerked every joint as he was jumping in the gymnasium.
The soldier joked about revenge.

Nasal Consonants
Are formed by the vocalised breath flowing out through the nose, by the lowering
of the soft palate, air is not allowed to pass through the mouth as an organ of
articulation is stopping it.

M - /m/
Two lips come together.

Example: meat, mix, drummer, comb, autumn, roaming.

Sentence to practice:
1. Many meat mixers make much noise.
2. I have seen this in many many incidents.

Exceptions:
The M is silent in mnemonic.

N - /n/

The tongue touches the teeth ridge and the sides of the tongue touches the teeth
similar to t and d.

Often after plosive consonants the sound is held e.g. cotton, kitten, trodden,
ridden, often. The sound should come out through your nose.
© Dublin School of Drama & Communications
Sentence to practice:
1. Kittens should never wander alone at night.

2. The knife is made of metal

NG - /​ŋ/

The soft palate is lowered and the back of the tongue is raised in the same was as
K and G are pronounced.

In standard E​n​glish, < ng > is pronounced without /g/ at the end of words, so
WRO​NG​ /rɒ​ŋ​/ HA​NG​ /hæ​ŋ​/ and FIGHTI​NG​ /ˈfaɪti​ŋ​/ are pronounced with /​ŋ​/.

If < ng > appears in the middle of a word, we also pronounce the /g/, so A​N​GER
/ˈæ​ŋ​gə/, HU​N​GRY /ˈhʌ​ŋ​gri/ and E​N​GLAND /ˈɪ​ŋ​glənd/ are all pronounced with
/​ŋ​g/.

If < ng > is at the end of a root word that has an endi​ng​ added, it will still be
pronounced /​ŋ​/ so WRO​NG​LY /ˈrɒ​ŋ​li/ and HA​NG​ER /ˈhæ​ŋ​ə/ don’t have /g/
because they come from the root words WRO​NG​ /rɒ​ŋ​/ and HA​NG ​/hæ​ŋ​/.

The exceptions to this rule are superlatives LO​N​GEST /ˈlɒ​ŋ​gɪst/ and STRO​N​GEST
/ˈstrɒ​ŋ​gɪst/, and the comparatives LO​N​GER /ˈlɒ​ŋ​gə/ and STRO​N​GER /ˈstrɒ​ŋ​gə/,
which all contain /​ŋ​g/

The NG never comes at the start of a word

E.g. Sung, long, uncle, anxiety,

Be careful not to make a K sound when you are doing the NG sound.

Sentence to practice
© Dublin School of Drama & Communications
 1. The young uncle was singing the wrong song.

2. Make up your own sentence that has three NG words in it two not
pronounced and one pronounced

Flapped Consonants
These are spasmodic oral stoppage - R

We will look at these in detail next week.

Lateral Consonants
These are a partial oral stoppage.

We will cover these in detail next week.

Fricative Consonants
These are a narrowing of the oral cavity to cause friction - the air is squeezed out
through a small gap.

F - /f/

Non voiced
It is formed by the teeth touching the lower lip

E.g. Fork, fun, off, stuff, enough, soft, swift

When /f/ is the final consonant in a singular noun it frequently becomes /vz/ in
the plural form e.g. thief - thieves, leaf - leaves, shelf - shelves.

Sentence to practice
Frances fell forward fiercely against the fireplace.
© Dublin School of Drama & Communications
V - /v/
Same as f but is voiced.

E.g. Vim, veal, have, review, curve

Sentence to Practice
The valleys of Venezuela are very vast.

Th - Voiceless ​θ
Most common in words that start with th.
● th​ink

● th​in

● th​ing

● th​anks

● th​irty

● Th​ursday

● th​ree

● th​umb

● th​ird

● th​irteen

TH - Voiced ​ð

Most common in pronouns and demonstratives (This, That, These etc). Plurals
and verbs derived from the single vowel use the voiced TH form.

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 ● th​at

● th​is

● th​em

● th​e

● th​eir

● th​ere

● th​ey're

● th​ose

● th​ey

● th​ese

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

S - /s/
Non voiced

To form this you place your tongue up to the teeth ridge but do not touch it.
Together with Z this is known as a hissing sound or sibilant.

S frequently becomes /z/ after the final vowels and after voiced consonants e.g.
as, is, his, hers, theirs, yours, beads.

Exceptions - yes, this, thus, us and bus

S is silent in aisle, isle, island, viscount and debris

Sentence to practice
1) The seven sailors were sea sick.
2) Sally has seven sealions.

Z - /z/

This is the same as /s/ but is voiced.

E.g. zoo, zeal, prize, frozen, dessert, dissolve, poses.

Sentence to practice
1) That zookeeper is so zany.
2) The rose has a zillion thorns.

SH -/ ​ʃ /

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

This sound is non voiced. It is a shugh sound. The tip of the tongue is at the teeth
ridge but the middle of the tongue is touching the hard palate.

E.g. Shoe, ship, machine, sure, assure, ration, mission.

Sentence to practice
1) The snake was behind the shovel in the shed.
2) I am polishing the table by the seashore to make it shine.

ZH - /ʒ/

As above but the sound is voiced and has a zhugh sound.

Examples
1) The conclusion was that the explosion was a diversion.
2) The measuring tape was used to measure the treasure.

Sentence to practice
To gain pleasure, measure your leisure time carefully.

C
The soft C. When C is followed by the vowels e, i or y. It is a soft c and
pronounced as an S sound e.g. Cell. Circle

J and X ​will be covered next week.

H -/h/

This is a non voiced sound. Your tongue should be low in your mouth and your
lips open.
© Dublin School of Drama & Communications
E.g. Heat, hand, home, how, ahead, behave, perhaps, behind, anyhow.

Exceptions. The h is not heard in heir, heiress, honest, honour, hour, vehicle,
shepherd.

Sentence to practice
1) The hard hat was too heavy for his head.
2) The beehive was handy to have.

Now practice the sounds we have done in class in the tongue twisters below.
They are a great way of perfecting the sounds that you have learnt.

Tongue Twisters Group 1

Truly Rural

Pegggy Babcock

Red Leather, Yellow Leather

Unique New York

Fresh fried fish

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications
A cracked cricket critic

Mixed biscuits

Abominable Abdominal

Try tying twine round the three tree twigs

Imagine an imaginary menagerie

She sat upon a balcony inexplicably mimicking him hiccuping and amicably
welcoming him in.

Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted
thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb

Tongue Twisters Group 2

1. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 2. Betty Botter bought some butter

But she said the butter’s bitter

If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter

But a bit of better butter will make my batter better

So ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter

3. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck

wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as
much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood
4. She sells seashells by the seashore
5. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
6. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream
7. I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop
8. Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines she sits, and where
she sits she shines
9. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t
fuzzy, was he?
10. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
11. I have got a date at a quarter to eight; I’ll see you at the gate, so don’t be
late
12. You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique
New York
13. I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen
14. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
15. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you
16. I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch
17. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 18. Eddie edited it
19. Willie’s really weary
20. A big black bear sat on a big black rug
21. Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks
22. He threw three free throws
23. Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely
24. So, this is the sushi chef
25. Four fine fresh fish for you
26. Wayne went to Wales to watch walruses
27. Six sticky skeletons (x3)
28. Which witch is which? (x3)
29. Snap crackle pop (x3)
30. Flash message (x3)
31. Red Buick, blue Buick (x3)
32. Red lorry, yellow lorry (x3)
33. Thin sticks, thick bricks (x3)
34. Stupid superstition (x3)
35. Eleven benevolent elephants (x3)
36. Two tried and true tridents (x3)
37. Rolling red wagons (x3)
38. Black back bat (x3)
39. She sees cheese (x3)
40. Truly rural (x3)
41. Good blood, bad blood (x3)
42. Pre-shrunk silk shirts (x3)
43. Ed had edited it. (x3)
44. We surely shall see the sun shine soon
45. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
46. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications

 47. I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit
48. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk
the skunk stunk
49. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better
50. Of all the vids I’ve ever viewed, I’ve never viewed a vid as valued as
Alex’s engVid vid

© Dublin School of Drama & Communications