Consonant Sounds
… are produced by completely or partially stopping the breath.
… can be voiceless (vl) or voiced (vd).
… can come in sound pairs.
All Consonant Sound Lessons & Quizzes
Now it’s your turn.
Transcription Audio Quiz
You will hear each sound 3 times.
You can clearly hear if a sound is voiceless or voiced.
Quiz 2
no audio
Consonant Sounds with Transcription
vl = voiceless (no vibration of vocal cords)
vd = voiced (vibration of vocal cords)
| vl | vd | vl | vd | vl | vd | vl | vd | vl | vd | vl | vd | vl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop | /p paint | b/ ball | /t tree | d/ dog | /k cat | g/ girl | |||||||
| fricative | /f farm | v/ view | /θ three | ð/ brothers | /s swan | z/ zebra | /ʃ Russia | ʒ/ Asia | /h/ hurry | ||||
| affricate | /t͡ʃ church | d͡ʒ/ July | |||||||||||
| nasal | /m/ music | /n/ numbers | /ŋ/ sing | ||||||||||
| liquid | /l/ lamp | /r/ red flowers | |||||||||||
| glide | /y/ yellow | /w/ wish | |||||||||||
Get the Consonants Chart as PDF
Dear Eva Easton,
I have a question about /s/ sound.
There are so many ways of pronouncing /s/ sounds as below.
(Name of YouTuber): The way to pronounce /s/ sound
(Sounds American) :this sound is made by partially blocking the air flowing between the tip of your tongue and your alveolar ridge.
(Emma): the blade of your tongue, not the tip of your tongue, comes up to the alveolar ridge.
(Denise): the front part of the tongue is raised a little bit towards the roof of my mouth. It is near the ridge which is just behind my front teeth. When I say the front of my tongue, I do not mean the tip.
(EEP): there’s two options actually. Your tongue could be touching the back of the top of your teeth, or it could be touching the back of the bottom of your teeth.
(Rachel) There are two ways to make these sounds. One, with the tip of the tongue down, lightly touching the back of the bottom front teeth. Or by pointing the tip of the tongue up. You may find that the position of the tongue tip depends on the sounds around the S and Z.
I am very confused. When I pronounce /s/ as in ‘sit’, using Sounds American’s method, it’s not easy for to move into correct /I/ as in ‘it’ where the tip of the tongue should be lowered just behind the bottom front teeth. Could you make a comment on this please?
Thank you very much
Bogeun Jung
No need for confusion. Imagine a snake making a hissing sound……sssssss.
The back of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth. The tip of the tongue is in mid-air because you then blow out a series of ssssssss.
Eva
Thank you. Your site technique is so simple, practical, and unique.
Thank you. I’m glad my work is useful to you.
Eva
Thank you
You’re welcome.
Eva
Please give more of this quiz and I suggest if you can give gifts to those who won and you can also call for face to face competition. Thank you