English Consonant Sounds

Consonant letters and their sounds

A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant letters, for example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds.

(Одна согласная буква обычно передает один согласный звук. Некоторые согласные буквы, например, c, g, s, могут передавать два разных согласных звука.)

 

Letters	Sounds	Examples
b	[b]	baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about, number, labor, robber, tub
c	[s] [k]	center, cellar, cigarette, cinema, agency, notice; cake, come, cucumber, clean, cry, scratch, act, panic
d	[d]	day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady, kind, ride, ended
f	[f]	fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often, deaf, cuff
g	[g] [j] [zh]	game, gap, get, go, gun, great, global, giggle, ago, begin, dog, egg; general, gin, giant, agent, suggest, Egypt, energy, huge, manage; mirage, garage, beige, rouge
h	[h] [-]	hair, help, history, home, hotel, hunt, behind, inherit; hour, honor, honest, heir, vehicle, Sarah
j	[j]	jam, Jane, jet, jelly, Jim, jingle, joke, John, June, just
k	[k]	Kate, kind, kill, kilogram, sky, blanket, break, take, look
l	[l]	late, let, live, alone, close, slim, please, old, nicely, table, file, all
m	[m]	make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common, summer, name, form, team
n	[n]	napkin, never, night, no, nuclear, funny, student, kindness, ton, sun
p	[p]	paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple, keep, top, crisp
q (qu)	[kw] [k]	quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require; unique, technique, antique, grotesque
r	[r]	rain, red, rise, brief, grow, scream, truck, arrive, hurry, turn, more, car
s	[s] [z]	send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss, release; cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is, was
t	[t]	task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive, student, boat, rest
v	[v]	vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give, move, active
w	[w]	wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear, swim, twenty, twist
x	[ks] [gz] [z]	exercise, exchange, expect, ex-wife, axis, fix, relax; exam, exact, executive, exert, exist, exit, exult; Xenon, Xerox, xenophobia, xylophone
z	[z] [ts]	zero, zoo, horizon, puzzle, crazy, organize, quiz, jazz; pizza, Mozart, Nazi, waltz

 

Note 1: The letter Y

The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds [i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at the beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel.

[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;

[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;

[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.

Примечание 1: Буква Y

Буква Y может функционировать как гласная или как согласная. Как гласная, Y имеет гласные звуки [i], [ai]. Как согласная, Y имеет согласный звук [y] (т.е. полугласный звук), обычно в начале слова и только в слоге перед гласной.

[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;

[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;

[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.

 

Note 2: The letter W

The letter W represents the vowel sound [u:] in the diphthongs [au] and [ou]: now, how, owl, brown; low, own, bowl.

Примечание 2: Буква W

Буква W передает гласный звук [u:] в дифтонгах [au] и [ou]: now, how, owl, brown; low, own, bowl.

 

The -s/es ending of nouns and verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [s] (После глухого согласного звука: [s])

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [z] (После звонкого согласного или гласного звука: [z])

After the letters s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz] (После букв s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz])

 

[s]	[z]	[iz]
tapes [teips], streets [stri:ts], parks [pa:rks], chiefs [chi:fs], myths [miθs]	ribs [ribz], kids [kidz], legs [legz], leaves [li:vz], clothes [klouðz], girls, games, cars, boys, pies [paiz], cows [kauz], cities ['sitiz]	pieces ['pi:siz], roses ['rouziz], prizes ['praiziz], boxes ['boksiz], coaches ['kouchiz], bridges ['brijiz], dishes ['dishiz]
(he) grips [grips], writes [raits], takes [teiks], sniffs [snifs]	(he) robs [robz], reads [ri:dz], digs [digz], saves [seivz], falls, plans, swims, offers, plays, cries, goes [gouz], copies ['kopiz]	(he) kisses ['kisiz], loses ['lu:ziz], relaxes, catches, judges, manages, flashes, washes, rouges
Pip's [pips], Kate's [keits], Mike's [maiks], Jeff's [jefs], Seth's [seθs]	Abe's [eibz], Fred's [fredz], Meg's [megz], Olive's ['olivz], Ben's [benz], Molly's ['moliz], Anna's	Chris's ['krisiz], Tess's ['tesiz], Rose's ['rouziz], Liz's ['liziz], Rex's ['reksiz], George's ['jo:rjiz]

 

The -ed ending of verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [t] (После глухого согласного звука: [t])

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [d] (После звонкого согласного или гласного звука: [d])

After the letters t, d: [id] (После букв t, d: [id])

 

[t]	[d]	[id]
stopped [stopt], liked [laikt], coughed [ko:ft], crossed [cro:st], released [ri'li:st], reached [ri:cht], washed [wosht]	robbed [robd], saved [seivd], seized [si:zd], called [ko:ld], planned, occurred, bathed [beiðd], managed, played, tried, studied	wanted ['wontid], hated ['heitid], counted ['kauntid], started, needed [ni:did], loaded ['loudid], folded, added

 

Consonant combinations

Letters	Sounds	Examples
cc	[ks] [k]	accent, accept, access, eccentric, accident; accommodate, account, accuse, occur, acclaim
ch tch	[ch]	chain, check, chief, choose, teacher, much, church; kitchen, catch, match, watch, pitch, stretch
ch (Latin, Greek) ch (French)	[k] [sh]	character, chemical, Chris, archive, mechanic, technical, ache; champagne, charlatan, chef, chic, machine, cache
ck	[k]	black, pack, deck, kick, pick, cracker, pocket, rocket
dge	[j]	bridge, edge, judge, knowledge, budget, badger
gh	[g] [f] [-]	ghost, ghastly, Ghana, ghetto; cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh; though, through, weigh, neighbor, bought, daughter
gu	[g] [gw]	guard, guess, guest, guide, guitar, dialogue; language, linguistics, Guatemala, Nicaragua
ng	[ŋ] [ŋ]+[g]	king, sing, singer, singing, bang, long, wrong, tongue; finger, anger, angry, longer, longest, single
ph	[f]	phone, photograph, phrase, phenomenon, biography
qu	[kw] [k]	quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require; unique, technique, antique, grotesque
sc	[s] [sk]	science, scissors, scene, scent, scythe; scan, scandal, scare, score, Scotch, scuba
sch	[sk] [sh]	school, scholar, scheme, schedule; schnauzer, schedule
sh	[sh]	share, she, shine, shoe, fish, cash, push, punish
th	[θ] [ð]	thank, thick, think, thought, thunder, author, breath, bath; this, that, then, though, father, brother, breathe, bathe
wh	[w] [h]	what, when, where, which, while, why, whale, wheel, white; who, whom, whose, whole
xh	[ks] [ks]+[h] [g]+[z]	exhibition; exhumation, exhume, exhale; exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort, exhume, exhale
With silent letters	Sounds	Examples
bt, pt	[t]	doubt, debt, subtle; receipt, pterodactyl
kn, gn, pn	[n]	knee, knife, know; gnome, sign, foreign; pneumonia, pneumatic
mb, lm	[m]	lamb, climb, bomb, comb, tomb; calm, palm, salmon
ps	[s]	psalm, pseudonym, psychologist, psychiatrist
rh	[r]	rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhythm, rhyme
wr	[r]	wrap, wreck, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong
Letters in the suffix	Sounds	Examples
ti, ci, si, su	[sh]	nation, patient, special, vicious, pension, Asia, sensual, pressure
si, su	[zh]	vision, fusion, Asia, usual, visual, measure, pleasure

 

Read more about consonant letters and sounds in Spelling Patterns for Consonants and Silent Letters in the section Writing.

Прочитайте еще о согласных буквах и звуках в статьях Spelling Patterns for Consonants и Silent Letters в разделе Writing.