Week 3

Listening to and articulating English sounds

• Vowels / diphthongs
• Consonants
• The Phonemic Chart/symbols
• Phonemic spelt word/sentences

Vowels

A vowel is a speech sound made by the vocal cords. It is also a type of letter in the alphabet.

The letters of the English alphabet are either vowels or consonants or both. A vowel sound comes from the lungs, through the vocal cords, and is not blocked, so there is no friction. All English words have vowels.

These letters are vowels in English:

A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y

The letter Y can be a vowel (as in the word "cry" or "candy"), or it can be a consonant (as in "yellow").

These five or six letters stand for about 20 vowel sounds in most English accents.[1] This important fact helps to explain why pronunciation can be difficult for both native speakers and learners of English.

Consonants

A speech sound that's not a vowel; a letter of the alphabet that represents a speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by a constriction of the speech organs.

The Phonemic Chart

Click Here to see interactice Phonemic Chart !