Phonetics

Exercise on English Sounds

Introduction - Recognition of sounds
1. The words in the left-hand columns below begin with 22 different consonants. The
words in the right-hand columns begin with the same 22 consonants, but in a
different order. Match each word on the left with the word on the right which has the
same initial consonant (sound, not letter), and put the appropriate number in front of
the word. An example is given.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

bag
cat
cent
check
dude
fan
gas
gym
leap
mean
nail

_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
___2___

tomato
Czech
yacht
loose
there
guess
chef
dare
vote
know
kite

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

pain
pterodactyl
room
shave
then
thick
vest
weight
whole
young
zoom

_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______

holy
party
phone
jest
zone
send
rhyme
main
three
boom
wild

2. The words in the left-hand columns below end with 21 different consonants. The
words in the right-hand columns have the same final consonants, but in a different
order. Match each word on the left with the word on the right which has the same
final consonant. An example is given.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

both
car
clothe
dumb
fate
globe
graph
lace
look
odd
phrase

_______
_______
___4___
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______

love
vogue
come
grab
smooth
ridge
sane
beige
lung
stuff
eight

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

pole
rage
rich
rouge
rug
save
sign
soap
tongue
wash

_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______

fade
toll
doze
lock
loss
hope
youth
care
gauche
witch

3. This time match the final consonant of each word in the left-hand columns with the
initial consonant of a word in the right-hand columns if there is such a match. An
example is given.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

beige
breathe
chip
coach
comb
cough
door
face
lane
ledge
lick

_______
_______
___ ___
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
___6___
_______
_______

pitch
team
kill
bad
dame
goal
choke
jell
fun
think
safe

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

maid
meat
nave
nose
robe
rogue
rung
rush
Ruth
sail

_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______
_______

vain
they
zone
mode
name
lace
rake
yell
wet
head
shift

3.1. Two of the words in the left-hand columns have final consonants for which there
is no match in the initial position. What are the words?
Exception: genre words of French origin

Activity adapted from the book:

KREIDLER, Charles. The pronunciation of English: a course book in phonology.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.