PHONETICS: EXERCISES

ASSONANCE and ALLITERATION

Alliteration is when a writer repeats the consonant sounds at the beginning of words. For
example, in My puppy punched me in the eye, the words puppy punched are alliterative
because they both begin with p.
Assonance is when a writer repeats the vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of words. For
example, in the line My rabbit whacked my ear, the words rabbit whacked are an example of
assonance because they both contain a short a sound on the stressed syllable.
!!! Alliteration and assonance do not have to have the same letters, just the same sounds. So, for
example, falling phone is alliterative and flying high is assonant, because they repeat the
same sounds even though they dont repeat the same letters.
EXAMPLES OF ALLITERATION
1. Beckys beagle (zear) barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy.
2. Carries cat clawed her couch, creating chaos.
3. Dans dog dove(zaronio) deep in the dam, drinking dirty water as he dove.
4. Freds friends fried Fritos for Fridays food.
5. Garrys giraffe gobbled (derala) gooseberries (ogrozd) greedily, getting good at grabbing
goodies.
6. Hannahs home has heat hopefully.
7. Jesses jaguar is jumping and jiggling jauntily(bezbrino).
8. Kims kids kept kiting.
9. Larrys lizard likes leaping(koji skae) leopards.
10. Mikes microphone made much music.
11. Nicks nephew needed new notebooks.
12. Peters piglet pranced(epurilo se) priggishly.
13. Quincys quilters (jorgandije) quit quilting quickly.
14. Ralphs reindeer rose rapidly and ran round the room.
15. Saras seven sisters slept soundly in sand.
16. Tim took tons of tools to make toys for tots(deica).

17. Viviens very vixen-like and vexing (uznemirujua).

18. Walter walked wearily while wondering where Wally was.
19. Xavier x-rayed his xylophone.
20. Yarvis yanked you at yoga, and Yvonne yelled.
21. Zachary zeroed in on (skoncentrisao se) zoo keeping.

EXAMPLES OF ASSONANCE

Take the gun and have fun.

Play with the clay to make them pay.

Bake the cake and eat it, for Gods sake!

The camp is foiled as the soil is damp.

I lie down by the side of my bride.

Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground.

It's hot and it's monotonous.

The crumbling thunder split mountain asunder. No wonder!

Try to light the fire.

Fleet(hitra) feet sweep by sleeping geese.

Hear the mellow(blaga) wedding bells.

Are the following examples assonance or alliteration? Mind the fact that one particular
sentence may contain both.
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak(sumoran) December,
And each separate dying ember(eravica) wrought its ghost upon the floor(utvare po podu ara).
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease(prestanak) of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore For the rare and radiant(divna) maiden whom the angels named Lenore Nameless here for evermore. (Edgar Allan Poe)

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. (Robert Frost)
Upon an island hard to reach,
The East Beast sits upon his beach.
Upon the west beach sits the West Beast.
Each beach beast thinks he's the best beast.
Which beast is best?...Well, I thought at first,
That the East was best and the West was worst.
Then I looked again from the west to the east
And I liked the beast on the east beach least. (Dr. Seuss)