Consonant Sounds in IPA (voiced and voiceless)

Consonant Sounds in IPA (voiced and voiceless)

The consonant sounds of each pair are produced in the mouth with the tongue in the same position. The voiceless consonant sounds (‘p’) only come from the mouth and the voiced consonant sounds (‘b’) come from the throat (voice). “Consonant is one of the speech sounds or letters of the alphabet that is not a vowel. Consonants are pronounced by stopping the air from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue” (dictionary.cambridge.org). The consonant sounds with examples list below.

Voiceless Consonant Sounds

i. ‘ p ’ : pen, stop /pen/, /stɒp/

ii. ‘ t ’ train, take  /treɪn/, /teɪk/

iii. ‘ k ’ can, walk /kæn/, /wɔːk/

iv. ‘ θ ’: think, both  /θɪŋk/, /bəʊθ/

v. ‘ f ’: if, fine  /ɪf/, /faɪn/

vi. ‘ s ’ : say, sit /seɪ/, /sɪt/

vii. ‘ ʃ ’ : shine, she  /ʃaɪn/, strong /ʃiː/ weak /ʃi/

viii. ‘ tʃ ’ : teacher, change /ˈtiː.tʃər/, /tʃeɪndʒ/

Voiced Consonant Sounds

i. ‘ b ’ : bad, baby  /bæd/, /ˈbeɪ.bi/

ii. ‘ d ’ : do, food /də/ /du/ /duː/, /fuːd/

iii. ‘ g ’ : green, go  /ɡriːn/, /ɡəʊ/

iv. ‘ v ’ :  five, vacancy /faɪv/, /ˈveɪ.kən.si/

v. ‘ ð ’: they, mother, father, further /ðeɪ/, /ˈmʌð.ər/, /ˈfɑː.ðər/, /ˈfɜː.ðər/

vi. ‘ z ’ : noise, zone /nɔɪz/, /zəʊn/

vii.‘ dʒ ’ : joke, lounge  /dʒəʊk/, /laʊndʒ/

viii. ‘ ʒ ’ : pleasure, conclusion  /ˈpleʒ.ər/, /kənˈkluː.ʒən/

General Consonant Sounds

i. ‘ m ’ : man, money  /mæn/, /ˈmʌn.i/

ii. ‘ n ’ : nine, never /naɪn/, /ˈnev.ər/

iii. ‘ ŋ ’ : drink, sing /drɪŋk/, /sɪŋ/

iv. ‘ h ’: hot, honey /hɒt/, /ˈhʌn.i/

v. ‘ r ’ :  read, try  /riːd/, /traɪ/

vi. ‘w’ : want, wake  /wɒnt/, /weɪk/

vii. ‘ j ’ : yes, year  /jes/, /jɪər/