3. MANNER AND PLACE OF ARTICULATION OF THE ENGLISH CONSONANTS
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar glottal
Stops: breath is fully
stopped and then
released
Voiceless /p/ /t/ /k/ /ʔ/
Voiced /b/ /d/ /g/
Fricatives: breath causes
friction
Voiceless /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /h/
Voiced /v/ /ð/ /z/ /ʒ/
Affricates: breath is
stopped and friction
follows.
Voiceless /tʃ/
Voiced /dʒ/
Nasals: breath is
released through the
nose
Voiced /m/ /n/ /ŋ/
Liquids:
breath does
not cause
friction
Lateral
Voiced
/l/
Retroflex /r/
flap /r/2
Semivowels: mouth
moves from one position
to another
Voiced /w/ /y/
PBF Pronunciation Course

46. /p/
pen
copy
happen

47. /b/
Back
baby
job

48. /t/
Tea
Tight
button

49. /d/
Day
ladder
odd

50. /k/
Key
Clock
school

51. /g/
Get
Giggle
ghost

52. /tʃ/
church
match
nature

53. /dʒ/
Judge
Age
soldier

54. /f/
Fat
Coffee
Rough
photo

55. /v/
View
heavy
move

56. /θ/
Thing
author
path

57. /ð/
This
Other
smooth

58. /s/
Soon
Cease
sister

59. /z/
Zero
Music
Roses
buzz

60. /ʃ/
Ship
Sure
national

61. /ʒ/
Pleasure
vision

62. /h/
Hot
Whole
ahead

63. /m/
More
hammer
sum

64. /n/
Nice
Know
Funny
sun

65. /ŋ/
Ring
Anger
Thanks
sung

66. /l/
Light
Valley
feel

67. /r/
Right
Wrong
Sorry
arrange

68. /j/
Yet
Use
Beauty
few

69. /w/
Wet
One
When
queen

70. /ʔ/
Department
football

72. /ɪ/
Kit
Bid
Hymn
minute

73. /e/
Dress
Bed
Head
many

74. /æ/
Trap
bad

75. /ɒ/
Lot
Odd
wash

76. /ʌ/
Strut
Mud
Love
blood

77. /ʊ/
Foot
Good
put

78. /i:/
Fleece
Sea
machine

79. /eɪ/
Face
Day
break

80. /aɪ/
Price
High
try

81. /ɔɪ/
Choice
boy

82. /u:/
Goose
Two
Blue
group

83. /əʊ/
Goat
Show
no

84. /aʊ/
Mouth
now

85. /aʊ/
Mouth
now

86. /ɪə/
Near
Here
weary

87. /eə/
Square
Fair
various

88. /ɔ:/
Thought
Law
North
war

89. /ʊə/
Poor
Jury
cure

90. /ɜ:/
Nurse
Stir
Learn
refer

91. /ə/
“shwa”
About
Common
standard

92. /i/
Happy
Radiate
glorious

93. /u/
thank you
Influence
situation

94. /n̩/
Suddenly
cotton

95. /l̩/
Middle
metal

96. /’/
(stress mark)

99. Silent B
B is not pronounced when following M
at the end of a word:
climb
crumb
dumb
comb

100. Silent C
C is not pronounced in the ending
"scle“:
muscle

101. Silent D
D is not pronounced in the following
common words:
handkerchief
sandwich
Wednesday

102. Silent E
E is not pronounced at the end of
words and usually makes the vowel
long :
hope
drive
gave
write
site

103. Silent GH
GH is not pronounced before T and at
the end of many words:
Thought fight
through weigh
daughter right
light
might

104. Silent H
H is not pronounced when following
W. Some speakers whisper the H
before the W :
what
when
where
whether
why

105. Silent H
H is not pronounced at the beginning
of many words. Use the article "an"
with unvoiced H. Here are some of the
most common:
hour
honest
honor
heir
herb

106. Pronounced H
H is pronounced at the beginning of
these common words. Use the article
"a" with voiced H:
hill
history
height
happy
hangover

107. Silent K
K is not pronounced when followed by
N at the beginning of a word:
knife
knee
know
knock
knowledge

108. Silent L
L is often not pronounced before D, F,
M, K:
Calm would
half should
salmon
talk
balk

109. Silent N
N is not pronounced following M at the
end of a word:
autumn
hymn

110. Silent P
P is not pronounced at the beginning
of many words using the suffix "psych"
and "pneu":
psychiatrist
pneumonia
psychotherapy
psychotic

111. Silent S
S is not pronounced before L in the
following words:
island
isle

112. Silent T
T is not pronounced in these common
words:
Castle thistle
Christmas whistle
fasten
listen
often

113. Silent U
U is not pronounced after G and before
a vowel :
guess
guidance
guitar
guest

114. Silent W
W is not pronounced at the beginning
of a word followed by an R:
wrap
write
wrong

115. Silent W
W is not pronounced with these three
pronouns:
who
whose
whom

117. What is connected speech?
When we speak naturally we do not pronounce a
word, stop, then say the next word in the sentence.
Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words
bump into each other. To make speech flow smoothly
the way we pronounce the end and beginning of some
words can change depending on the sounds at the
beginning and end of those words.
These changes are described as features of connected
speech.

118. Sounds link
Linking is a way of joining the pronunciation of two
words so that they are easy to say and flow
together smoothly. In English there are different
ways that this happens.

119. Consonant to vowel linking - when the first
word ends with a consonant sound and the second
word begins with a vowel sound.

120. Vowel to vowel linking - when certain vowels come
next to each other an extra sound is added to make
the link smooth.

121. She sells sea shells by the sea shore

122. Linking 'r'
In standard British English (RP) the letter 'r' after a
vowel sound at the end of word is often not
pronounced. However, when the following word
begins with a vowel the /r/ sound is pronounced to
make a smooth link. See

123. Sounds disappear
When the sounds /t/ or /d/ occur between two
consonant sounds, they will often disappear
completely from the pronunciation.

124. Sounds join together
When a word ends in a consonant sound and the
following word begins with the same consonant
sound, we don't pronounce two sounds - both
sounds are pronounced together as one.

125. Sounds change
When a word ends in a consonant sound and the
following word begins with a consonant sound,
depending on the particular sounds, the last sound
of the first word or both the last sound and the first
sound of the next word can change.