Speech Sounds

A. Speak the following words aloud and notice the difference. Notice the a, e, i, o and u sounds. These are the vowel sounds of English.

  1. eat    beat
  2. it       bit
  3. bed   beg
  4. bad   bag
  5. car    far
  6. ox     box
  7. short   fought
  8. put     sugar
  9. boot   shoe
  10. up      cup
  11. learn   girl
  12. about   tailor
  13. play pain   day race
  14. ice   rice   buy high
  15. oil   boy toy coin
  16. out   cow shout   house
  17. boat over   no go
  18. ear fear   near   real
  19. poor sure
  20. air care

B. Now read the following words aloud. Focus on the underlined sound of each word. These are the consonant sounds of English.

  1. pin
  2. bin
  3. tin
  4. din
  5. kin
  6. gun
  7. chin
  8. gin
  9. mine
  10. nine
  11. sing
  12. fine
  13. vine
  14. thin
  15. they
  16. sign
  17. zinc
  18. shine
  19. treasure
  20. hat
  21. light
  22. right
  23. yak
  24. wet