7. Pronunciation: Consonant clusters

Consonant Clusters

Look at the alphabet. Do you use this same alphabet in your language(s)?  Do you know the vowels in English? What are they? Letters that are not vowels are called consonants.

Vowels

Which letters are vowels in English?

Click to show the answer. a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y

Consonants

Which letters are consonants?

Click to show the answer. (All the letters that are NOT vowels are consonants.) b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z, and sometimes y

The letter Y can be both a vowel and a consonant. For example,

• in the words why and dirty, Y is a vowel,
• in the words yellow and young, Y is a consonant.

Notice the letters in bold at the beginning of these words: 

1. sing
2. sting
3. spring

Are they vowels or consonants? 

Click to show the answer. They are consonants.

How many consonants do you see at the beginning of each word? 

Click to show the answer. 1. one consonant; 2. two consonants; 3. three consonants.

What are consonant clusters?

Consonant clusters are when two or more consonants come together in a word. They can be hard to pronounce. Practice saying these consonant clusters from this unit. All of these come at the beginning of the word. Listen and repeat: 

• clinic
• three
• strep throat
• droplets
• breathed in
• travels

And now here are some with the consonant clusters in the middle or at the end of words from this lesson. Listen and repeat. 

• droplets
• breathed in
• bacteria
• athletes
• yeast
• exits /Ë?eÉ¡zɪts/ or /Ë?eksɪts/
• contacts
• hospital