Vowels & Consonants

ALPHABET:- Alphabet is a set of letters or other characters with which one or more languages are written especially if arranged in a customary order.

Consonant: – A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants.

Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their corresponding letters ‘A, E, I, O, U’ and sometimes ‘Y‘ are not consonants. In hat, H and T are consonants. A consonant can also be an adjective that describes things that seem like they should go together, things that are “agreeable.” You could say a nation’s offer of aid is consonant with their treaties. When you hear consonant sounds in music, they are pleasing, the opposite of “dissonant” sounds which are harsh.

How consonants are produced?

Saying consonant sounds involves constricting airflow in different locations in your mouth by:

briefly stopping then releasing the air (“p”, “b”, “t”, “d”, “k”, “g”),
diverting the airflow and associated resonance to your nose (“m”, “n”, “ng”),
squeezing the air through a narrow space (“th” as in “thin”, “th” as in “then”, “f”, “v”, “s”, “z”, “sh”, “zh” as in “vision”, “h”, and in posh dialects, “wh”),
combining stopping then squeezing (“ch”, “j”), or
narrowing the vocal tract (“w”, “y”, “r”, “l”).

Consonants that are like vowels – approximants

The last four consonant sounds on the above list – “y”, “w”, “r”, “l” – are produced with less mouth constriction than other consonants, and in linguistics are called “approximants”.
Approximants occupy a kind of linguistic grey area between vowels and consonants, in fact, “w” and “y” are also known as semivowels.
There’s very little difference between the consonant sound “y” and the vowel sound “ee” as in “see/sea/me”, and between the consonant sound “w” and the vowel sound “ooh” as in “moon/rule/grew”.
These sounds are classified as consonants because they generally behave like consonants, that is, they’re (in) syllable onsets, not syllable nuclei.

Syllabic consonants

In many English dialects, the sound “l” can be a syllable all by itself in words like “bottle” and “middle”. This is also true of the sound “n” in words like “button” and “hidden”.
In these words, the tongue has just said “t” or “d”, so it’s already in the right place to go straight into the sound “l” or “n”, without saying a vowel first. However, we still write a “vowel letter” in this syllable (le, on, en) and we say a vowel sound in other words with similar final spellings, like “giggle” and “dabble”, “ribbon” and “beckon”, “happen” and “embiggen”.
The sound “m” can also act as a syllable in words like “rhythm” and “algorithm”, again because the sounds “th” and “m” are physically very close together. In this case, we don’t write a “vowel letter” in the last syllable, but we do say a vowel sound in the last syllable of most words spelt like this, like “autism” and “criticism”.
Tell language mavens who insist a consonant is never a syllable to stick that up their jumpers.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Some consonants are produced using your voice (“b”, “d”, “g”, “m”, “n”, “ng”, “th” as in “then”, “v”, “z”, “zh” as in “vision”, “j”, “y”, “w”, “r”, “l”) and the rest are voiceless (“p”, “t”, “k”, “th” as in “thin”, “f”, “s”, “sh”, “ch”, “h”).
Most consonants come in neat voiced-voiceless pairs – “p/b”, “t/d”, “k/g”, “th as in thin/th as in then”, “f/v”, “s/z”, “sh/zh as in vision”, and “ch/j”.
Try saying each of these sound pairs in turn, and you’ll notice that the main difference between each pair is that you use your voice for the first sound, but not the second one.
If you are using your voice when you say the sounds “p”, “t”, “k”, “th” as in “thin”, “f”, “s”, “sh” or “ch”, you’re saying them wrong. This can confuse children about the difference between sounds, and/or cause blending problems.
The sound “h”, is also voiceless, but lost its voiced pair somewhere down the crack between Old and Middle English, though its ghost still makes guest appearances as the spelling ‘gh’ in words like “thought”, “night” and “daughter”.
The nasal sounds “m”, “n” and “ng” don’t have voiceless pairs, but are made in the same spots in your mouth as, respectively, “p/b”, “t/d” and “k/g”.

Definition of vowel

A speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction, and which is a unit of the sound system of a language that forms the nucleus of a syllable.

A letter representing a vowel sound, such as a, e, i, o, u, y

Vowel sounds – when to use A and An:-

Using an and a does not depend on the spelling of the word it comes before, it depends on the pronunciation of the word. In most cases though, an is used before words that begin with vowels (a, e, i, o u.):

an apple
an elephant
an igloo
an oven
an umbrella

If a word starts with a consonant sound, use a.

a ball
a car
a doll

Vowel Sounds

It is very important to know that when a word starts with a vowel sound, you should use an. Sometimes u is pronounced as y. Try saying these two words, see if notice how the u is pronounced in two different ways.

an unforgettable experience – unforgettable has a vowel sound so we use an.
a university – university has a y sound so we use a.
This is also the case with o, which may sometimes have a w sound. Compare:
an octopus – octopus starts with a vowel sound.
a one track mind – one-track starts has a w sound.

The Silent h

Sometimes with words that begin with h, the h sound is not pronounced. Unfortunately there is no rule about when the h is silent. Let’s look at an example.
an honour – the h is silent. We use an because the honour has a vowel sound because the h is not pronounced: (h)onour.
a historic day – the h is pronounced. Historic starts with an h sound.
Now decide if an or a is needed in these sentences. Remember to focus on how the key words are pronounced.

List of Short Vowel Words

The English language provides a list of short vowel words that seem to be never ending. A short vowel word is any word that doesn’t allow the vowel within it to generate that vowel’s long vowel sound.

For example, the word “bug” is a short vowel word because there’s no long “U” sound. A word doesn’t necessarily have to have three letters to be a short vowel word, but it makes for the easiest example and three-lettered words make up the bulk of any list of short vowel words. Let’s take a look.

Short vowel sounds in words:-

Here is the reason why words with only three letters typically make the short vowel sound. Three letters usually don’t allow for a second vowel to force the long vowel sound out. Exceptions include words like “bee” or “tea.”

These words use a second vowel to force the long vowel sound from the first one, while other words like “ant” or “mat” use the placement of consonants to force a short vowel sound.

But, here’s an important point to keep in mind. The words listed below are short vowel sounds, not short vowel spellings. That is, just because a word is short, doesn’t mean it will automatically have a short vowel sound. And vowel as written doesn’t always correspond with the sound it makes. Take the word “pretty.” The E is sounded like a short I, and the Y is sounded like a long E. Phonetically, it sounds more like “prit-tee,” not “pret-tai.”

Likewise, we can’t assume a long word will automatically have a long vowel sound. Let’s look at the word “business.” The U and E in “business” are also sounded like a short I, and the I is silent altogether. Phonetically speaking, we don’t pronounce it “buss-eye-ness.” It’s more like “biz-niss.” With that in mind, let’s explore more short vowel words, sorted by letter.

The a, e, i, o, u Chart: Sounds that Vowels Make Helper

The difference between Vowels & Consonants

Vowels are five letters with sounds that are made with no blockage of airflow. Consonant letters have sounds that are blocked by the lips or the tongue.
“Vowel” came from the Latin word “vocalis” which means “speaking,” while “consonant” came from a borrowed Latin word “symphonon” which means Pronounced with.”

Vowels and Consonants

The letters B, C, D, F, J, K, M, N, P, Q, S, T, V, X, and Z are mainly used to spell consonants, The letters A and O are mainly used to spell vowels, and. The letters E, G, H, I, L, R, U, W, Y are used as/in spellings representing both vowels and consonants.