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What is an example of a consonant?
Consonants are the twenty-one letters of the English alphabet which are not vowels.
The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u.
Are w and y vowels?
Both y and w are consonants at the beginning of words. But they team with vowels to create different vowel sounds (owl, bowl, haw, new; boy, gray, they, guy). Also, the letter y is a vowel when there is no other vowel present (my).
Does each consonant have a permanent sound?
No. For instance, the letter c has no sound of its own, it borrows the sound of s or k. In front of a, o, and u, it uses the hard sound of k (cake, coat, cute); in front of an e or i, it uses the soft sound of s (cell, cite). The letter g has its hard sound (gal, God, gut) and soft sound of j (gem, gibe). The letter x has the sound of ks (box).
Why do consonants depend on vowels? Consonants require the help of vowels to form words. We use our lips, tongue, teeth, and vocal cords to form consonant sounds while vowel sounds are freely uttered. Vowels enable consonant sounds to blend. Utter a, e, i, o, and u. Notice how your passageway (mouth and throat) is totally open as you pronounced the long sounding vowels. Now create the sound of m; notice how your lips are together obstructing that sound as you hum. Try to pronounce jmp. You'll have better luck with jump.
How are consonant sounds grouped? Consonant sounds are divided by the manner in which we make the sound and whether we use our voice or not (voiced, voiceless). For instance b and p are both categorized as plosives in that we close our lips to stop our breath then we suddenly release our breath in an explosive way (bay, pay). Notice the p sound was voiceless, but we added sound to pronounce b. Consonants t (voiceless) and d (voiced) are also plosives made by holding back the air with our tongue (tot, dot). Consonants k and g are paired as plosives holding the air with the back of our tongue (kink, gunk). The k voiceless, the g voiced. The other divisions and comparisons are available in Where Is That Vowel.
What is a consonant blend? Some consonant sounds transition easily from one sound to another such as mp in jump. The two sounds blend smoothly without the aid of a vowel. As we're voicing our sounds using our lips, tongue, teeth, jaw, palate and nose to shape our utterances, some transitions are smooth, others awkward. The short vowel u in jump acts as a bridge to get to the mp. Initial consonant blend helpers are r (crab, drop, frog), l (glad, plug, blog), and s (swim, smug, snap).
What is a consonant digraph? When consonants combine to create a new sound it is called a consonant digraph. A common helper is h: sh, ch, th, wh (ship, chop, then, whiz). Three of the digraphs may also end words (dish, such, math). Another combination is ng (sing). This sound is represented by n in front of k (sink). In laugh, gh has the sound of f. In phone, ph has the sound of f also.