9. Reading of English Consonant Clusters

English sibilants and interdental sounds which don’t have their equivalents in the Latin alphabet are denoted by combinations of consonants, the second element of which is “h”, e. g. she, chain, thus, three.

All the combinations of consonants, except “sh”, have the primary and the secondary sound meanings. The combinations of consonants are read in the primary sound meaning in most English words. In the words of foreign origin they are read in their secondary meaning.

Cluster	Sound	Where	Examples
ch	[t∫] [k] [∫] [d3] [h]	Geek and Latin French	cheap, chair, watch ache, school machinery, chef sandwich, spinach Loch
th	[θ] [t] [ð]	word end and beginning proper names between and before vowels	throw, tooth Thomas, Thailand this, leather
ph	[v] [f]	Greek and Latin	Stephen philosophy, phonetics
sh	[∫]		shelf, wash

Reading of “ng, nk”

Cluster	Sound	Where	Examples
ng	[ŋ]	In final position or before suffixes –er, -est, -ed, -ing	Sing, singing, singer
ng	[ŋg]	In the middle of a root word	Anger, hunger but angel, conglomerate, congratulate
nk	[ŋk]	Any position	Ink, pink

Reading of letter “n”

The leter “n” denotes:

[n] in prefixes – con, - non, - in, -un (income, nonsense, confident, unread)

[ŋ] before: c, k ([k] function, tank), ck, qu ([k] conquer, ancker), xi ([k∫] anxious), g ([g] England, longer), the suffixes and endings –er, -est, -ed, -ing (sing, singer, singing).

Ex. 9.1 Read the words with letter “n”:

condition tranquil non-stop confidential constant cleanest

hank infamous unbroken conquer singing interrupt

hang anxious lighting fore-finger unconscious inkpot

Ex. 9.2 Transcribe the following words and divide them into groups according to the reading of the combinations of consonants:

linked, wings, inkpot, jungle, anxious, mounting, singer, single, anger, anxious, nonsense, eating, finger, income, function, conquer, having, confident, eaten, English, concentration, nonplus, indirect, frank, hanger, linked, wings, jungle, anxious, mounting, condition, nonunion, invisible, tank, function, belonged, nice, can't, sing, incredible, land, giant, pane, strong, bringing, long, banker.

Ex. 9.3 Find the odd word:

1. jungle, nonsense, Frank, sorting, single.

2. uneasy, nonplus, convention, English, irritation.

3. ring, tongue, boring, chunk, conversion.

4. dinner, convenient, nonstop, involve, undid.

5. unclaimed, nonsense, link, inhale.

6. finger, hang, frank, stronger.

7. singer, hanger, belonged, doing.

Ex. 9.4 Add the word according to the rule:

1. informal, non-aggression, unable, ...

2. tank, frank, hank, ...

3. longer, stronger, younger, ...

4. sung, wing, finger, ...

5. consult, industry, indulge, ...

6. stinks, tank, inkpot, ...

7. boring, sorting, lying, ...

Ex. 9.5 Find the way from Start to Finish. You may pass a square only if the word in it has the sound [ŋ]. You can move horizontally or vertically only.

Start ↓

sing	think	thick	strong	wrong	rung
sign	uncle	unless	drug	strange	comb
thanks	angry	signal	drank	English	finger
anxious	angel	single	monkey	money	young
language	tongue	skiing	skin	came	ink
lounge	danger	band	dream	swim	wing

↑ Finish

Ex. 9.6 Explain the rules of reading in these proverbs:

1. What is done cannot be undone.

2. Wars the sport of kings.

3. He who swims in sin will sink in sorrow.

4. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

5. Better unborn than untaught.

6. Honey is sweet but the bee stings.

Ex. 9.7 Join consonant clusters with the sounds they can denote. There are 4 sounds that don’t fit here.

[d3]	[t]	[t∫]	[v]	[ð]
[s]	CH SH TH NG PH NK			[n]
[ŋk]				[h]
[f]				[θ]
[g]	[ŋ]	[∫]	[k]	[ŋg]

Find the word with each sound:

Chandelier, worth, anger, triumph, Anthony, sandwich, cheekbone, Stephen, shrewd, bang, Frank, than, monarchy

Ex. 9.8 Find the odd word according to the way of the reading of consonant clusters:

1. accept, success, soccer, accede, access, accent.

2. anchor, young, conquer, conclude, function.

3. think, thunder, throne, thyme, thick, thing.

4. chaos, chord, stomach, monarchy, chaste.

5. tooth, scythe, truth, thumb, throw, thin.

6. go, gargle, gage, glove, stage, give.

7. chef, chic, champagne, charade, chick.

Ex. 9.9 Sort out the words into columns according to the reading of consonant clusters.

Machinery, scheme, scythe, child, Thames, weather, chef, Christmas, Thompson, chick, than, chic, chord, chalice, cliché, Chaos, neither, thyme, thrift, cheek, though, thorn, thaw, thief.

Ex. 9.10 Find a way from start to finish. You may pass a square only if the word in it has the sound [θ]. You can move horizontally of vertically.

Start

north	northern	either	weather	breathe	those
south	bath	bathe	thought	breath	youth
southern	third	their	through	though	thumb
Thailand	cloth	path	fifth	with	worth
month	clothes	these	brother	that	teeth
throw	thing	author	other	they	wealth

Finish

Ex. 9.11 Complete this rhyme using words from the box. Then listen and check ( , track 13)

Earth

another

Heather

together

brother

birth

neither

either

mothers

brothers

Arthur had a brother

And he didn’t want another.

And of the brothers, ______

Wanted sisters _____ .

The last thing on this_____

They wanted was a _____.

So Arthur’s mother _____

Got them both _____,

And told them all good _____

Should learn to share their _____.

Ex. 9.12 Listen and circle the word you hear( , track 14)

1. Youth or use? There’s no youth\use talking about that.

2. Thought or taught? I don’t know what she thought\taught.

3. Free or three? Free\Three refills with each packet!

4. Closed or clothed? They weren’t fully closed\clothed.

5. Breeding or breathing? They’ve stopped breeding\breathing.

6. These are or visa? These are\Visa problems we can deal with later.

Ex. 9.13 Practice reading the following words observing the rules of reading of consonant clusters:

a) Sheep, fish, Lewisham, mishap, ghost, rough, high, eight, daughter, Ghana, ghastly, ghee, gherkin, ghetto, ghillie, ghoul, Ghana, ghee, gharry, ghoulish, shoulder, shovel, show off, shrewd, shrink, Zhirinovsky, Zhukov, Zhivago, Zhejiang, Zhang, Zhuhai, photograph, shepherd, Stephen, Clapham, nephew, cheap, chair, charm, scheme, school, ache, cholesterol, chemistry, machinery, clef, sandwich, Charles, charter, charka, charivari, chateau, chauffeur, cheekbone, Chaucer, chauvinism, Chihuahua, chloral, choir, cholera, cholinesterase, pharmacology, pharyngeal, phoneme, phonetic, physiotherapy, phthisis, phylum

b) Wristband, knout, wryneck, Khachaturian, wreathe, Khan, Khyber, khanate, pneumothorax, Knox, knuckle, wrongheaded, Khrushchev, knurl, knockdown.

Ex. 9.14 Read the proverbs; explain the reading of consonant clusters:

The tongue is not steel, yet it cuts.

Exception proves the rule.

Where the shoe pinches.

Don’t cross the bridge till you get to it.

Physicians mend or end us.

Neither fish nor flesh.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

A watched pot never boils.

A drowning man will catch at a straw.

Little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Ex. 9.15 Practice reading the following homophones:

Homophones are words (or combinations of words)

• which sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings: e.g. meet and meat, seen and scene.

• There are some examples of one word sounding like a combination of words: e.g. heed and he’d.

• Sometimes three words (or combinations of words) sound exactly the same: e.g. I’ll, isle and aisle.

• scent – a distinctive smell, sent – the past tense of send

• scene – the place where an event takes place, seen – the past tense of see

• site – a piece of land, cite – to quote

• session – the meeting of a court, cession – the act of ceding

• scull – rowing motion, skull – head bone

• sic – to set upon, sick- ill

• sink – to submerge, synch – together in time

• soared – to have sailed through the air, sword – long fighting blade

• sucker – one who sucks, succor – relief

• plum – purple fruit, plumb – straight up and down

• profit – money earned, prophet – seer

• bark – outer sheath of a tree, barque – square-rigged sailing ship

• bloc – an alliance, block – square object

• bold – brave, bowled – knocked over

• boll – round seed pod, bowl – dish

• borough – township, burrow – dig into the ground

• bough – tree branch, bow – front of a ship, respectful bend

• burger – meat sandwich, burgher – merchant

• but – excepting, butt – the thick end

Ex. 9.16

Spot the homophones 1

isle / bard / beer / bored / caught / night / pale / cawed / chord / sly / died / dyer / cored/ dough / flawed / toed / pear / meal / floored / teas / knew / heard / soar / heal / lacks / lax / male / steer / we’ll / maize / might / slay / dead / stair / mite / breaks / knight / towed / dire / knit / weight / herd / seam / aisle / he’ll / nit / tees / new / pail / bier / board / barred / pare / doe / pair / rain court / bared / dyed / heel / reign / saw / mail / sore / I’ll / seem / maze / sleigh / stare / tease / toad / wait / wheel

Some of these words do not form pairs of homophones.

Ex. 9.17

Spot the homophones 2

In the following conversation a large number of words have been replaced by homophones. Spot where they have been used and decide how the words should be written.

- Lousy whether we’ve been having recently. (=Lousy weather…)

- We haven’t been having much son, that’s for shore. I got court in the reign this mourning and got wet threw.

- Me two. And how about that cold missed first thing? I went out bear headed to get sum fire-would and haven’t bean warm since. And my hands got quite saw as well. Really roar, they feel.

- I no watcher mean. I always get aches and panes in the winter. Anyway, weir off to get some son necks tweak. Weave booked a few daze in Singerpoor.

- Yes, I herd you had. Lucky yew! Still, I shouldn’t mown. We flue to Florida last cheer, witch was really nice, and it’s only fore weeks till we visit my sun and daughter-in lore in Roam. Haven’t scene them for rages. We only maid the booking yesterday, threw the internet. Mary’s already pact; she can’t weight.

- Well, tell her she won’t knead her fir coat any weigh.

- Rite. Oh Kay. Aisle sea you later.

- Buy. See ewe a round.

Some of the homophones show that this is fast, informal speech.

Ex. 9.18 Transcribe the following words:

Shop, fish, this, English, shot, three, cheese, something, thus, months, catch, through, that, child, chef, these, those, thirst, third, chop, shelf, anxious, trophy, scholarship, changes, England, machinery, gage, judge, science, echo, tongues, income, scheme.

Ex. 9.19 ( , track 15)

A In each line, identify the word that has a different first consonant sound. Read them first, then listen to the recording to check.

Example: friend priest physical philosophy

1	kettle	car	circle	catch
2	these	thank	think	thread
3	when	which	whose	where
4	church	choir	cheap	chart
5	plenty	prince	piano	pneumatic
6	number	know	moon	gnaw

B In each line, identify the word that has a different final consonant sound. Then listen to the recording to check.

1	picked	rubbed	fact	bought
2	dragged	road	dropped	hide
3	cough	safe	roof	of
4	packs	ox	begs	pats
5	lump	chasm	limb	name
6	sock	music	arch	ache

Ex. 9.20 Practice reading the following twisters:

1. Have judgement not to judge this judgement judging by people’s judgement.

2. Each child has much chance to become the champion of the match.

3. This is a thick thimble.

4. A handsome singer sang an exciting song in English.

TEST

I. Find the odd word in the line:

1. Guide, gas, general, glass, globe

2. Crimson, music, lens, always, research

3. Initiative, negotiate, transition, completion, station.

II. Explain assimilation(s) in the following words:

Cupboard, nice shoes, twice, try, sweet, plane, pray

III. Mark stresses:

heretical

Arabic

political

Chinese

attention

lunatic

IV. Transcribe the following words:

Psychiatrist, appointment, therapy, tranquilizer, medicinal, malaria, typhoid, hang gliding, windsurf, athletics, steeplechase, draughts, rink, oar, tournament.