Sounds

Concept: Vowels and Consonants

English has a lot of words. Each word is made using letters. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet and it can be divided into two parts. Few letters are called vowels and most of the letters in the English alphabet are called consonants.

Alphabets and Their Sounds:

Each letter of the alphabet has a sound. These sounds are written with the ‘/’ sign before and after the sound.

Examples:

The sound for the letter ‘E’ is written in this way: /e/

The sound for the letter ‘J’ is written in this way: /j/

The sound for the letter ‘M’ is written in this way: /m/

The sound for the letter ‘U’ is written in this way: /u/

What are Vowels?

Vowels are an important part of the alphabet. Every word in English has at least one vowel. Out of 26 letters, there are 5 vowels. These vowels are ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’.

Examples:

a-ant

e-elephant

i-iguana

o-onion

u-uncle

English Vowels:

Letters	Sounds	Examples
a	/a/
e	/e/
i	/i/
o	/o/
u	/u/

What are Consonants?

Except for these 5 vowels, others are consonants. We have a total of 21 consonants. They are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

Things to Know about Consonants:

1. Most of the time we use the moving parts of our mouth to make consonant sounds. For instance, lips, tongue, teeth, etc.
2. Most of the consonants have only one sound.

English consonants:

Letters	Sounds	Examples
b	/b/
c	/c/
d	/d/
f	/f/
g	/g/
h	/h/
j	/j/
k	/k/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
p	/p/
q	/q/
r	/r/
s	/s/
t	/t/
v	/v/
w	/w/
x	/x/
y	/y/
z	/z/

Look at the sound words for all the 26 letters in the English alphabet in the table given below.

Consonants and Vowels