9. Сочетания согласных 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]	Geek and Latin French	cheap, chair ache, school machinery, chef sandwich, spinach
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. 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. 2 Transcribe the following words and divide them into groups according to the reading of the combinations:

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. 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. 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. 5 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.6 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.7 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.8 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 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.10 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.11 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.

Ex. 12 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. 13 (from Test your pronunciation Unit 32)

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. 14 (from Test your pronunciation Unit 33)

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 see you later.

- Buy. See ewe a round.

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

Ex. 15 Group the letters of the English alphabet according to their pronunciation:

O P A C

H D

V F Z J Y

I

U The Alphabet B Q R

M

W G

N E S L

K

T X

 i: 

 e 

 eī 

 u: 

 aī 

 əu 

 ɑa: 

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.

* Digraph [daıgræf] – a pair of letters that represent one sound

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