V. Reading of consonant combinations (part 1)

Letter combination	Position	Pronunciation	Examples
sh		[ ʃ ]	She, shine
ch		[ tʃ ]	Chess, chalk
	Mostly in words of Greek or Latin origin	[ k ]	Christmas, cholera Exception: machine [mə'ʃi: n]
tch		[ tʃ ]	Watch, catch
ck		[ k ]	Black, clock
ng	At the end of words	[ ŋ ]	Long, strong
	In the middle of words	[ ŋg ]	English
nk		[ ŋk ]	Bank, thank
ph		[ f ]	Photo, phone
kn	At the beginning of a word	[ n ]	Knee, knife
mb	At the end of a word	[ m ]	Bomb
bt	At the end of a word	[ t ]	Doubt, debt

Exercise 45. Write down the phonetic symbol and practice reading the words.

sh[ ] ship, sheep, shop, shift, show, shiver, fish, wish, slash, English;

[ ] chick, cheek, chop, cherry, chain, reach, teach, peach;

ch

[ ] Christmas, cholera, Christ, chord, chorus;

tch [ ] catch, matcher, fetch, watch, stretch;

ck [ ] kick, luck, sick, sock, lock, pick, picky, stick, clock, crack;

[ ] song, sing – sang – sung, long, bang, fang, young, morning, evening, spring,

ng living;

[ ] finger, language, English, younger, longer, cringle;

nk[ ] think, drink, bank, rank, sunk, uncle, ankle, thanks, sink – sank - sunk;

ph [ ] telephone, phase, phrase, physics, pharmacy, photo, photograph, nymph, typhoon;

kn[ ] know – knew - known, knee, kneel, knife, knives, knock;

mb[ ] bomb, bomber, tomb, comb, thumb, limb, lamb, climb, climber;

bt[ ] doubt, undoubtedly, debt;

Exercise 46. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Match, climb, reach, pick, sting, sheep, much, debt, photo, English, uncle, tomb, shine, phase, mingle, known, climber, Dutch, lock, charge, physiology, photo, comb, single, undoubtedly, sink, knelt, stink, phone, lamb.

Exercise 47. Practice reading the following tongue-twister. Explain the reading of the letters in bold.

She sells sea shells on the sea shore;

The shells that she sells are sea shells I’m sure.

VI. Reading of consonant combinations (part 2)

Letter combination	Position	Pronunciation	Examples
th	В начале знаменательных частей речи и в конце слов	[ θ ]	Thick, myth
	В начале местоимений, служебных частей речи и между гласными	[ ð ]	This, the, bathe
wr	At the beginning of a word	[ r ]	Write, wrong
wh	At the beginning of a word before vowels (except o)	[ w ]	What, why
	Before o	[ h ]	Who, whose
wa	Before final consonant (except r)	[ wɒ ]	Want, wash
	Before r	[ wɔ: ]	Warm, warn
wor	Before consonants in stressed syllables	[ w3: ]	Work, world
rh	At the beginning of a word	[ r ]	Rhyme, rhythm
ps	At the beginning of a word	[ s ]	Psalm, psychology

Exercise 48. Write down the phonetic symbol and practice reading the words.

[ ] thick, thought, throat, thing, thorn, theme, both, birth;

th

[ ] these, those, rather, other, weather, brother, either;

wr[ ] write, wrote, wrist, wry, wrong;

[ ] why, where, when, wheat, wheel, while;

wh

[ ] who, whose, whole, wholly, whom;

[ ] water, was, want, wand, watch, wander, warrior;

wa

[ ] war, warm, ward, toward, warn, warning;

wor [ ] word, world, work, worse, worst, worm, worth.

rh[ ] rhapsody, rhetoric, rhythm, rhyme, rhombus;

ps[ ] psalm, pseudonym, psychology, psychologist, psychic, psychiatrist;

Exercise 49. Read and transcribe the words. Do not forget to put the stress mark if a word has two or more syllables.

Neither, rhyme, whose, psychic, thank, wry, feather, waft, theory, worship, psychology, these, wrongly, waddle, where, worker, psychiatrist, why, another, that, warning, worse, rhythm.

Exercise 50. Read the following sentences paying attention to [ θ ], [ ð ] sounds.

1. There is the eight thirty train on Thursday. – Oh, that’s fine!

2. I asked Smith to throw everything away.

3. His wise thought is very important for my curious theme.

4. This is a strange thing to think about that theory.

5. Don’t give it another thought.

6. Who gave him these clothes? – I think Thomas did.

7. Whose are these things? – These are their things.

8. Take them out and clean them.

9. Does the noise bother them?

10. A thousand of thanks to you for that wise thought.

11. The seventh guest was late and the third one was very thirsty.

12. This was a stupid thing to meet them there and to tell them the truth.

Exercise 51. Practice reading the following tongue-twisters. Explain the reading of the letters in bold.

If a three-month truce is a truce in truth,

Is the truth of a truce in truth a three-month truce?

A truce – договор о перемирии

Exercise 52. Read the sentences. Underline the words with consonant combinations and explain their reading.

1. Did the children have lunch? 2. Which watch do you think I should buy? 3. Why do you eat so much cholesterol? 4. What channels does your teacher watch? 5. Philippe knows the truth. - You must be joking! 6. Be careful! Wasps and bees have stings. 7. She didn’t like the theme. The work would be very hard to do. Besides, it is worthless. 8. Do you grow wheat here? 9. The hotel was horrible! There was no hot water, and they didn’t have warm clothes. 10. Don’t even think about it! I won’t leave money at that bank. 11. Whose brother is this strong man? 12. Living in a small town is boring, isn’t it?