Check your knowledge

Exercise 1. Count the number of phonemes, graphemes and letters in the following words:

Near, east, straight, know, there, fish, grate, court, ought, shore.

Lesson 2 Types of Graphemes

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk

Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww

Xx Yy Zz

Simple graphemes (single letters): vowels and consonants.

Complex graphemes (combinations of letters): vowels and consonants.

Simple vowel graphemes

a, e, i, o, u, y

Vowel letters in English are pronounced according to their position in a word, i.e. according to the type of a syllable they form. Simple vowel graphemes have two sound values: principal and additional. Principal sound value is reading the vowel grapheme in the accented syllable. Traditionally there are four types of syllables:

1. The open syllable may consist of a) consonant + vowel, e.g. go, me, by, b) consonant + vowel + consonant (except r) + silent e, e.g. take, Pete, like, tone, tune. In an open syllable the pronunciation of vowel letters coincides with their alphabetical definition.

2. The closed syllable consists of consonant + vowel + one or more consonants (including double r. A single r forms other types of a syllable). The vowels are pronounced as short vowels.

3. A syllable of the third type consists of a vowel followed by r. It represents a long vowel sound.

4. The syllable of the fourth type ends in r followed by e or some other vowel.

Four Types of a Syllable

Vowel grapheme	The open syllable	The closed syllable	The third type of a syllable	The fourth type of a syllable
a	[eI] made, tame, Asia, age, brake, waste	[x] apple, cat, barracks	[R] bar, target, farther, large, park	[Fq] stare, dare, declare, prepare
e	[J] eve, me, these, precede	[e] get, tell, letter	[E:] term, perfect, prefer, nerve, emerge	[Iq] here, sincere, atmosphere
i	[aI] dine, side, pie	[I] sit, skin, ship	[E:] fir, birth, affirm, thirsty	[aIq] fire, tired, require, desire
y	[aI] style, nylon, dye, by	[I] system, mystery, myth	[W] myrtle	[aIq] tyre
o	[qu] stone, rode, so	[P] not, bottle, sorrow	[L] nor, forth, corn	[L] tore, more, store
u	[jH] tube, huge, use, Susan [H] June, rule	[A] nut, hurry, butter	[E:] fur, curve, furnish, burn, return, occur, urgent	[juq] pure, secure, fury, curious [uq] sure

Exercise 1. Read the following words.

glade – glide – globe dame – dime – dome grape – ripe – rope

stale – style – stole raze – rise – rose tape – type – trope

Exercise 2. Read the following words.

tune – truce dune – spruce Hume – brume

huge – jute cute – rule tune – June

Exercise 3. Read the following words.

bribe – breve my – me shy – she by – be

fly – he mite – mete quite – Swede kite – Crete

these – those theme – throne grebe – grove

Scene – stone Steve – stove Eve – strove

Exercise 4. Read the following words.

trip trek trod truss tram

strip stress prod trust tramp

miss mass moss muss mass

him hem loss hum ham

list lest lost lust lass

big beg bog bug bag

pin pen pond pun pan

print press prop plump pram

drip dress drop drum drag

still stem stop stump stamp

spill spell spot pump stand

Bill Nell Bob nun Sam

Exercise 5. Define the type of a syllable. Group the words according to the type of a syllable. Read all the words.

Dyke, size, fuzz, us, cite, twelve, fix, dash, nude, bridge, bribe, wide, width, quite, sing.

Exercise 6. Read the following words.

1. farm, form, fern, form, start, stork, stern, spurn, skirt, sparse, scorch, serf, urge, birth, spirt, churl, herb, scorn, large, chirp, garb, Byrd, thorn, third, shark;

2. garland, gorget, hurdler, jerky, market, murmur, Nordic, orchard, scarlet, order, servant, sportsman, surly, Tartar, thermal, thirsty, turbo, turnip, urgent, verbal, verger, virgin, carbon, darling, darter, farther, further, curler, northern.

Exercise 7. Read the following words.

a) mat stack shack mate stake shake mar star shark mare stare

b) cod stock shot code stoke shone cork storm short core store

c) fin spit sit fine spite site fir spirt sir fire spire

d) cut punch plum cute pule plume curt purr blur cure pure

Home assignment:

1. find the examples illustrating the four types of a syllable (7- 8 examples per each case) in a dictionary;

2. write out the transcription and translation of the words straight, grate, sum, their, way, dew, rein, bean; find their homophones; count the number of letters, phonemes and graphemes in each word (including homophones).

Exercise 1. Supply the missing letter (or letters) for the [з:] sound. Translate the words into Russian.

T – rm, f – r (2), b – rth (2), st – r, G – rman, sh – rt, s – rname, ret – rn, b – rch, ins – rt, d – rty, s – rpent, s – rface, f – rm, n – rve, th – rsty, c – rtain, t – rn, p – rse, m – rcy, sp – r, sk – rt, s – rmon, c – rtain, c – rse, b – rn, em – rge, -- rgent, h – rt, m – rth, b – rst.

Exercise 2. Supply the missing letters and translate the words into Russian.

C – re, p – re, h – re, c – re, requ – re, w – re, d – re, f – rious, nightm – re.