Consonants and Consonant Sounds in English with Examples

What is a consonant? Is a consonant sound the same as a consonant? Go through the article to learn what consonants are and how many consonant sounds there are in English. To learn more about how they occur in words, you can go through the list of words with consonants.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Consonant?
• Consonant Sounds in English
• Classification of Consonant Sounds
• The 24 Consonant Sounds in English
• Spelling Rules for Words with Consonants
• Words with Consonants
• List of Words with Consonants and Vowels
• List of Words with Consonants and No Vowels
• Frequently Asked Questions on Consonants in English

What Is a Consonant?

Consonant is a term used to refer to the letters of the English alphabet other than the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). They include letters that are pronounced by obstructing the flow of air in the vocal tract. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines a consonant as “a speech sound made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air through the mouth or nose”.

Consonant Sounds in English

Like vowels, consonants can also be better perceived by learning their sounds. A consonant sound is a speech sound that is produced by the partial or complete obstruction of air by the lips, teeth, tongue or throat. The Collins Dictionary defines a consonant sound as “a sound such as ‘p’, ‘f’, ‘n’, or ‘t’ which you pronounce by stopping the air flowing freely through your mouth”. There are 44 speech sounds in total in the English language. Among them, 24 are consonant sounds. Let us look at what they are and how they are classified.

Classification of Consonant Sounds

Consonant sounds are divided into categories based on two aspects, namely,

• The place of articulation – with reference to the parts of the mouth that are used to pronounce the particular sounds.
• The manner of articulation – with reference to the movement of air from the lungs and through and out of the nose and mouth.

Read on to learn more about the various places and manners of articulation.

Place of Articulation

• Bilabial – the upper lip and lower lip come in complete contact with each other.
• Dental – the tip of the tongue touches the teeth mildly.
• Labio-dental – the lower lip and the upper teeth come in contact with each other.
• Palatal – the body of the tongue touches the hard palate.
• Alveolar – the tip or blade of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge.
• Palato-alveolar – the blade/tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue approaches the hard palate.
• Velar – the body of the tongue comes in contact with the soft palate (also called the velum).
• Glottal – the vocal cords come into contact and produce friction.

Manner of Articulation

• Plosive – a sound produced by the air being blocked inside the vocal tract followed by the release of air from the mouth.
• Fricative – a sound produced by positioning the mouth in a particular manner so as to partially block the air coming out of the mouth.
• Affricate – a combination of a plosive and fricative manner, in which sound is produced by the blocking of air and finally releasing it through a partial passage.
• Nasal – a sound produced when the air passes and escapes through the nose.
• Lateral – a sound produced by the air escaping from the mouth and sides of the tongue.
• Approximant – a sound produced when the tip of the tongue slightly touches the alveolar ridge, and the air escapes through the gap between the tongue and the alveolar ridge.

The 24 Consonant Sounds in English

Spelling Rules for Words with Consonants

From among the spelling rules in English, there are a few rules that concern the spelling of words with consonants.

• Consonants such as b, c, d, g, h, k, l, n, p, t, and w can appear as silent letters in words. Examples of such words include debt, subtle, crescent, scene, handsome, bridge, align, light, honour, technology, knell, knowledge, alms, palm, autumn, hymn, cupboard, psychology, listen, patch, etc.
• The letter ‘s’ never follows the letter ‘x’. For example, excess, exceptional, exercise, excellence, etc.
• Words in the English language never end with the consonants ‘j’ or ‘v’.
• When using degrees of comparison, you will have to double the last consonant of monosyllabic words when transforming a positive degree to a comparative or superlative degree. For example, redder, reddest, thinner, thinnest, slimmer, slimmest, bigger, biggest, etc.
• Monosyllabic words ending with an ‘f’, ‘l’ or ‘s’ should have double ‘f’s, double ‘l’s or double ‘s’s. Chess, bliss, chaff, huff, bluff, still, knoll, etc., are some examples.

Words with Consonants

Given below are two lists of words – those with consonants and vowels and those with consonants and no vowels. While you go through the list, note their spellings too. You will see that all words without vowels will have the letter ‘y’ in them, which is used instead of a vowel that could produce the /ɪ/ or /iː/ sound when pronounced.

List of Words with Consonants and Vowels

• Think
• Flush
• Crutch
• Wash
• Pinch
• Watch
• Thorough
• Fight
• Crunch
• Slouch
• Fuss
• Stitch
• Garrage
• Meance
• Trust
• Frequency
• Plenty
• Flag
• Ship
• Cherish
• Flower
• Respect
• Ascend
• Throne
• Private

List of Words with Consonants and No Vowels

• Shy
• Cry
• Pry
• Dry
• Sly
• Spy
• Ply
• Try
• Fry
• Fly
• Thy
• Wry
• Gym
• Why
• Spry
• Cyst
• Crypt
• Nymph
• Lymph
• Myrrh
• Rhythm

Check out consonant words for more lists of words with consonants.