Pronounce English Accurately

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Consonant Clusters

Now we'll cover all the consonant clusters of English in a systematic way, commenting on any special points as we get to each cluster.

How difficult they are depends entirely on your first language. If, like many East Asian languages, your first language has few or no consonant clusters, then some will be very difficult, but not all. If your language has a very similar way of making clusters then most will be no problem, but again some of them are bound to be difficult.A few are very difficult even for native speakers.The point which applies most widely is to be careful not to insert the neutral sound [ə] between the consonant sounds in the clusters.

We'll start with all the two-consonant initial clusters beginning with /s-/:

sw: sway, sweet, swoop, swig.

sp: spoon, spanner, spin, spark.

As said at the start of the course, the aspirated stops lose their aspiration after /s/, so 'spoon' actually sounds like 'sboon'. Native speakers are usually unaware of this.

sm: small, smile, smart, smooth.

sf: sphere, spherical, sphincter, sphinx. A rare cluster.

st: start, stoop, stick, stale. Again, this could be transcribed [sd] as the /t/ is unaspirated.

sn: snow, snap, snigger, snail.

sl: slow, slap, sleep, slack.

sr: Sri Lanka. This only occurs in foreign place names, so it's very questionable whether this is an English cluster. Sri Lanka and Srebrenica are the only words I know with it. 'syringe' should not start with /sr-/; it should be two syllables, sy-ringe.

sj: A marginal cluster. Some people use it in 'suit', but I recommend /suːt/, so for me it doesn't exist.

sk: school, scarf, scant, skill. The /k/ is unaspirated.

And now all the three-consonant clusters beginning with /s/-:

spl: splay, splash, spline, splendid.

skl: in the words sclerosis and sclerotic only.

spr: spring, sprite, spruce, sprout.

spj: spew, spurious, spume, sputum.

str: straight, strong, strike, strain.

stj: stew, stupid, student, studio.

In American English, /stuː, ˈstuː.pɪd, ˈstuː.dənt, ˈstuː.diəʊ/

skr: screen, scream, scrape, scratch.

skw: squid, squirm, squeal, squall.

skj: skew, skewer, skua, and for some speakers 'scuba diving', but I say /ˈskuː.bə/.

And the last type of initial clusters are two-consonant clusters which all have the lateral /l/ or an approximant in second place:

First, the bilabial stops, /p/ and /b/ followed by /l/ and /r/:

pl: plate, pliers, plan, plot.

bl: blond, blight, blank, blame.

pr: pride, prune, press, proud.

br: break/brake, bran, brim, brine.

Some minimal pairs:

play - prey

plank - prank

plough - prow

plied - pride

And there are more with /bl/ and /br/:

blush - brush

blight - bright

bleed - breed

blink - brink

bland - brand

blanch - branch

bling - bringBlake - break, brake

blacken - bracken

The bilabial stops /p/ and /b/ followed by /j/:

pj: pew, pure, impugn, puny, puerile.

bj: beauty, Bude, bubonic, bureau.

The alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ followed by /r/:

tr: train, trip, triumph, trial

dr: drain, drip, drag, droop.

As I said earlier, the /t/ or /d/ is always affected by the following /r/ and has noisy release, almost like /tʃ/ or /dʒ/: trail, triumph; drug, drool.

And /t/ and /d/ followed by /w/:

tw: twin, twist, twit, twirl.

dw: dwell, dwelt, dwarf. A rare combination.

And /t/ and /d/ followed by /j/:

tj: tune, tunic, tumour, tuba.

dj: due/dew, duty, duke, duel.

Noisy release is optional according to speed and style of speech: [tjuːn] or [tʃuːn], [ˈdjuː.ti] or [ˈdʒuː.ti].

In American English these have no /j/ sound: tune, duty, dew, duke.

The velar stops /k/ and /g/ followed by /l/ and /r/:

kl: click, clean, clang, clear.

gl: glue, glimpse, glory, glamour.

kr: cry, cruel, cripple, create.

gr green, grass, group, great.

In these, there is noisy release to the /k/ but not to the /g/: 'cling, claw; crude, cramp' - but glow, glitter; grime, grief'.

Some minimal pairs with /kl/ and /kr/:

climb - crimeclamp - crampclock - crock, croccloak - croak

And with /gl/ and /gr/:

glean - greenglass - grassglow - growgland - grand

/k/ and /g/ followed by /w/ and /j/:

kw: quick, quiet, quack, quaint.

gw: /gw/ occurs mostly in Welsh names and place names: Gwen, Gwent. And also Guatemala.

kj: cue, queue, cute, cube.

Again, there is noisy release to the /k/: 'cute cuticles'.

/h/ followed by /juː/:

/hj/ huge - humungous - humid - human - humour - Hugh, Huw, hew, hue.

Because of the /j/, the /h/ sound is often produced with the tongue right up against the hard palate, resulting in fricative noise: [çjuː]. It can be quite difficult to say /hjuː/ properly.

Now fricatives followed by /l, r/ and /j/:

With initial /f/:

fl: fly, flame, flank, flight.

fr: fry, frame, frank, fright.

fj: few, feud, fuse, fuel.

Clusters with initial /θ/:

θr: three, through, thrill, thrifty, thread.

Don't copy native speakers who substitute /f/ for /θ/. It's 'one - two - Three' not 'one - two - Free'.

θw: Only three words that I can think of: thwart, thwack and the -thwaite in place names.

With initial /ʃ/:

ʃr: shrew, shrill, shriek, shred, shrine, shrapnel.

That's all the initial consonant clusters.

In the next lesson we'll look at the much larger number of final clusters.