On Tuesday, I talked about stops. Today we’ll focus on the promised nasals, sibilants, and liquids. (And you thought you left all this behind after English 101!)
Nasals—n, m, ng—are sounded in the nose. Say inning, and you’ll see what I mean. You can feel the n and ng sounds at the top of the back [...]
Monthly Archive for September, 2009
Phonics 101: Consonants (Part 1)
Posted in Writing on Sep 15th, 2009
Oh goody! Another word-geek fest today. In my last post, I talked about vowel sounds. Today, we’ll focus on consonants.
Most consonants cannot actually be said without an accompanying vowel sound. (Try saying the sound for “d” and see what I mean: you can’t really say it unless you add a schwa or some other vowel [...]
In honor of it being back-to-school month, my next few posts will be all about words—two weeks of bliss for anyone out there who loves the English language. So, let’s get down to business. Or back to basics. Or whatever.
We all know that words are made up of letters. But I think we sometimes forget [...]