American English consonants.

Consonants are generally classified in terms of the place of articulation (e.i., the position and shape of major articulators, such as the tongue, lips, velum, etc.) and/or manner of articulation (the way in which the articulators move to produce the sound). Such classification can be very detailed, complex and often times inconclusive. This is why, for most learning purposes a brief and simple description of articulation is most useful.

One important feature of consonants is voicing. Voiced consonants are produced with an accompanying vibration of the vocal cords, while voiceless consonants are produced without such vibration. It should be noted that voicing is phonemic in English, i.e. it can make a meaningful difference between words. For example, the difference between "bit" and "pit" is based purely on the fact that [b] is voiced and [p] is voiceless.

Examples of American English consonants.

The chart uses so-called IPA phonetic symbols. Most learners may not be familiar with those symbols, nor will it be easy to display IPA notation in a web browser. For the sake of simplicity, plain text-based (ASCII) notation will be used in this guide. The following table illustrates the use of phonetic symbols with examples.

Click "PLAY" to hear the words.

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