Author: British Council | Published on 1 September 2022

 

English isn’t a phonetic language. This means that the same letters can be pronounced differently, and that different letters can make the same sound.

This activity is about raising awareness and practising sounds. For example, ‘bed’ and ‘said’ have different letters, but the same sound /e/. While ‘women’ and ‘move’ have the same letter, but different sounds /ɪ/ and /u:/. 

In this activity, learners need to think about which of the underlined letters in the words have the same sound and then put those words in the same group. If possible, they should also write the sound.

For example:

Which of these words have the same sound? 

four

hair

plane

poor

prey

rain

roar

there

wear

Here are some more words that can be used.

/u:/ blue, flew, shoe

/i:/ team, key, field

/j/ jump, age, soldier

/j/ yet, onion, use

/s/ city, soon, listen

/e/ bread, said, friend  

Glossary

Phonetic language: A language in which the letters always have the same sounds.

Raising awareness: Making someone aware of something which can then be used for learning purposes.

See also