en Unit 7.1
Consonant clusters
INTRODUCTION
A consonant cluster is two or more consonants together, without a vowel between them. They may appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
FORM
The most common consonant clusters are:
| Uppercase | Lowercase | Phonetic transcription |
| BL, BR | bl, br, | /bl/, /br/ |
| CL, CR | cl, cr | /kl/, /kr/ |
| DR | dr | /dr/ |
| FL, FR | fl, fr | /fl/, /fr/ |
| GL,GR | gl, gr | /gl/, /gr/ |
| PL, PR | pl, pr | /pl/, /pr/ |
| SC, SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, ST, SW | sc, sh, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw | /sk/, /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/, /sp/, /st/, /w/ |
| TR, TW | tr, tw | /tr/, /tw/ |
EXAMPLE
br: brother
cl: cluster
tr: tree
USE
Consonant clusters can be produced in a lot of ways, some of which are:
- nasal + stop - /læmp/
- nasal + fricative- /sɛvənθ/
- nasal + affricate - /lʌntʃ/
- fricative + stop /best/
EXTENSION
Consonant clusters may be difficult to pronounce for some students, because they consist of two or more consonants together.
Pay attention to pronounce them correctly and not to add any vowel sounds to them. For example, we pronounce the word ski as /skiː/, not /eskiː/.
