Pronunciation Practice: Minimal Pairs – I

 

                                  

        Dear readers, in the previous post we learnt about the consonant sounds in English. In this post let us discuss “Minimal Pairs”, which means “… a set of words which differ from each other in just one sound” (Balasubramanian, 2005). For example, boy – toy, bin – pin, kite - bite. These two words differ in one different sound. Practising these minimal pairs certainly helps in refining pronunciation. Practise the following exercise to improve pronunciation in English.  

   Book               -           Cook

·                           Bat                  -           Mat

·                           But                  -           Cut

·                           Balm              -           Calm

·                           Best                -           Rest

·                           Beak              -           Peak

·                           Bun                -           Pun

·                           Bill                 -           Till

·                           Bread           -           Broad 

·                           Sad                -           Mad

·                           Cake             -           Take

·                           Cap               -            Map

·                           Cat                -            Bat

·                           Cup               -           Cap

·                           Cell               -           Shell

·                           Catch           -         Match

·                           Get                -           Got

·                           Sit                 -           Sat

Keep practising this exercise several times until you acquire the pronunciation fluently.

In the next post, let us learn more minimal pairs. 

  

Courtesy:

https://www.englishbix.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/List-of-Minimal-Pairs-for-Speech-Therapy.jpg 

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3e/9b/14/3e9b149c9c8b991e1eace82a5081c568.jpg

Author: 

K. Nandhakumar

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore-641 020