Glossary · Sounds and phonemic awareness
What is a consonant?
Definition
A consonant is a speech sound made by partly or fully blocking the air with the lips, tongue or teeth, and any letter that usually spells one.
Twenty-one letters are consonant letters, and English has about 25 consonant sounds. Some letters spell more than one consonant sound (c in cat and city), and some sounds need two letters (sh, th, ng).
What makes a sound a consonant is the blocking. For /p/ the lips close, for /t/ the tongue touches the ridge behind the teeth, for /s/ the air squeezes through a narrow gap. Vowels, by contrast, let the air flow freely.
The letter y is a consonant at the start of a word (yes) and a vowel elsewhere (gym, cry). The letter w works the same way in some vowel teams. Teaching that early saves confusion later.
In a lesson
Ask the student to say /p/ with a hand in front of their mouth, then say /ŏ/. They feel the lips stop the air for /p/ and stay open for /ŏ/.
Examples
Each word with its spelling units, one per sound.
- yarny·ar·n
- centc·e·n·t
- shutsh·u·t
- thanth·a·n
Words come from our lexicon, checked against a pronouncing dictionary. Words a student sees in our assessments are left out.
Why does this matter for the record?
Consonant sounds are usually Secure early. Note the ones that aren't (often /v/, /th/ or /y/) so they get extra review.
Rate each skill as you teach it
Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.