UNIT 8: THE ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM 2: CONSONANTS.

PHONETIC
SYMBOLS. GENERAL COMPARISON OF THE ENGLISH AND SPANISH
PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. INTRODUCTION
2. PHONETICS, PHONOLOGY, PHONEMES AND CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANT
SOUNDS
3. CLASSIFICATIONL OF CONSONANTS
1) PLOSIVES
2) FRICATIVES
3) AFFRICATES
4) NASALS
5) LATERALS
6) SEMI-CONSONANTS/GLIDES
4. SPANISH VS CATALAN VS ENGLISH VOCALIC SYSTEM
5. CONCLUSION
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION

When it comes to studying the English consonantal system, it is essential to understand the
similarities and differences between the Spanish and Catalan systems and the English one. We will
classify consonants according to their place of articulation: labial, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar or
glottal, and also according to their manner of articulation: plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, lateral
or semi-consonants. Our students should be drilled into minimal pair activities so that they can
notice the difference between English and Spanish/Catalan sounds. Spanish and/or Catalan lack
some of the English consonantal sounds, that is why it is so important to teach our students how to
discriminate sounds correctly.

2. PHONETICS, PHONOLOGY, PHONEMES AND VOCALIC PHONEMES.

Phonetics is the study of sound in speech, that is to say, how sounds are articulated, transmitted and
received. These stages give name to three disciplines: articulatory phonetics, phonetics and
phonology.

While Phonetics is not interested in meaning or particular languages (empirical science), Phonology
uses the data that Phonetics collects, such as the opposition between /e/ and /i/. In other words,
Phonetics works with sounds and Phonology works with phonemes. We may define a phoneme in
various ways: while the Oxford English Dictionary describes a phoneme as “a unit of significant
sound in a given language”, Grimson describes it as “the smallest contrastive linguistic unit which
may bring about a change of meaning”.

It is then essential to distinguish a phoneme from an allophone. According to its place of

articulation, a sound may vary considerably, yet it would still be the same sound but with a slight
difference. This slightly different sound would be the allophone, that is to say, a different realisation
of the same phoneme.

Following the trace of Articulatory Phonetics, we may describe the chain of sound production in the
following way:
 1. The muscles in the chest produce the flow of air necessary for almost all speech sounds.
2. The muscles in the larynx modify that air flow which goes from the chest to the mouth.
After the larynx, the air goes through the vocal cavity to exit through the mouth and nostrils.
3. In the larynx are the vocal chords and the space between them is called the glottis. When the
vocal chords are open, the air flows with no resistance on its way out producing voiceless
sounds; if, on the contrary, there is any obstacle on the path of the air flow, voiced sounds
occur, as a consequence of the vibration of the vocal chords.
4. The pharynx lies just above the larynx and is divided into two parts: the one ending at the
beginning of the oral cavity and the one ending at the beginning of the nasal cavity.
5. The velum (or soft palate) is a very important articulator because the tongue touches it to
produce velar consonants. The velum affects vowel quality by modifying the amount of air
that goes through the nose. All vowels are nasalised to some degree.
6. The tongue is the most important element in the vocalic articulation as sounds are produced
according to which part of the part is raised and how far it is from the palate.

We may distinguish altogether 2 types of sounds: vowels and consonants:

a) Vowels: voiced sound in whose formation the air flows continuously through the pharynx
and mouth. There is no obstruction that could cause any friction in the production of a vowel
b) Consonants: voiced or voiceless sounds (vibration or no vibration of the vocal chords)
which present any kind of obstruction during its production as the air goes through the oral
cavity.

Consonants can be classified according to:

1. Presence or absence of voice: if the vocal chords are open during the production of a sound
there is no vibration of them, and so the sound is voiceless. On the contrary, if there is
vibration of the vocal chords, the sound goes through the cavity finding obstruction on its
way out, and so the sound is voiced.
2. Place of articulation: where the obstruction takes place.
3. Manner of articulation: whether the obstruction is partial or full.
4. Nasal or oral: whether the air goes out through the nose or mouth.

3. CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS

Consonants may be voiceless or voiced (depending on the absence or presence of vibration of the
vocal chords). Moreover, a voiceless or voiced consonant is not distinguished only by the vibration
of the vocal chords, but also by the amount of energy needed to produce the sound. Thus, voiced
consonants are normally produced with less effort than voiceless ones.

 According the place of articulation we may distinguish:

o Labial: we can distinguish bilabial –both lips- (/p, b, m, w/) and labiodental – lower
lip towards upper teeth (f, v/).
o Dental: the tip and rims of the tongue against the upper teeth (/θ,ð/).
o Alveolar: the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge: /t, d, l, n, s, z/.
o Post-alveolar: the tip of the tongue against the rear of the alveolar ridge: /r/.
o Palato-alveolar: the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge and most of the
tongue raised against the hard palate: /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/.
o Palatal: the front of the tongue against the hard palate: /j/.
o Velar: the back of the tongue against the central and front part of the velum: /k, g, ŋ/.
o Glottal: articulated by the glottis. /h/.
  According to the manner of articulation:
o Plosives/stops: the passage of air is completely closed but it suddenly opens, letting
the air get through in an explosive way, or ‘plosion’: /p, t, k, b, d, g/.
o Fricatives: two organs get so close that on its way out the air produces a friction or
hissing sound: /s, z, f, v, h, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ/
o Affricates: similar to the plosives, the passage of air is completely closed, but then
the opening is slower, causing a friction with the organs on its way out: /tʃ, dʒ/.
o Nasals: the mouth is completely closed and the air is released through the nasal
cavity: /m, n, ŋ/.
o Lateral: the tongue is the obstacle of the passage of air and it is placed in the centre
of the way out, so the air exits the mouth through one or both sides of the tongue: /l/.
o Continuant: the tongue has a curved shape, with the tongue pointing towards the hard
palate at the back of the alveoli. The tongue is not closed enough as to cause friction
and the air flows freely between the tongue and the palate: /r/.
o Semi-vowels or glides: they are voiced sounds which start near a closed vowel and
move towards another vowel sound or any other sound of equal prominence: /j, w/.

3.1 PLOSIVES (6)

As referred to above, plosive consonants are made by a kind of explosion in the mouth. However,
plosive sounds cannot be produced without being followed by another sound (the one produced by
the rush of air) when the obstruction disappears. In order to describe each plosive sound, we will be
following those sounds present in RP English as it is the most widely understood variety of English
across Great Britain.

 /p/: it is a voiceless bilabial plosive. The lips are firmly closed and the soft palate is raised so
that the air cannot escape. When the lips are open, the air goes out in an explosive way and
then the mouth takes the shape for the following sound. Spanish/Catalan and English /p/ are
very similar. The only difference is that the /p/ is aspirated when in initial stressed position,
especially when followed by a vowel. It’s generally spelt ‘p’ or ‘pp’ though we also find
silent ‘p’ as in ‘cupboard’.

 /b/: this bilabial plosive sound is voiced between voiced sounds or partially voiced in initial,
final positions and next to voiceless consonants as in ‘dusbin’. The vocal chords may or may
not vibrate in its production but they must vibrate for the following sound (‘bin’). /b/ is
never aspirated. It’s normally spelt ‘b’ or ‘bb’ though we also find silent ‘b’ as in ‘thumb’.
In Spanish, however, this sound is pronounced fricative in between vowels, as is the case in
‘bebé’. This sound does not occur in English.

 /t/: it is a voiceless alveolar plosive in English, unlike in Spanish and in Catalan where it is
interdental. The tip of the tongue is placed against de middle of the alveoli, not too near the
teeth and not towards the hard palate. When the tip is lowered, the air is released making a
‘pop’. It is aspirated in initial stressed position, just like /p/. Normally spelt ‘t’, ‘tt’ or ‘th’ as
in ‘Tom, better, Thames’. The verbal suffix for the past simple and past participle of regular
verbs ‘-ed’ is pronounced /t/ after voiceless consonants, except for /t/. Sometimes the ‘t’ is
silent as in ‘castle’ or ‘listen’ or in word junctions as in ‘next Christmas’ or ‘postman’. It is
often dropped before /t/ and /d/ in rapid speech as in ‘Sit down!’.

 /d/: it is a voiced alveolar plosive sound. It can become partially voiceless in initial and final
positions. It is short and weak, and never aspirated. It is normally spelt ‘d’ or ‘dd’ as in
 ‘dark’ or ‘ladder’. The verbal suffix for the past simple and past participle of regular verbs ‘-
ed’ is pronounced /d/ after voiced consonants, except for /d/. Some students may find it hard
to distinguish between /d/ and /ð/, that is to say, the difference between the alveolar voiced
plosive and the dental voiced fricative, but we will cover the latter later on.

 /k/: it is a voiceless velar plosive. The back of the tongue is in firm contact with the soft
palate, where the air is trapped before the release. Aspiration occurs in initial stressed
position. It is normally spelt ‘k’ as in ‘king or kind’; ‘c’ or ‘cc’ followed by ‘a, o, u’ or
consonant as in ‘cable, cow, cutlery or cross’; ‘c’ in final position as in ‘elecric’; ‘ch’ as in
‘stomach’; ‘qu’ as in ‘queue’ or ‘x’ (generally pronounced /ks/) as in ‘X-Box’. It is also
silent sometimes as in ‘muscle’ or ‘knight’.

 /g/: it is a voiced velar plosive which is short and weak and never aspirated. Sometimes,
students who confuse /b/ and /v/ or /d/ and /ð/ tend to pronounced /g/ as a fricative and not
as a plosive. This could be fixed by making sure they fix their tongues against the palate
before letting the air through. In addition, we need to consider that /k/ and /g/ vary their
place of articulation and therefore their pronunciation according to the sound that follows:
Thus, when followed by a /w/ it will have a back pronunciation, whereas when followed
by /j/ or front vowel it will have a front articulation. It is normally spelt ‘g’ when followed
by ‘a, o, u’ as in ‘gun or go’; ‘g’ in final position as in ‘dog’; some words spelt with ‘ge’ or
‘gi’ as in ‘get’ or ‘girl’; ‘gg’ as in ‘struggle’; ‘gh’ as in ‘ghost’; ‘gu’ as in ‘guard’; or silent
as in ‘sign’.

3.2. FRICATIVES (9)

 /f/ voiceless labiodental fricative and /v/ voiced labiodental fricative. /f/ is normally spelt ‘f,
ff, ph or gh’ as in ‘flow, off, Physics or tough’. /v/ is the sound of the letter ‘v’, as in ‘drive
the van’.

 /θ/ voiceless interdental fricative and /ð/ voiced interdental fricative. These two sounds have
the same spelling, so it is important to compare when they have one pronunciation or the
other:

o Voiceless:
 At the beginning of a word except for pronouns, articles and adverbs: thin,
thought.
 At the end of a word: ‘mouth, north’.
 Between a consonant and a vowel: ‘healthy’.
 Plurals of words when the preceding sound is a short vowel or a consonant:
‘moths, months’.
o Voiced:
 At the beginning of a word in pronouns, articles and adverbs: ‘this, the, then’.
 At the end of a word: ‘bathe, with’.
 Between vowels: rather, mother.
 Plurals of words when the preceding sound is a long vowel or a diphthong:
baths, mouths.

 /s/ voiceless alveolar fricative and /z/ voiced alveolar fricative: these two sounds are also
used to mark the plural in English, for the Saxon genitive and the third person singular, so it
is very important to distinguish when to use one or the other:
 o Voiceless: ‘s’ or ‘ss’ in initial position: say, some; ‘sc’: science; ‘s, ss, c’ in medial
position: ‘gasoline, classes, racing’; final ‘s, ss, ce’: ‘bus, kiss, race’.
o Voiced: ‘z’ in initial position: zebra; ‘z, zz, s, ss’ in medial position: ‘crazy, fuzzy,
busy, scissors’; final ‘s’ (plural suffix or 3 rd person singular verbal suffix) is
pronounced /z/ when preceded by a vowel or voiced consonant: ‘trees, dogs’.

 /ʃ / voiceless postalveolar fricative and /ʒ/ voiced postalveolar fricative: we do not find these
two sounds in Spanish, but we do find them in Catalan. Students having trouble
pronouncing these two sounds or from non-Catalan background need to work on the
production of these phonemes.

o /ʃ / is pronounced in the following cases:

 ‘sh’ in initial or final position: ‘show or fish’.
 ‘sh, si, sci, ci, ti, ss, ch’ in medial position: fashin, pension, conscience,
magician, nation, passion, machine.

o /ʒ/ is pronounced in the following occurrences:

 ‘ge’ in final position: garage, beige.
 ‘su, si, zu’ in medial position: usual, vision, seizure.
 Not find in initinal position.

 /h/ is a voiceless glottal fricative sound found before a vowel. It is produced by the passage
of air through the open vocal chords on its way out to produce a vowel. For example, to
pronounce the word ‘hit’ the mouth is ready to utter the /ɪ/ but then we let the air out from
the lungs. This consonant sound does not make much noise but it is sometimes needed to
discriminate meaning: ‘ear/hear’. However, there are other cases in which the letter ‘h’ is
silent and there is no discrimination of sounds and words become homophones: ‘hour/our’.
The phoneme /h is spelt with an ‘h’ or ‘wh’, as in ‘here’ or ‘where’. It can be found in initial
or medial position: ‘here/alcohol’, but not in final position. This glottal sound must not be
confused with Spanish /x/, which is velar. /x/ does not exist in English.

3.3 AFFRICATES (2)

Though some reference manuals would identify up until six different affricate sounds in English,
there are actually just two of them, as the rest would be a combination of two phonemes, rather than
phonemes themselves. Thus, in English we find /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.

In both sounds, the air is trapped as in the plosive sounds, however, when the mouth prepares for
the following sound, the friction occurs after a soft explosion. In affricates the friction is softer and
shorter than in fricatives. We may find minimal pairs, as in: ‘chain/Jane’ or ‘choke/joke’.

The voiceless /tʃ/ exists almost exactly the same in Spanish and Catalan, with the difference that the
/t/ is alveolar in English and dental in Spanish and Catalan. Therefore it is just a matter of a nuance,
but still, it is important to mention.

We can find the /tʃ/ sound in ‘ch, tch’: chain, watch; ‘-sure’: nature; ‘-tion’ preceded by /s/:
question.
We can find the /dʒ/ sound in ‘j’: job, James; ‘ge, gi, gy, gg’: gem, giant, gym, suggest’; ‘dg, dj’:
judge, adjacent.
The phoneme /dʒ/ does not exist in Spanish or Catalan, though it may appear in initial position in
some emphasised contexts, as in: ‘yo’.

3.4 NASAL CONSONANTS

The three nasal sounds in English correspond to three oral plosive areas of articulation: bilabial,
alveolar and velar. In all nasal consonants, the soft palate is lowered and at the same time the mouth
passage is blocked so that the air escapes through the nose. One outstanding feature of all nasal
sounds in English is that they can constitute a syllable themselves, just like a vowel, most
commonly /n/, as in ‘mutton’, and less commonly in /m/ as in ‘rhythm’ and /ŋ/ as in ‘bacon’.

 /m/: a very common sound in most languages, including Spanish and Catalan, so it’s quite
easy for most speakers. It’s a bilabial sound, so the mouth is blocked by closing the two lips.
It’s spelt like ‘m’ or ‘mm’ as in ‘mother’ or ‘hammer’. It may also occur in the group ‘mb’
in final position where the ‘b’ is silent: ‘bomb’.
 /n/: this nasal sound is made by pressing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge and
the sides of the tongue against the sides of the palate. Usual spellings for /n/ include: ‘n, nn,
gn, kn, pn’: name, runner, know, gnaw, pneumonia.

When /m/ and /n/ appear before another consonant, they become longer before voiced consonants
and shorter before voiceless ones. The /n/ in ‘sins’ would be longer than in ‘since’.

 /ŋ/: voiced velar nasal sound formed like the /n/ but the passage of air is blocked by raising
the back of the tongue to touch the fore part of the soft palate. This nasal sound appears in
contact with the velar sounds /g/ and /k/. We should not pronounce two separate phonemes
in these occurrences, as in ‘sing’, where we should pronounce /sɪŋ/ and not /sɪng/. This
sound is difficult to pronounce for Spanish/Catalan speakers especially in medial position,
as in ‘singing’. There is no problem for Spanish/Catalan speakers to pronounce it in final
position as the same consonant sound appears in those same contexts in Spanish or Catalan,
as in ‘sangre’ or ‘sang’. It does not appear in initial position.

3.5 LATERAL SOUNDS (2)

Lateral consonants are formed with the breath passing round the sides of the tongue, which acts as
the obstacle for the passage of air. We may distinguish two lateral sounds in English:

1. /l/: it’s a voiced sound which at the same time is subdivided into two types. Both allophones
are articulated holding the tongue against the teeth-ridge. It is usually spelt ‘l’ or ‘ll’, as in
light or fill, and it can be syllabic (it can occupy the usual place for a vowel) as in level.
o Clear ‘l’ (/l/): the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. It
has a front-vowel resonance. It occurs only before vowels and before /j/: let, value.
o Dark ‘l’ (/ɫ/): the front of the tongue is depressed and the back raised in the direction
of the soft palate. It has a back-vowel resonance. It occurs before all consonants and
in final position: help, bell.

2. /r/: the tongue has a curved shape with the tip pointing towards the hard palate at the back of
the alveoli. The soft palate is raised and therefore the air flows between the tip of the tongue
and the palate. It’s a voiced palato-alveolar sound, normally spelt like ‘r’ or ‘rr’. It is never
pronounced in post-vocalic position in RP, though it is pronounced in other varieties of
English. The only exception to this rule is the so-called linking /r/ in compound nouns, as in
 ‘over-eat’ or when the following word starts with a vowel, as in ‘the car is red’. Another
case, disapproved of by some RP speakers, is the so-called intrusive /r/, which occurs when
the /r/ happens after a /ə/, as in ‘Asia and Africa’. /r/ is not voiced after /p, t, k/ as voiceless
breath is pushed forward.
3.6 SEMI-CONSONANTS (2)

They are also called semi-vowels, approximants or glides as they are formed by a close vowel
which rapidly moves to another sound of equal or greater prominence. From a phonetic viewpoint
they are vowels, but they are treated as consonants because their function is more similar to that of
consonants (marginal situation in the syllable rather than central), evidenced by the fact that words
beginning with ‘w’ or ‘y’ take the indefinite article ‘a’, as in ‘a yawn’ or ‘a wave’; they also take
the weak form of ‘the’ as in ‘the wish’; and infinitives with a semi-consonant take the weak form of
‘to’, as in ‘to wish’.

 /w/: represented by the letter ‘w’ or ‘u’ after ‘q’ or ‘g’ (west, quick). The starting point for
pronouncing the /w/ is /u:/ but it immediately moves to another vowel sound, as in ‘water’.
When the /w/ follows a consonant, the lips should be rounded before the previous sound is
finished, as in ‘swim’, where the lips are rounded before finishing the sound /s/. Words spelt
with ‘wh’ are pronounced with /w/ in RP. However, in some other varieties of English from
America, Scotland or Ireland, people pronounce it as /hw/.
 /j/: it’s an unrounded palatal sound called ‘yot’. It’s normally spelt as ‘y’ as in ‘yes’ and it
can be heard before /u:/ in many different spellings: uniform, new, beauty. It’s produced by
rising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate as for /i/. The lips are spread. When /j/
follows /p, t, k/, it becomes voiceless and friction is common, which sometimes helps
differentiate minimal pairs like ‘tune’ and ‘dune’.

4. SPANISH-CATALAN VS ENGLISH CONSONANTAL SYSTEM

When we learn a language, we tend to compare the new sounds with the ones present in our native
language or languages. Thus, it is very important to learn the traits that differentiate those sounds
which are present in the native language and English, as well as those which are new to our
phonetic system. In general, Catalan and English share basically the same consonantal sounds,
around twenty-four (depending on the variety), whereas Spanish has only seventeen (or nineteen
according to the variety).

The main differences would be:

1. Pronunciation of initial consonant clusters: Spanish and Catalan-speaking pupils may find it
especially difficult, if not impossible, to get to pronounce the initial ‘s’ in words such as
Spain. Most of them simply pronounce an intrusive ‘e’ before it /espein/. This could be
corrected by uttering an exaggerated /s/ at the beginning of the word and maybe, in time,
this /s/ will gradually reduce until the real /s/ is pronounced. Another initial cluster difficult
to pronounce would be /θr/ (throw) or /ʃr/ (shrink).
2. Pronunciation of three consonants initially, /spr, str, skr/ being the most common ones,
where the fricative should be cut by the plosive and the plosive released into the third sound.
3. Pronunciation of final consonant clusters: some English combination become difficult for
Spanish/Catalan speakers. Some of these combinations are /mps/ (glimpse), /lfθs/ (twelfths)
or /ŋθs/ (lengths). They should be taught in context. These combinations are very common
in English, as we use /s/ and /z/ to create the plural and /t/ and /d/ to create the past simple
tense form or the past participle.
 4. Aspiration of voiceless plosives: it’s very important to teach our Spanish/Catalan-speaking
students that the sounds /p, t, k/ are aspirated in stressed initial position as they tend not to
do this aspiration. There are other segments where /p, t, k/ are aspirated, as in ‘upper’ or
‘lip’, but for simplicity reasons we will not explain this to our students and will keep it
simple. There is no aspiration both in Spanish and Catalan.
5. Different place of articulation: in English, /t, d, n, l/ are alveolar, whereas in Spanish/Catalan
they are dental. However, these sounds are articulated dentally if followed by /θ/ or /ð/,
which makes them more similar to the Spanish/Catalan counterparts.
6. Glottal fricative /x/: it’s very important not to confuse the sound /h/ with /x/, which is very
typical of Spanish/Catalan speakers.
7. Plosive/fricative sounds: in some contexts, Spanish/Catalan speakers pronounce voiced
plosives as fricatives, by influence of Spanish/Catalan. For example ‘baby’ is
pronounced /’beibi/ and not /’beißi/ as happens in Spanish ‘bebé’ /be’ße/ because in
Spanish/Catalan, Intervocalic plosives are pronounced as fricative.
8. Intervocalic /b/ and /v/: some speakers find it extremely difficult to learn the difference
between /b/ and /v/, especially between vowels. The words ‘marble’ and ‘marvel’ sound the
same for them. Lips should be firmly closed so that they make an explosion and not a
friction when pronouncing the /b/. Spanish and Catalan have lost the sound /v/, so we should
encourage the learning of this sound in our students.
9. Clear/Dark /l/: it can become quite difficult for Spanish-only speakers to pronounce the dark
/l/, however, this is not the case for Spanish/Catalan-bilingual speakers, as dark /l/ is present
in Catalan and it appears in final position or by means of the special digraph ‘l·l’, as in
col·legi.
10. Sibilants: these sounds are much more difficult in English than in Spanish, not so in Catalan.
/s/ is pronounced with the blade of the tongue in English, whereas it is apical in
Spanish/Catalan; /z/ does not really exist in Spanish (it does in some varieties in specific
contexts), but it does exist in Catalan, so the difficulty is knowing when to pronounce it
voiced or voiceless; The only problem that /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ present is for Spanish speakers (these
sounds exist in Cataln), since they do not exist in Spanish and they need to remember to
retract the tongue to pronounce them correctly.
11. Velar nasal consonant: both Spanish and Catalan speakers need to learn how to pronounce
the /ŋ/ and not pronounce /ng/. An example would be the word ‘sing’, which should be
pronounced /siŋ/ and not /sing/.
12. In Catalan, voiced plosive sounds in final position lose their sonority and become voiceless.
Thus, /b, d, g/ become /p, t, k/ respectively. This should be avoided when speaking English,
as sonority is not lost in final position.
13. /r/ in Catalan has different realisations depending on the context: it is pronounced by rolling
the tongue in initial position and after /l, m, n, s/, like in Spanish, which may represent a
problem for English speakers; it is pronounced soft in medial positions, which is similar to
English, but it does not have the same point of articulation; and it is not pronounced in final
positions, just like other consonantal sounds after /l, n/ or the /t/ in the group ‘rts’, as in
‘molt’, ‘depeendent’ or ‘dimarts’.
14. ‘x’ in Catalan in initial position is pronounced like the ‘sh’ of English ‘shoes’. In other
contexts, it is pronounced like in English /gz/, as in ‘exotic’ or ‘exam’ or else /ks/ as in
Catalan ‘fixar’ or Spanish ‘exótico’ and ‘examen’.

6. CONCLUSION

In this unit, we have established a comprehensive analysis of the English consonatal system, and its
comparison to both the Spanish and Catalan ones. In order to achieve a minimum of intelligibility, we should
always encourage our students to try and sound as close to a native speaker as possible. Thus, our first task
as English teachers should be to carefully explain the English consonantal system in comparison to that of
Spanish/Catalan so that students can understand the differences with their own consonantal system(s) and
discriminate sounds in the different languages.