English

phonemes: Friction consonants

There are nine consonant phonemes whose main sounds all have friction as their most
important feature. They are /f, v,, , s, z, , , h/.
For all of them the lungs push air through a narrow opening where it causes friction of various
kinds.

/f/ and /v/

The difference between /f/ and /v/ is mainly one of strength: /f/ is a strong consonant, /v/ is a
weak one. Also /f/ is never voiced, but /v/ may be. And /f/ is rather longer than /v/
So /f/ is a strong, voiceless, long consonant, /v/ is a weak, perhaps voiced, short consonant.
The friction is much less and must always be much less for /v/ than for /f/
When /f/ and /v/ occur at the end of words, after a vowel, they have an effect on the length
of the vowel. The strong consonant /f/ make the vowel shorter, the weak consonant /v/ makes
the vowel longer.

Some of the most common English words which contain /f/ are: half, sniff, stiff, brief, rough,
dwarf, bluff, safe, grief, cliff, fin, free, first, frill, fought, forty, suffer, fast, feel, foal, ferry, fan,
few, fear, file, fat, fail, deafer, sofa, offer, defied, refuse, fail, fat, file, fear.

Some of the most common English words which contain /v/ are: vast, veal, vole, very, van, view,
veer, vile, vat, veil, cover, never, give, proving, lover, over, savour, hover, divide, reviews sieve,
live, have, dove, love, glove, leave, halve, carve, prove, serve, live, strive, rave, wave, save.

// and //
// and // are also friction sounds, // is strong and // is weak.
// is stronger and longer and always voiceless, // is weaker and shorter and may be voiced.
Between vowels // is voiced, // is always voiceless. At the end of words // and / / affect a
preceding vowel in the same way as /f/ and /v/. The only Word in which // occurs finally after
a short vowel is /w / with.

Some of the most common English words which contain // are: thank, thick, thin, thing, thirsty,
thousand, three, through, throw, Thursday, thought, thirty, healthy, wealthy, something,



anything, both, bath, breath, cloth, earth, fourth, etc.,. Faith, earth, month, north, south, path,
worth, death.

Some of the most common English words which contain / / are: the, this, that, these, those,
there, their, then, they, them, though, than, other, mother, father, brother, either, neither,
further, clothes, leather, together, weather, whether, breathe, with, smooth.

/s/ and /z/

/s/ is a strong friction sound and /z/ is a weak one. As for the other consonants, the strong one
/s/, is longer and always voiceless, the weak one, /z/, is quite short and may be voiced.
/z/ is not a common sound at the beginning of words. Between vowels /z/ is voiced and /s/ is
always voiceless. At the end of words, after a vowel, /s/ makes the vowel rather shorter and
/z/ makes it longer.

Some of the most common English words which contain /s/ are: sink, said, sawn, Sue, seal, cyst,
looser, lacy, coarser, fussy, racing, place, loose, niece, hearse, price, ass, bus, hiss, sin, sing, sink,
sort, sum, sight.

Some of the most common English words which contain /z/ are: buzz, as, his, plays, cause, lose,
knees, prize, hers, buzzes, lazy, loser, causer, fuzzy, raising, zinc, Zed, zone, zoo, zeal, zest.

/z/ and //
Both are weak sounds but /z/ makes more noise tan //

// and //

// is a strong friction sound and // is a weak one. // is a much noisier sound than /f/ and //
and only a Little less noisy tan /s/. For // the friction is weaker, and shorter. // does not occur
at the beginning of English words but // quite frequently does.
Between vowels // is voiced and // is always voiceless. At the end of words // is quite
common but // is very rare and only occurs in a few words borrowed from French.



Some of the most common English words which contain / / are: wash, rubbish, push, crash,
crush, harsh, show, shock, short, Persian, mission, leash, mesh, shy, she, shame, nation, wishing,
ash.

Some of the most common English words which contain // are: garage, beige, rouge, closure,
erasure, invasion,

/h/

There are as many /h/-sounds in English as there are vowels, because /h/ always occurs before
a vowel and consist of the sound of breath passing between the open vocal cords and out of the
mouth which is already prepared for the following vowel.
/h/ does not make very much noise, but it must not be left out when it should be sounded,
for two reasons: (i) many words are distinguished by the presence or absence of /h/, like here
and ear, (ii) English speakers consider that the leaving out of /h/ is the mark of an uncultivated
speaker.

Some of the most common English words which contain /h/ are: here, heart, her, hat, hall, who,
he, harm, hedge, hair, heat, hill, behind, anyhow, alcohol, rehearse, key-hole, beforehand, rehouse, unholy.