Description of the /ð/ and /ϴ/ Sounds

• When you say the /ϴ/ and /ð/ sounds, the tip of your tongue sticks out between your top and bottom teeth, while air pushes through the gap.
• The /ð/ sound is produced with a vibration in the throat, while the /ϴ/ sound is pronounced without a vibration

Spelling of the /ð/ and /ϴ/ Sounds

• Both the /ð/ and /ϴ/ sounds are spelt ‘th’ in the following examples:
  • /ϴ/: thirsty, thought, method, anthem, wealthy, healthy, width, breath, worth, bath, thug, cloth, thank, faith, oath, teeth, death, tenth, length, wreath, sheath, heath, etc.
  • /ð/: those, that, weather, mother, clothe, breather, thy, with, thine, worthy, bathe, thus, than, thence, loathe, there, other, writhe

Description of the /f/ and /v/ Sounds

• When you say the /f/ and /v/ sounds, your top teeth touch your lower lip while air escapes through the gap.
• When the sound /v/ is pronounced, there is a vibration in the throat; in the /f/ sound, there is no vibration

Description of the /s/ and /z/ Sounds

• When you say the /s/ and /z/ sounds, the tip and blade of your tongue make light contact with your tooth ridge; the sides of your tongue make close contact with your upper side teeth while air escapes through the center of your tongue.
• The /s/ sound is pronounced without a vibration in the throat, but /z/ is pronounced with some vibration

Spelling of the /f/, /v/, /s/, and /z/ Sounds

• Spelling of the /f/ Sound:
  • f, as in: foil, fun, deaf, elf, father, life, whiff, fine, fins, brief, feel, wharf, calf, fog, loaf, fan, etc.
  • ff, as in: stiff, offer, buffalo, buffet, puff, cuff, etc.
  • ph, as in: philosophy, phase, sphere, alpha, nymph, paragraph, Physics, phenomenal, phalanges, etc.
  • gh, as in: tough, rough, laughter, etc.
• Spelling of the /v/ Sound:
  • v, as in: victory, vast, avoid, move, groove, divide, veal, weave, vine, Vince, bereave, carve, vogue, clove, van, etc.
• Spelling of the /s/ Sound:
  • s, as in: seal, hiss, sign, bliss, worse, bass, suck, close, simple, send, pulse, science, loss, chess, assess, source, cease, scenery, etc.
  • c as in: center, circle, Lucy, chancellor, etc.
  • x, as in: fix, text, reflex, climax, axe, etc.
• Spelling of the /z/ Sound:
  • z, as in: breeze, zonked, zap, zinc, maize, razor, zoom, hazy, zenith, dizzy, etc.
  • s, as in: was, bars, close, scissors, possess, dessert, please, whose, tease, cheese, pose, etc.
  • x, as in: exalt, exist, exhibit, exact, exam, exhaust, etc.

Consonant Clusters

• This means the occurrence or appearance of two or more consonants in a word without an inter-woven vowel
• Words with consonant clusters include:
  • pl, as in: plate, please, plague, plane, plantain, plateau, plank, plug, etc.
  • pr, as in: price, priest, pram, practice, prawn, etc.
  • spr, as in: sprout, spring, spray, sprinkle, etc.
  • bl, as in: bleed, bless, blade, blouse, blast, breather, bleep, etc.
  • tr, as in: track, trace, trouser, trap, trim,etc.
  • tw, as in: twist, twister, twin, tweak, twinkle, etc.