PhonemeForge — sound cases

A real case · you decide

Linh — a 16-year-old who grew up speaking Vietnamese at home, giving a class presentation in English

The idea in play: consonant clusters — English lets several consonants pile up at the end of a syllable.

Linh’s slide says "Check the desks." She knows the word, but it keeps coming out as "des" or "de-sis".

A Vietnamese syllable ends in at most one consonant. English "desks" ends in three in a row: /s/, /k/, /s/.

Nothing is wrong with her speech — her mouth is following the rules of the language it learned first.

What is the most useful way for Linh to practise "desks"?

Arjun — a 17-year-old who speaks Hindi and English, curious why his teacher says "pin" and "spin" have the same p

The idea in play: phonemes vs. their variants — a difference that changes words in one language can be automatic in another.

Arjun holds a strip of paper in front of his mouth. It flutters for "pin" but barely moves for "spin".

In Hindi that puff (aspiration) changes the word: पल "pal" is a moment, फल "phal" is a fruit.

In English the puff shows up automatically at the start of a stressed syllable, and never changes which word you said.

Are the p in "pin" and the p in "spin" the same English sound?

A real case · you decide

Tomás — a 15-year-old whose first language is Spanish, writing and recording a short podcast in English

The idea in play: vowel contrasts — English uses a crowded vowel space where Spanish has five clear vowels.

Playing back his recording, Tomás hears himself say "a big sheep in the harbour". He meant ship.

Spanish has five vowel sounds. English, in the accent most charts use, has about twenty — and /ɪ/ and /iː/ sit close together.

Ship /ʃɪp/ is short with the tongue a little lower and more relaxed; sheep /ʃiːp/ is longer and tenser.

How should Tomás fix it?

Practise more minimal pairs →

Sound cases