Lesson 1. How Many Letters, How Many Sounds?
Spelling and Pronunciation.
LESSON 1; Part A
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are five vowel letters: A E I О U | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
And thereare 21 consonant letters: B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Butthere are more than 40 vowel and consonant sounds in English. Insome words, the number of letters is the same as the number of sounds.
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LESSON 1; Part B
Sometimesthe number of sounds is different from the number of letters. In green, "ее" is one sound, and in happy, "pp" isone sound. 5 letters, 4 sounds
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In bread, "ea" is one sound.
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In some words there are silent letters (letters with no sound). In listen, "t"is silent.
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In some words, one letter is two sounds. The "x" in six is two sounds like "к + s".
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LESSON 1; Part C
We sometimes write the same sound differently indifferent words. For example, the "e" in red sounds like the "ea" in bread. Sometimes two words have the same pronunciation but different spellings. know - no A: Do you know? B: No, I don't. | |
Andsometimes two words have the same spelling but different pronunciations. read (infinitive and present tense) - read (pasttense) A: Do you want to read the newspaper? B: No, thanks, I read itthis morning. | |
Because there are moresounds than letters, we use symbols for pronunciation. |
Exercises
Lesson 1 Lesson 2 | |
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