Unit 1. Bye, Buy.

Introducing Letters and Sounds
Unit 1; Part A
In writing, words are made of letters. In speech, words are made ofsounds. Letters are not always the same as sounds. For example, thewords key and car begin with the same sound, but the letters aredifferent. We can see this clearly if we read the two words in phonemicsymbols: /ki:/, /ka:/. In the examples below, word pairs have the samepronunciation but different spelling: buy bye sun son weak week weigh way too two write right ![]() |
Unit 1; Part B
There are rwo kinds of sounds: consonant sounds (C) and vowel sounds(V). For example, in duck, there are three sounds,consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC). The number of sounds in a word is notusually the same as the number of letters. We can see this if we writethe word using phonemic symbols. For example, duck is /dΛk/. |
Unit 1; Part C
Writers often play with the sounds in words. For example, if they are finding a name for a cartoon character, they might:
Forexample, in Dennis the Menace, the last three sounds of the words arethe same, but the spelling is completely different. | ||
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Unit 1; Part D
There are probably some sounds in English which do not exist in yourlanguage, and others which are similar but not exactly the same. Thiscan make it difficult to hear and make the distinction between twosimilar words in English. Listen ro these pairs. Are any of them difficult for you? boat - vote hit - heat so - show sung - sun wine - vine wet - wait |
Exercises
![]() | Unit 1 Unit 2 | ![]() |