Consonant Clusters

Mastering the American Accent » Consonant Clusters

Consonant Clusters

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you.
Never excuse yourself.
Henry Ward Beecher

Two or more consonant sounds together are called “consonant clusters.” Many languages do not have any words with consonant clusters. Therefore, when native speakers of these languages speak English, they tend to skip one or more of the consonants. Make sure you pronounce every consonant sound! Pay special attention to words spelled with the letter x since it represents a blend of two consonant sounds: /ks/ or /gz/. Also, many verbs that take -ed in the past tense consist of consonant clusters; for example: watched, stopped, picked.

Common Words with Consonant Clusters

say:	don’t say:
instantly	instan...ly
hopefully	ho...fully
apartment	apar...ment
worked (sounds like “workt”)	wor…
textbook (sounds like “tekstbook”)	tes...book
extra (sounds like “ekstra”)	estra
vodka	vo...ka
strength	stren...th
recognize	reco...nize

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