Exercise on the Difference Between Orthography and Phonetics (or between speech sounds and letters) A. In each group of three, circle the word with the oddball initial speech sound; e.g., for people, physics, pistol, the word with the initial sound that does not match the other two words is physics; that is, while all three words start with the letter ‘p’, only people and pistol start with a ‘p’ sound (physics, despite the spelling, starts with an ‘f’ – the same sound that begins the words feel and fit). The idea in all of these is to pay attention to the sounds, not the letters. 1. knife kitten gnat 2. Thailand think trace 3. knapsack kettle pneumonia 4. gnat know garage 5. pepper psychology sister 6. hiccough Jose jam 7. fantasy pharmacy pill 8. juggle George garage 9. chaotic children kayak 10. century crank silly B. In each group of three, circle the word with the oddball final speech sound; e.g., if you listen carefully to the final consonant sounds in the words pace, jazz, and faces, you’ll find that both jazz and faces end with a ‘z’ sound while pace ends with an ‘s’. Again, the idea is to pay attention to the sounds, not the letters. 1. dogs cats gripes 2. hiccup calf Ralph 3. canned walked rancid 4. plow flow allow 5. merlot slow cow 6. fact mapped mobbed 7. bough tow now 8. jig thing rang 9. rough thorough lithograph 10. of stove graphANSWERS A. In each group of three, circle the word with the oddball initial speech sound; e.g., for people, physics, pistol, the word with the initial sound that does not match the other two words is physics. The idea in all of these is to pay attention to the sounds, not the letters. 1. knife kitten gnat 2. Thailand think trace 3. knapsack kettle pneumonia 4. gnat know garage 5. pepper psychology sister 6. hiccough Jose jam 7. fantasy pharmacy pill 8. juggle George garage 9. chaotic children kayak 10. century crank silly B. In each group of three, circle the word with the oddball final speech sound; e.g., if you listen carefully to the final consonant sounds in the words pace, jazz, and faces, you’ll find that both jazz and faces end with a ‘z’ sound while pace ends with an ‘s’. Again, the idea is to pay attention to the sounds, not the letters. 1. dogs cats gripes 2. hiccup calf Ralph 3. canned walked rancid 4. plow flow allow 5. merlot slow cow 6. fact mapped mobbed 7. bough tow now 8. jig thing rang 9. rough thorough lithograph 10. of stove