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Monday, December 5, 2011

The Ultimate Minimal Pairs Source

A minimal pair is a pair of words that differs in a single phoneme or speech sound. For example, the contrast between [p] and [b] could be shown through pairs such as pat - bat or lab - lap. Teachers love to use minimal pairs to show contrasts and check student listening and learners love minimal pairs to practice pronunciation and master challenging contrasts.


If you're a teacher or student searching for the ultimate source for minimal pairs, then you have to visit Minimal Pairs for English RP: Lists by John Higgins. John Higgins now boasts a total of 92,253 pairs divided into vowels and diphthongs and consonants look-up tables. Users simply click on the two sounds to be paired on the look-up tables and a list of pairs is returned. At times, there is some minor phonetic transcription to pinpoint the sounds but the easy to use transcriptional table simplifies the task.  Student and teachers alike will enjoy this worthwhile site.

Vowel and Diphthong Minimal Pair Look-up Table
Consonant Minimal Pair Look-up Table
'RP' in the site title means Received Pronunciation also called the Queen's (or King's) English. Be forewarned the site is based on British not American pronunciation.

Posted by at 9:05 p.m.

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