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Question

Difficulty: EasyConsonant Clusters

Which of the following words contains an initial consonant cluster?

  1. A
    Pneumonia
  2. SphereAnswer
  3. C
    Psychology
  4. D
    Knight

Answer

The word 'Sphere' is the correct answer because it begins with an initial consonant cluster /sf/.
The word 'Sphere' begins with two distinct articulated consonant sounds /s/ and /f/ pronounced together before a vowel sound, forming an initial consonant cluster.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the initial phonetic sounds of each given word.
'Pneumonia' starts with /n/, 'Sphere' starts with /sf/, 'Psychology' starts with /s/, and 'Knight' starts with /n/.
Consonant clusters are defined by spoken consonant sounds rather than written letters.
2
Identify silent letters at the beginning of the words.
The initial letters 'p' in 'pneumonia', 'p' in 'psychology', and 'k' in 'knight' are silent.
Orthographic letter pairs containing silent letters do not produce phonetic consonant clusters.
3
Determine which word articulates two consecutive consonant sounds at the start.
'Sphere' is pronounced with /s/ followed by /f/ before the vowel sound.
Two contiguous consonant sounds articulated together without an intervening vowel form an initial consonant cluster.

Key Concept

Initial Consonant Clusters and Phonetic Awareness
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Topics

Consonant Clusters

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