Question

Difficulty: EasyConsonant Sounds

Match each word on the left with the word on the right that shares the identical consonant sound for the indicated letters.

  • tomb (underlined sound: 'mb')hymn (underlined sound: 'mn')
  • archangel (underlined sound: 'ch')echo (underlined sound: 'ch')
  • laugh (underlined sound: 'gh')trophy (underlined sound: 'ph')
  • wreath (underlined sound: 'th')path (underlined sound: 'th')

Answer

'tomb' pairs with 'hymn' (/m/), 'archangel' pairs with 'echo' (/k/), 'laugh' pairs with 'trophy' (/f/), and 'wreath' pairs with 'path' (/θ/).
Each left-side word correctly aligns with its right-side partner based on identical phonetic consonant sounds: 'tomb' and 'hymn' both produce the bilabial nasal /m/; 'archangel' and 'echo' both produce the voiceless velar plosive /k/; 'laugh' and 'trophy' both produce the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/; 'wreath' and 'path' both produce the voiceless dental fricative /θ/.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the phonetic consonant sound produced by the indicated letters in each word on the left column.
'tomb' yields /m/, 'archangel' yields /k/, 'laugh' yields /f/, and 'wreath' yields /θ/.
English spelling contains silent letters and digraphs that map to specific International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) consonant sounds.
2
Determine the phonetic consonant sound produced by the indicated letters in each word on the right column.
'trophy' yields /f/, 'hymn' yields /m/, 'path' yields /θ/, and 'echo' yields /k/.
Different spelling combinations can produce the exact same consonant sound.
3
Match the words from left to right based on matching IPA consonant sound representations.
tomb (/m/) = hymn (/m/); archangel (/k/) = echo (/k/); laugh (/f/) = trophy (/f/); wreath (/θ/) = path (/θ/).
Accurate phonetic pairing requires mapping words to their underlying consonant sound rather than relying on spelling similarity.

Key Concept

English Consonant Sounds and Orthographic Variations
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