Minimal Pairs

Minimal Pairs

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Rachel's Videos:  The L Sound  The R Sound  The W Sound  Listen & Repeat Exercises
U of Iowa's Sounds of American English

	A	B	C
1	lice	rice
2	late	rate	wait
3	low	row	woe
4	law	raw
5	lay	ray	way
6	late	rate	wait
7	lane	rain	wain
8	led	red	wed
9	lie	rye	why
10	leek	reek	week

	A	B
1	clue	crew
2	blue	brew
3	glass	grass
4	flee	free
5	blow	bro
6	clock	crock
7	blouse	browse
8	bled	bread
9	Blake	break
10	claw	craw

	A	B
1	belly	berry
2	mole	more
3	hail	hair
4	heel	hear
5	fool	four
6	file	fire
7	deal	dear
8	meal	mere
9	rebuttal	rebutter
10	cuddle	cutter

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Rachel's Videos:  The b and p sounds  *  The f and v sounds
U of Iowa's Sounds of American English

	A	B
1	big	pig
2	bet	pet
3	bad	pad
4	mob	mop
5	cab	cap
6	rib	rip
7	symbol	simple
8	rabid	rapid
9	stable	staple
10	nabbed	napped

	A	B
1	fine	vine
2	fiddle	vittle
3	flog	vlog
4	leaf	leave
5	safe	save
6	huffer	hover
7	proof	prove
8	half	have

	A	B
1	bat	fat
2	boat	vote
3	pile	file
4	cab	calf
5	pry	fry
6	sappy	savvy
7	cub	cuff
8	cape	cave

	A	B	C	D
1	bee	pee	fee	vee
2	berry	perry	ferry	very
3	buy	pie	fie	vie
4	bile	pile	file	vile
5	bail	pale	fail	veil
6	bay	pay	fay	vay
	bane	pain	feign	vane
8	best	pest	fest	vest

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Rachels Videos:  's' as in 'sip' ,  'z' as in 'zip' , 'sh' as in 'ship'  ,  'j' as in 'jar'  ,  'ch' as in 'char'  ,  'dj' as in 'measure'
Sounds of American English

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Sue	zoo	shoe	chew	Jew
2	cass	Kaz	cash	catch
3	sear	zir	sheer	cheer	Jeer
4	sane	zane	Shane	Chain	Jane
5	lease	Lee's	leash	leech
6	sip	zip	ship	chip	gyp
7	seep		sheep	cheap	jeep
8	leased		leashed	leeched

	A	B
1	major	measure
2	pressure	pleasure
3	Confucian	confusion
4	ledger	leisure
5		conclusion
6		division
7		exposure
8		explosion
9		supervision
10		treasure

There was a huge explosion by the shore.
This sure is a confusing conclusion.

	A	B
1	ditched	dished
2	matched	mashed
3	hatched	hashed
4	hitched	hissed
5	watched	washed

f

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Rachel Videos:  The ih as in site Sound  * The ee as in She Sound * oh as in No sound * aw as in Law Sound  *  EE vs ih: Tense vs. Lax

	A	B
1	seat	sit
2	peak	pick
3	eel	ill
4	leave	live
5	meal	mill
6	peel	pill
7	reach	rich
8	teen	tin
9	seek	sick
10	deep	dip
11	liter	litter
12	beaker	bicker

	A	B
1	boat	bought
2	low	law
3	hole	hall
4	close	clause
5	bowl	ball
6	most	must
7	won't	want
8	goat	got
9	shown	Shawn
10	oaf	off
11	coast	cost
12	woke	walk

Rachel's Video: Vowel Length Affected by Ending Consonant

	A	B
1	bell	belt
2	car	cart
3	fell	felt
4	her	hurt
5	tore	torn
6	knees	needs
7	mill	milk
8	can	can't
9	ben	bent
10	Hun	hunt

I think we (can/can't) do it today.

	A	B
1	need	neat
2	rag	rack
3	hid	hit
4	mud	mutt
5	save	safe
6	ride	write
7	bud	but
8	bag	back

Rachel's Videos: 'eh' as in 'bed'   'aa' as in 'bat'   'aw' as in 'law'    'oy' as in 'toy'.'uh' as in 'butter'  'ah' as in 'father'
Sounds of American English

	A	B
1	and	end
2	bland	blend
3	ham	hem
4	tamper	temper
5	land	lend
6	gassed	guest
7	pan	pen
8	spanned	spend
9	band	bend
10	tamp	temp

	A	B
1	bat	bet
2	had	head
3	paddle	pedal
4	shall	shell
5	gnat	net
6	mat	met
7	pack	peck
8	mash	mesh
9	rack	wreck
10	past	pest

	A	B
1	color	collar
2	nut	not
3	stuck	stock
4	luck	lock
5	come	calm
6	fund	fond
7	bum	bomb
8	wonder	wander

	A	B
1	beg	bug
2	ben	bun
3	dell	dull
4	messed	must
5	guess	Gus
6	jest	just
7	net	nut
8	better	butter

	A	B
1	all	oil
2	jaw	joy
3	paw	poi
4	brawl	broil
5	toe	toy
6	cone	coin
7	old	oiled
8	toll	toil

More Minimal Pairs
 http://streaming.ohio.edu/cas/lingCALL/vowel.htm
http://www.fuhriman.us/la.esl/minimal-pairs.html (no audio)