English-grammar-lessons.co.uk

A-Z glossaryconfused wordspunctuationidiomsvocabulary
menu

Consonants

What Are Consonants? (with Examples)

home▸glossary▸Consonants
A consonant is a letter of the alphabet that represents a basic speech sound produced by obstructing the breath in the vocal tract. All the letters in the alphabet apart from A, E, I, O, and U (called vowels) are consonants.

consonants example

Obstructing Breath in the Vocal Tract

Here are some examples of how sound is produced by obstructing the breath in the vocal tract:
  • T is pronounced using the tongue (front part)
  • K is pronounced using the tongue (back part)
  • B is pronounced with the lips
  • H is pronounced in the throat
  • F is pronounced by forcing air through a narrow gap
  • M is pronounced using the nasal passage
A consonant can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable.

beware

Beware!

Use a before a consonant sound, and use an before a vowel sound. (NB: The important word here is sound. A word that starts with a vowel letter could start with a consonant sound (e.g., unicorn starts with a y sound) and vice versa.) For example:
  • She was injured in a RTA.
  • She was injured in an RTA.
    • (R is a consonant, but it starts with a vowel sound.)

A Quick Test



Help Us To Improve English Grammar Lessons
  • Do you disagree with something on this page?
  • Did you spot a typo?
Please tell us using this form.

See Also

What are vowels? What are syllables? Glossary of grammatical terms
Do you know your English idioms? idioms test

Take Our Test.

search icon

Search our idioms database. (We have 10,000+ idioms!)