AN INTRODUCTION TO PHONOLOGY
If not teaching in the Arabic world, please consider any questions based on the mother tongue of your students.

Welcome to the wonderful world of phonology.

This is the first worksheet page in a series of six.
I guarantee that at the end of them you will have a sound understanding and appreciation of both the importance of phonology and how the English phonological system works.
The six pages are divided as follows:

WORKSHEET 1 : An introduction to phonology - this page

WORKSHEET 2 : The phonemic chart and sounds in isolation

WORKSHEET 3 : Sounds in combination

WORKSHEET 4 : Word stress

WORKSHEET 5 : Rhythmic stress and weakening

WORKSHEET 6 : Tonic stress and intonation

WORKSHEET 1 - AN INTRODUCTION TO PHONOLOGY

Complete the following gap-fill.
Try and do this on your own and then with a colleague or two.
If you are ever truly stuck then click here for the answers and commentary on each of the categories:

What do we mean by phonology?

A. Segmental
1) Sounds in isolation
a) c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _s

b) v _ _ _ _ s

c) d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s

d) t _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s

2)Sounds in combination - l _ _ _ _ _ g
a) c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n

b) i _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n

c) e _ _ _ _ _ n

d) a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n

3)Word stress - also a _ _ _ _ t or s _ _ _ _ _ _ e s _ _ _ _ s

B. Supra-segmental
1) Rhythmic stress - w _ _ _ _ _ _ _ g

2) C o n _ _ _ _ _ i v e stress

3) E m _ _ _ _ i c stress

4) I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
a) voice r _ _ _ e

b) k _ y

c) n _ _ _ _ _ s

Managed to finish without checking the key?
Check your answers now and have a look at the commentary as well.