Pronunciation Practice Exercise mp3 Listen and Read Minimal Pairs

Minimal Pairs

by Sally Jennings

To build your pronunciation skills, listen and practice speaking while you read - mp3 audio clips, one clip for each set (block) of lines, read across line by line, then down column by column.

My site has many other audio mp3 resources, including a collection of 800 idioms in context, with 300 idioms and short articles on mp3. For the menu: Speak Read Write Educational Resources

mp3 audio one

mat	pat	bat	cat	rat	fat	that	hat	gnat
mad	pad	bad	cad	rad-	fad	---	had	nad-
man	pan	ban	can	ran	fan	than	han-	Nan

mp3 audio two

tea	pea	bee	key	re-	fee	thee	he	knee
to	pooh	boo	coo	rue	foo-	---	who	knew

mp3 audio three

dime	time	mime	lime	rhyme
dame	tame	maim	lame	rame
deem	team	meme	leam	ream
doom	tomb	---	loom	room

mp3 audio four

tote	boat	moat	dote	goat	coat	note
tight	bite	might	-dite	-gite	kite	night
toot	boot	moot	deut-	Gute-	coot	neut-

mp3 audio five

fine	wine	whine	shine	dine	tine	pine	bine	nine
fun	won	---	shun	done	ton	pun	bun	none

mp3 audio six

real	feel	veal	teal	deal	keel	seal	meal
rill	fill	ville	till	dill	kill	sill	mill
roll	foal	vole	toll	dole	coal	sole	mole
-ral	full	-vil	-tal	dull	cull	-sle	mull

mp3 audio seven

teen	mean	dean	bean	keen	sheen	seen	lean
ten	men	den	Ben	Ken	shen	sen	Len
tin	min	din	been	kin	shin	sin	Lynn
tune	moon	dune	boon	coon	---	soon	loon

mp3 audio eight

tube	lube	rube	cube
tub	lub-	rub	cub

mp3 audio nine

wall	ball	tall	doll	fall	gall	mall	---
will	bill	till	dill	fill	gill	mill	nil
-wel	bull	-tal	dull	full	gull	mull	null

All entries are either whole words or syllables. A ---- entry means I don't know of a word or syllable in English. There may be some duplicates. This is not a complete list. List may be read across or down in groups. The vowels in each line are pronounced the same in every word in the line (with the minor exception that unstressed vowels in syllables like -wel may be reduced to schwa from "u" and cube is pronounced with a "y" between the c and the u).

To go to another minimal pairs exercise:
Speak Read Write Minimal Pairs Two - Initial Blends In Open Syllables

To go to a much more fun(!) exercise using minimal pairs and other word sets:
Speak Read Write Fun with Fiddle Faddle and Other Pronunciation Pairs

Last, but not least, if you want real tongue twister exercise, go to:
Speak Read Write Tongue Twisters Pronunciation Practice One

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