Introduction to Consonant sounds

Speech Work: Introduction to Consonant sounds

Imagine a language without consonants. It would be one long yodel.

• If vowels can be thought of as forming the nucleiof syllables, we can think of consonants as forming their boundaries.
  In the following sentence, all the vowels are separated by consonants, except two. I’ve marked the consonants with C and the vowels with V:

• Another way of distinguishing between vowels and consonants would be to say that the tongue and lips form vowels without obstructing the airflow, while consonants are formed by obstructing or constricting the airflow. It is much easier to describe and classify consonants by describing this constriction than vowels. Three features go into our description:
• Manner of Articulation: how much constriction is there? Is the air completely blocked, partly blocked or only slightly hindered? Is the consonant nasalized or not (i.e. does the air flow through both the nose and the mouth, or just the mouth?
• Place of Articulation: where in the mouth does the constriction occur? What parts of the mouth are involved (lips, teeth, tongue, roof of the mouth)?
• Voicing: are the vocal chords vibrating as the consonant is pronounced?

In the chart above, we can see the consonant sounds of English and their descriptions.

Grammar: The use of Passive voice

Verbs can be active or passive. In the active voice, the subject is the doer. In the passive voice, the subject is the person or thing affected by the action of some other agent.

• The government approved the policy. (Active)
• The policy was approved by the government. (Passive)

There is nothing wrong with a passive construction, but if you can express the same idea using an active verb, you should do so. Passive forms show an unwillingness to shoulder responsibility. In several passive constructions the doer of the action is not mentioned at all.

• My father built this house. (Better than ‘This house was built by my father.’)

The passive voice is common in academic writing; however, it should be avoided in persuasive writing.

Don’t mix active and passive structures in the same sentence. If one clause is in the passive voice, the other, too, should be in the passive voice.

When to use the Passive Voice

There are a few situations where the passive voice is particularly helpful.

The passive voice is used when we want to draw attention to the person or thing that was affected by the action of the subject.

• The unidentified victim was run over by a speeding truck.

Here the focus is on the person who was acted upon. In some sentences; passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. You might use it in the following cases:

1. The actor is unknown:

The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don’t know who made them.]

• The actor is irrelevant:

An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.]

• You want to be vague about who is responsible:

Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]

You are talking about a general truth:

Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]

• You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your main topic:

Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.

• You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in the Materials and Methods section:

The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.

In these sentences you can count on your reader to know that you are the one who did the dissolving and the titrating. The passive voice places the emphasis on your experiment rather than on you.

Reading and Comprehension: Reading to identify key words in a passage that signal direction

My First Outing

I can never forget the first day I went out with my parents. It was a memorable experience. Growing up as a child, I never liked to go out for amusement during the holidays or weekends because it seemed unnecessarily stressful to me, it looked like a waste of time. I would rather remain indoor while my siblings and parents went out. I loved to write and make sketches, then wait for them to return.

On this memorable day, my younger sister persuaded me to go with them this time, so I agreed. The beginning of my journey was frustrating after spending close to two hour in traffic I was very angry. But at last we got to the venue and I saw lots of children moving towards the ‘Santa’ grotto it was very beautiful. There were different kinds of toy all around the place, parents behind their children. The most amazing thing I saw was the merry-go-round, it was moving up, down, left, right and center. I was so thrilled. I also saw plastic vampires in the scary room moving back and front and sideways with blood in their mouth.

Everything I saw that day gave my brain a flight to better my writing and my drawings, as I saw what I have not seen before. I was so glad I went that day. Since that day I decided to try new things and explore.

Study the passage above, take note of the words that are bold, and check them up in the dictionary. These words denote direction or movement.

Composition: Expository Essay (Ebola Virus)

Guidelines to writing the essay

• Introduction: introduce the topic ( you can do this by definition)
• Body: go ahead to build the body of your essay from what have gathered in your introduction.
• Conclusion: restate your introduction and conclude on what you have discussed earlier.

ASSESSMENT

1. The consonant sounds of /h/ and /w/ are produced in the larynx. What is the name given to these types of consonant sounds?

(a) Trachea           (b) Throatal          (c) Glottal             (d) Uvula

      2. There are three consonants that are pronounced by using both lips, hence the name bilabial. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

          (a) /b/          (b) /p/          (c) /m/         (d) /n/

Identify each of the following sentences as Active or Passive

      3. The computer lab was used by the Pychology class

          (a) Active              (b) Passive

      4. The car was driven by his friend

          (a) Active              (b) Passive

      5. Fifty people attended the party

          (a) Active              (b) Passive