What Are Consonants? (with Examples)

What Are Consonants? (with Examples)

All the letters in the alphabet apart from A, E, I, O, and U (called vowels) are known as consonants.

A consonant is a letter of the alphabet which represents a basic speech sound produced by obstructing the breath in the vocal tract. For example:
  • 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.

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See Also

What are vowels? What are syllables? Using an and a Glossary of grammatical terms