In Part 1 of this series of posts on Minimal Pairs, I shared minimal pairs exercises that practice consonant sounds in English. In Part 2 of this series, I shared minimal pairs exercises that practice vowel sounds in English. In this post, Part 3, I will share more minimal pairs exercises that can be used to practice murmur diphthongs and special vowel sounds.
Contrast the following sounds:
long and short vowels with r-controlled vowels | /ar/ with /er/ | /or/ with /er/ | /oo/ (as in “look”) with /oo/ (as in “zoo”) | Special vowel sounds |
had hard lad lard bid bird fist first fen fern pet pert am arm ham harm con corn sot sort hut hurt cussed cursed cub curb luck lurk gill girl gem germ cave carve stoke stork | far fur shark shirk star stir hard heard barn burn heart hurt cart Kurt dart dirt farm firm park perk | for fur store stir born burn short shirt form firm warm worm torn turn bored bird court Kurt pork perk | full fool pull pool skull school look Luke soot suit wood wooed could cooed hood who’d should shooed | crone crown sit sight fool foul crowed crowd calf cough boot bout hack hawk frock frog stack stalk hat halt suck sulk nuke nook wooed would
soul soil tack talk laughed loft |
Note: Information adapted from the Decoding Strategies for Literacy Development manual published by Reading Horizons.