consonant

«consonant» in Mova's school dictionary: not a vowel, such as b, c, d, f, g — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a consonant, consonants); adjective (formal: consonant with)

meaning for a pupil

1) A letter of the alphabet that is not a vowel, such as b, c, d, f, g. tree →

2) A speech sound made by partly blocking the air with your lips, tongue or teeth. tree →

3) (adjective, formal) consonant with: in agreement with. tree →

sense in the lessons

In phonics and spelling lessons: English has 21 consonant letters and 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u); y can be either. Rules: double the consonant in "running"; use "a" before a consonant sound. Phrases: consonant blend, double consonant, silent consonant.

examples

• B, c and d are consonants. tree →
• The word "cat" has two consonants and one vowel. tree →
• "Running" has a double consonant. tree →
• Use "a" before a consonant sound: a dog, a unicorn. tree →
• The k in "knee" is a silent consonant. tree →
• How many consonants are in "school"? Four: s, c, h, l. tree →
• "Bl" and "st" are consonant blends. tree →

note

The a/an rule depends on the sound, not the letter: "a uniform" (y sound), "an hour" (silent h). Y is a consonant in "yes" but acts as a vowel in "gym". Counting: 26 letters minus 5 vowels = 21 consonants.

In the corpora

• A consonant before the y: change y to i and add -es (baby, babies; party, parties).
• Consonant + y changes to -ies (baby, babies); vowel + y just adds -s (day, days).
• A silent e stays before an ending that starts with a consonant: hope, hopeful; move, movement.
• Consonant + y changes to i before -ed (cried, tried) but stays before -ing (crying, trying).
• Consonant + y turns into i: happy, happily, happiness; easy, easily.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «consonant» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.