Minimal Pair List Consonants /v/ versus /Ɵ/, 30 pairs

The /v/ sound is spelled with <v> or <ve>. The /Ɵ/ sound is spelled <th>.

The contrast is between a voiced labio-dental fricative and a voiceless dental and alveolar fricative. Although the sounds are similar and both are potentially problematic for many learners, the contrast is so rare that it causes few problems. Note how many of the pairs involve rare or obsolete words.

Interesting pairs include:

vicar thicker

The mean density value is 0.8%, giving some support to the O'Connor conjecture. The list makes 22 semantic distinctions, a loading of 73%.

 	
bevel bethel 
  bevels bethels 
derv dearth 
dove doth 
grove growth	  
  groves growths
halve hearth	
  halves hearths
have hath 
heave heath 
helve health 
rave wraith
  raves wraiths
reeve wreath
  reeves wreaths
rove wroth
trove troth 
vain thane 
vein thane
  veins thanes 
versed thirst 
verso Thurso 
Vic thick
vicar thicker 
vie thigh 
  vies thighs 
views thews 
vole thole 
  voles tholes 
you've youth

October

John Higgins

John Higgins retired in 2000, having spent the bulk of his career as a British Council English Language Officer working in Thailand, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia and the last fifteen years in lectureships at Bristol University and then running an M.Sc. programme at Stirling University. His main field was EFL, with a special interest in CALL (computer-assisted language learning) in which, together with Tim Johns of Birmingham, he was responsible for important developments in methods and materials. His publications include A Guide to Language Laboratory Material Writing, Universitetesforlaget, 1969, Computers and Language Learning, Collins, 1984, Language Learners and Computers, Longman, 1988, and Computers in English Language Learning, Intellect Press, 1992, together with numerous papers, reviews and pieces of software. He maintains a web page on minimal pairs and homographs for teachers of English pronunciation skills.