Minimal Pair List Consonants /f/ versus /ŋ/, 30 pairs

The /f/ sound is spelled with <ff> or <gh> as in rough . The /ŋ/ sound is spelled <ng> or <ngue> in tongue .

The contrast is between a voiceless labio-dental fricative and a voiced velar nasal continuant, and only ocurs in medial or final positions. It is not a problem.

The mean density value is 0.3%. The list makes 21 semantic distinctions, a loading of 70%.

 	
bailiff bailing
bailiff baling
buff bung
  buffing bunging
  buffs bungs
  buffed bunged
Cardiff carding
cliff cling
  cliffs clings
fluff flung
gaff gang
  gaffs gangs
gaffer ganger
  gaffers gangers
huff hung
luff lung
  luffs lungs
Prof prong
riff ring
rough rung
slough slung
sough sung
stiff sting
stiffer stinger
Taffy tangy
tiff ting
  tiffs tings
tough tongue 
whiff wing
  whiffs wings

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.