Minimal Pair List Consonants /Ɵ/ versus /w/, 45 pairs

The /Ɵ/ sound is spelled with <th>. The /w/ sound is spelled with <w> or <wh>.

This is a contrast between a voiceless dental and alveolar fricative and a voiced bilabial semivowel. It is not a problem.

There is one taboo word pair in thank/wank .

The mean density value is 1.5%. The list makes 21 semantic distinctions, a loading of 47%.

 	
thane Wayne 
thane wain
  thanes wains
thank wank
  thanked wanked
  thanking wanking
  thanks wanks
thaw war
  thaws wars
thawed ward
theft weft
  thefts wefts
theory weary
  theories wearies
therm worm
  therms worms
thick Wick 
thicket wicket
  thickets wickets
thieve weave
  thieves weaves
  thieving weaving
thigh Y 
  thighs Y's   
thighs wise  
think wink
  thinking winking
  thinks winks
third whirred
third word
  thirds words
thirst worst
  thirsted worsted
  thirsting worsting
  thirsts worsts
thistle whistle
  thistles whistles
thorm warn
  thorns warns
thought wart
  thoughts warts
thunder wonder
  thundered wondered
  thundering wondering
  thunders wonders

.

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.