Minimal Pair List Consonants /Ɵ/ versus /h/, 39 pairs

The /Ɵ/ sound is spelled with <th>. The /h/ sound is spelled with <h>.

These are two voiceless fricatives, one dental and one glottal. The contrast, which only occurs initially, is not a problem, although the sound /Ɵ/ is difficult for many learners.

The mean density value is 1.2%. The list makes 16 semantic distinctions, a loading of 41%.

 	
thank hank 
  thanks hanks 
thatch hatch
  thatched hatched 
  thatches hatches 
  thatching hatching 
thaw haw 
  thawed hawed 
  thawing hawing 
  thaws haws 
thews hews 
thick hick 
thieve heave 
  thieved heaved 
  thieves heaves 
  thieving heaving 
thigh hi 
thigh high
thigh hie
  thighs hies 
third heard 
  thirds herds 
thole hole 
  tholes holes 
thorn horn
  thorns horns 
thorny horny 
  thornier hornier 
  thorniest horniest 
thug hug 
  thugs hugs 
thumb hum 
  thumbed hummed 
  thumbing humming 
  thumbs hums 
thump hump 
  thumped humped 
  thumping humping 
  thumps humps 

.

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.