Pronunciation Tips – the “F” Sound

Hello!

I hope you’re well today and ready to learn all about the “f” sound in English.

Start by taking a look at the following words:

photo       gift       half       laugh       friend      staff    

As you can see, the “f” sound is spelt in four different ways: “f”, “ff”, “ph” and “gh”.

“F”

The standard “f” can be found at the beginning, at the end and in the middle of words.

Examples:

• find, fantastic, future
• proof, reef
• life, after

It is quite a strong sound compared to “v”. However, note that the word “of” is pronounced “ov”.

“FF”

Say aloud the following words:

off        stuff        cliff        office        coffee

They all contain “ff” because the vowel sound before the “ff” is short.

“PH”

Did you know that most words containing “ph” are from Ancient Greek? It’s interesting, isn’t it?

This “ph” can be found at the beginning, at the end and in the middle of words.

Examples:

• phone, pharmacy
• rough, graph
• alphabet, dolphin

“GH”

Look at the following words which all contain the “-ugh” pattern and where this pattern is pronounced “f”:

rough        cough        enough        laughter

Note that “ugh” is not always pronounced as “f”.

Remember!

The voiceless “f” sound (a consonant fricative) is produced by stopping and releasing air between your bottom lip and the front side of your top teeth. Do not overproduce this sound by curling your bottom lip under your top teeth.