It is important to be aware that the number of sounds that make up a word, doesn’t have to match necessarily with the number of letters that make up that word. In fact, most of the time, the number of sounds is different from the number of letters.
Let’s see different examples:
Some words have the same number of letters as sounds:
Plot p l ɒ t ( 3 letters and 3 sounds)
Basket b ɑː s k ɪ t ( 6 letters and 6 sounds)
Some words have more letters than actual sounds:
Law l ɔː ( 3 letters and 2 sounds)
Judge dʒ ʌ dʒ ( 5 letters and 3 sounds)
Answer ɑː n s ə ( 6 letters and 4 sounds)
Some words have more sounds than letters:
Extra e k s t r ə ( 5 letters and 6 sounds)
Wednesday w e n z d eɪ ( 9 letters and 6 sounds)
Let’s do some practice with the ten following exercises!