The Basics Of English Grammar

Hello Friends! Today we are going to learn the very basics of English Language. This lesson is about sounds in English or in other words, we are going to learn about letters and their types.

The Alphabet There are twenty six (26) letters in English Language. These twenty six letters are given below:

A             B             C             D             E              F              G             H             I               J              K             L              M

N             O             P             Q             R             S              T              U             V             W           X             Y             Z

So, these letters have been divided into two types according to their sounds or the characteristics of their sounds. The first type is said to be Vowels and the second one is Consonants. A, E, I O and U are the vowels whereas remaining other letters are said to be consonants.

Characteristics of Vowels

The characteristic of the vowels is when we speak these letters (a, e, i, o, u), the sound directly comes out of our throat and the tongue doesn’t touch the inner parts of our mouth or our mouth remains open when we speak these letters. If we talk about Urdu language, people pronounce these vowels as “الف” in Urdu. This perhaps seems true but always remember that such pronunciations in Urdu are made by us and this is not true in accordance with the English language. Look at these words and pronounce:

A for America                    E for Elephant                  I for Islam                           

O for Orange                    U for Umbrella

Sometimes “U” has two sounds. See these examples:

*Uncle Here “U” has a vowel sound

*University        Here “U” has a consonant sound

Consonants are the letters when we speak, our tongue definitely touches any of the parts of our mouth or our mouth either closes or opens when we speak these letters and if we talk about Urdu language, consonants don’t sound as “الف” in Urdu. For example:

B for Ball              C for Cat               D for Dog             F for Fan              G for gun             etc.

Note: etc. stands for etcetera which means “and so on”. “وغیرہ وغیرہ”

Sometimes the consonants sound as the vowels do but this is a rare case. There are some consonants when we use them alone, they sound as “الف” in Urdu. Consider these letters:

A اے     F ایف        E ای        H ایچ       I آئی        L ایل        M ایم       N این       R آر         S ایس      X ایکس

My dear friends, here you can see that when we pronounce A and E, there is the sound of “الف” in the starting. In the same way, when we pronounce consonants (F, G, H, L, M etc.), we find the same situation here that the sound of “الف” in the starting.

Anyway, remember that vowels never change their sounds when they make a word whereas consonants change their sounds when they make a word. For instance:

Ox          Here “O” sounds the same as alone but                Fan         Here “F” has changed its sound and it no longer sounds as vowel.

To be continued …..

Note: In the next lesson, you will also be told the importance of this lesson because some of the people may be considering why this lesson is being taught deeply!

By: Hafiz Muhammad Noman

(Please do comment on this lesson if you like it!)

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