43 Minimal Pairs Examples: List for Pronunciation
What are Minimal Pairs?
The list of minimal pairs is perfect for practicing English pronunciation because students have to distinguish between two similar sounds.
For example, ship and sheep both sound the same. But they differ in one sound.
If you want to define minimal pairs in linguistics, they are two similar-sounding words that differ in only one phonological element and have distinct meanings.
Here are a list and examples of a minimal pair to help listening comprehension, pronunciation practice, and countless other skills.
/R/ vs /L/ Minimal Pairs Examples
Grammar / Glamour
Royal / Loyal
Arrive / Alive
Ramp / Lamp
Bowling / Boring
Belly / Berry
Rock / Lock
Light / Right
Grow / Glow
Collect / Correct
Climb / Crime
Rag / Lag
Link / Rink
Gloom / Groom
Lice / Rice
Root / Loot
Elect / Erect
Cloud / Crowd
Lack / Rack
Ram / Lamb
/S/ vs /TH/ Minimal Pairs List
Sick / Thick
Mouth / Mouse
Sigh / Thigh
Song / Thong
Pass / Path
Sink / Think
Force / Fourth
Math / Mass
Thumb / Sum
Saw / Thaw
Myth / Miss
Thing / Sing
That / Sat
/F/ vs /V/ Minimal Pairs List
Fast / Vast
Fender / Vendor
Fan / Van
Refuse / Reviews
Foul / Vowel
Fairy / Very
Phase / Vase
Vine / Fine
Save / Safe
Minimal Pairs and Pronunciation Practice
Because some of these sounds don’t exist in students’ native language, minimal pairs can go into uncharted territories.
If you want to take your English pronunciation lessons to the next level, then you can give these 5 free minimal pair worksheets a shot.
Alternatively, you can flat-out try out our 10 free pronunciation lesson plans.
How do you like working with minimal pairs? Let us know with a comment below.
Important to note that dialect influences what are and are not minimal pairs. As a Californian American English speaker, several of the above examples don’t make sense to me. “Foul” is a one syllable word in my dialect (homophone to “fowl”) and “vowel” is a two syllable word so they can’t be a minimal pair together. As another example, the minimal pair for “vase” in my local dialect is “face”, because “phase” is pronounced here with a /z/…
I’m sure not as drastic of a dialect as the SNL clip of “the Californians” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCer2e0t8r8
…or is it?
“Troy says:
May 11, 2023 at 9:21 pm
Is it possible to have words of minimal pairs (start with consonant b and end with z)?”
Buzz – Bus
Is it possible to have words of minimal pairs (start with consonant b and end with z)?
Thank you so much
Good job
So when someone mixes these minimal pairs how do you correct using consonant positions and consonant qualities?
Try to focus on pronunciation and the sounds of English – https://allesl.com/pronunciation-sounds-of-english/
1. Minimal pair like= Good-Gud
I am confused about the pairs. Why can’t there be more than one example, like “ship”, “sheep” and why not “shop”?
Sheep and ship are similar sounds. But ship and shop are quite different.
It’s really educative
With ample examples
But all these examples requires phonemic transcription to understand it better
But still good
Very informative and well explained. The examples are extraordinary. 😊
Good minimal pairs some are really different to find such as au and eu
In my opinion I think it is not better to do the same pronunciation cause we have so many different cultures who have differ vowels sounds 🖊️
Is there any minimal pairs formed by more than two syllables?
I can’t think of any at the top of my head.
Good one. I love it☺️
Please can I have minimal pairs for the sounds ‘ au’ and ‘eu’.
They are really difficult. Good job though 👍
Ship and sheep both sound the same? The OALD tells me the opposite! Short i in ship, long i: in sheep.
It depends where you’re teaching. If you’re in Asia, they don’t differentiate between those two sounds in their native language. That’s why students they find it challenging to make the short and long “i” sound. Hence, why it’s included as minimal pairs.
Its true, the minimal pairs are challenging. It can create problems in communication when people hear or say a word that is received incorrectly. This creates miscommunication and sometimes difficult emotions for people.
Read again till the end: “…but they differ with one sound.”