Minimal pairs for English RP

What are minimal pairs?

Minimal pairs are pairs of words whose pronunciation differs at only one segment, such as sheep and ship or lice and rice. They are often used in listening tests and pronunciation exercises. Theoretically it is the existence of minimal pairs which enables linguists to build up the phoneme inventory for a language or dialect, though the process is not without difficulty.

Each cell in the tables above is a link to a list of minimal pairs derived from a dictionary. Use the tables of vowels and consonants to retrieve the relevant lists. All the vowel and consonant lists have now been edited and commented on. Earlier versions of the lists included only one pair for each pronunciation, such as heal/hole. Newly revised versions have been added which include all the pairs which arise when one or both members of the pair have a homophone, so giving a better indication of how much confusion a given pair may cause. In the case of heal/hole, for instance, the new version of the list would include all of the following:

• heal hole            heals holes       healed holed                healing holing            heal whole         heals wholes             heel hole
•   heels holes                   heeled holed                heeling holing                        heel whole         heels wholes

Please note that, as you move the mouse over a link, the name of the relevant document should appear at the bottom of the browser window and this gives a further indication of which sound contrast is featured in the list

Vowels and diphthongs
	i	ɪ	e	æ	ɑ	ɒ	ɔ	ʊ	u	ʌ	3	ə	eɪ	aɪ	ɔɪ	əʊ	aʊ	ɪə	eə	ʊə	null	cons
i	*	466	331	391	312	361	476	77	370	300	298	66	549	525	98	518	154	125	139	38	172	64
ɪ	4	*	449	639	227	438	327	64	235	492	194	365	368	296	62	380	98	24	29	7	1348	978
e	4	5	*	305	148	249	238	50	134	250	153	36	281	241	59	239	118	33	30	11
æ	2	3	5	*	184	438	202	58	172	436	173	11	284	275	33	269	118	24	33	9	93
ɑ	3	2	3	4	*	184	225	39	92	177	156	11	209	146	48	201	64	62	73	31	61
ɒ	2	3	3	4	4	*	174	72	150	323	161	3	231	190	24	231	100	27	19	8	46
ɔ	2	1	1	2	4	4	*	66	186	193	237	21	322	272	93	287	131	131	168	36	88
ʊ	1	3	3	3	2	5	4	*	18	20	46	1	66	50	3	29	14	6	8	3
u	2	1	1	1	2	3	4	4	*	134	85	15	280	260	50	275	118	53	66	19
ʌ	2	4	4	5	4	4	3	4	2	*	134	4	234	180	30	205	92	19	24	8
3	4	3	3	4	5	3	4	3	3	4	*	8	214	175	35	179	75	45	54	14	20
ə	3	5	4	5	3	4	2	4	2	5	5	*	90	22	4	67	3	1	8	4
eɪ	4	4	5	4	3	1	1	1	1	3	4	4	*	405	108	417	187	77	82	22
aɪ	3	2	3	4	4	3	3	2	2	4	4	4	4	*	59	341	192	81	96	19
ɔɪ	3	1	1	2	3	4	5	4	4	3	3	3	3	4	*	92	39	29	18	11	17
əʊ	2	1	2	2	3	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	3	3	3	*	134	77	96	20	147	17
aʊ	1	1	2	3	4	4	4	3	3	4	3	3	2	4	3	5	*	41	33	12	41
ɪə	4	5	4	3	2	1	1	1	1	2	3	3	4	2	1	2	1	*	100	27	53
eə	3	4	5	4	3	2	1	1	1	3	4	4	5	3	1	3	2	5	*	26	53
ʊə	1	1	1	1	3	4	4	5	5	3	3	2	2	1	4	3	3	2	2	*	4
	i	ɪ	e	æ	ɑ	ɒ	ɔ	ʊ	u	ʌ	3	ə	eɪ	aɪ	ɔɪ	əʊ	aʊ	ɪə	eə	ʊə	null	cons

In the table of vowels each cell links to a list of minimal pairs involving the phonemes in the relevant column and row. The numbers in north-eastern half of the table are the actual numbers of pairs identified. The numbers in the south-western half give an indication of the importance or difficulty of the pair calculated as follows: from a maximum of 6, deduct 1 for difference between vowel and diphthong, 1 for a difference of length within monophthongs, 1 for difference of direction within diphthongs, 1 for a difference in lip-rounding, and then for the distance apart of the starting tongue position deduct 1 for a distance of up to one cardinal vowel, 2 for up to two cardinal vowels, 3 for any wider distance. Thus a score of 4 or 5 would show two very similar sounds, a contrast likely to be a cause of difficulty for some or all learners, while a score of 1 or 2 would be unlikely to cause problems.

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Consonants
	p	b	t	d	k	g	f	v	Ɵ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	h	m	n	ŋ	l	r	j	w	ʧ	ʤ	null	vowel
p	*	612	882	524	1009	401	570	227	129	73	614	222	296	3	378	640	563	84	684	374	87	433	296	197	916	139
b	5	*	518	446	577	415	525	144	72	46	453	87	240	2	337	476	321	38	418	387	96	284	226	213	995
t	5	4	*	867	822	396	469	298	128	78	1352	446	276	9	274	559	687	140	738	367	89	278	271	274
d	4	5	5	*	590	275	402	303	158	68	548	2941	257	9	241	484	542	1620	585	501	50	197	222	211
k	4	3	4	3	*	443	533	231	121	48	573	262	230	4	331	558	598	120	617	267	67	253	236	183
g	3	4	4	4	5	*	244	91	73	20	242	58	155	1	149	274	265	65	237	196	37	150	111	115
f	4	3	2	1	2	1	*	153	61	46	432	76	147	2	228	381	290	30	345	259	70	237	176	194
v	3	4	1	3	1	2	5	*	30	30	238	164	50	2	71	213	259	81	272	141	13	65	75	106
Ɵ	3	2	4	3	3	2	5	4	*	11	96	73	46	2	39	70	90	10	78	46	12	45	46	41	208
ð	2	3	3	4	1	3	4	5	5	*	36	40	13	2	20	75	54	7	52	17	5	27	22	15	67
s	3	2	4	3	2	1	4	3	5	4	*	281	219	9	300	453	496	51	544	418	66	267	219	224
z	2	3	3	4	1	2	3	4	3	5	5	*	67	11	26	186	396	1143	322	59	11	24	124	106
ʃ	2	1	4	2	2	1	4	3	5	3	5	4	*	9	150	219	162	86	212	234	41	136	131	125
ʒ	1	2	3	4	2	3	3	4	4	5	4	5	5	*	4	10	7	none	6	none	none	1	3	2	25	5
h	2	1	2	1	4	2	4	3	4	3	3	2	4	3	*	281	186	none	280	277	84	257	111	112	172
m	3	4	1	2	1	2	3	4	2	3	1	2	1	2	1	*	425	61	590	322	60	204	214	192
n	2	2	3	4	1	2	2	3	3	4	3	4	3	3	1	4	*	78	823	286	53	199	182	173
ŋ	1	2	2	2	3	4	1	2	2	3	1	2	1	3	2	4	5	*	60	4	none	none	23	78	543
l	2	2	3	4	1	2	2	3	3	4	3	4	3	4	1	3	4	3	*	657	92	257	215	226		17
r	2	2	2	4	1	3	2	3	3	4	3	4	3	4	1	3	4	3	5	*	79	290	147	171	937
j	1	2	2	3	2	4	2	3	2	3	3	3	2	4	3	2	4	3	3	3	*	65	40	54	105
w	3	4	1	2	1	2	3	5	2	2	1	2	1	2	2	4	2	2	3	3	4	*	91	121	428
ʧ	3	2	5	3	3	2	3	2	4	3	4	3	5	4	2	1	3	2	3	2	2	1	*	106	217
ʤ	2	3	4	4	2	3	2	3	3	4	3	4	4	5	1	2	4	3	4	3	3	2	5	*	215
	p	b	t	d	k	g	f	v	Ɵ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	h	m	n	ŋ	l	r	j	w	ʧ	ʤ	null	vowel

In the table of consonants each cell links to a list of minimal pairs involving the phonemes in the relevant column and row. The numbers in north-eastern half of the table are the actual numbers of pairs identified. The numbers in the south-western half give an indication of the importance or difficulty of the pair calculated as follows: from a maximum of 6, deduct 1 for difference of voicing, 1 or 2 for a difference of manner of articulation, 1 or 2 for the distance apart of the contact point. Thus a score of 4 or 5 would show two very similar sounds, a contrast likely to be a cause of difficulty for some or all learners, while a score of 1 or 2 would be unlikely to cause problems. 

How minimal is minimal?

Although the normal definition of a minimal pair specifies that the words differ in one segment, it allows that segment to be widely different in terms of articulation. Another tighter definition of a minimal pair might be words which differ by only one feature, what you might call hyper-minimal pairs. An example of such a hyper-minimal pair might be cheer versus jeer which differ only in voicing. These two words also belong to the same part of speech and so have the same inflections. Moreover they belong in the same domain of discourse, and are therefore highly confusable. If you were to overhear a fragment of conversation which included:

You should have heard them  ??eering at the end of the game.

you would have to perceive the voicing in order to know exactly what was meant. Most minimal pairs are considerably more distinct than that one, and in many cases would cause no difficulty to any speaker. However there is a kind of delight in recognising some of the pairs, which I feel may be related to the enjoyment we feel when we come across an outrageous rhyme in a song or piece of verse.

They can also be the source of genuine confusions and disputes. A story which appeared in newspapers in April 1998 suggested that the urn known as The Ashes and presented to the winning team in the England versus Australia cricket series contains not the remains of a bail, as the traditional account stated, but of a veil. Another story, involving not strictly a minimal pair but a highly confusable pair of words, appeared in January 1997. It told how a Japanese tourist with a ticket for Turkey had gone to Paddington station in London and asked for directions. She was put on the train to Torquay (a seaside town in South West England). There are all sorts of confusable sentences which can easily lead to 'slips of the ear' among English speakers, such as "the Dutch are suspicious" being misheard as "the Duchess is vicious". The only siginificant difference in the sound of those two sentences is /p/ versus /v/ and this is one which is notoriously difficult for foreign learners and can lead to unexpected problems. On a radio discussion on 13 March 2007 concerning the portrait of Adam Smith on the newly issued £20 note, a speaker with a strong Indian accent said what was first understood as "Adam Smith made a stink about society in a new way." What he really said was "Adam Smith made us think about society in a new way." Another slip of the ear I encountered recently was postcard for coastguard; although the initial /p/ versus /k/ distinction is a fairly strong one, the /k/ versus /g/ distinction in the middle of the word is neutralised by the presence of the /s/. (A contributory factor is that coastguards are often located in picturesque seaside towns, from which it would be reasonable to send a postcard.) A similar misunderstanding arose in conversation between raingear and reindeer. On a recent radio programme a presenter with a noticeable Irish accent was heard to be announcing an interview with "the born doctor Sir Roger Moore", though what he meant was "the Bond actor Sir Roger Moore". During a recent spell of cold weather I have heard "a bit chilly" misheard as "habitually" or "obituary".

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