Examples: three, shrimp; thread, shrill; throat, shrink; thrush, shroud; through, shrew.
Final Consonants.—The slurring or omission of final consonants is a greater fault than the mispronunciation of vowels, for it points directly to carelessness and indolence on the part of the speaker.
R. It is sometimes stated that there is no r sound in English.
In singing the r is always made distinct.
It should also be apparent in conversation. Thus: father and farther are quite distinct. So, too, ma and mar.
The t belongs to the preceding syllable and the words should be pronounced thus: nat-ure, feat-ure, pict-ure, premat-ure, creat-ure, fut-ure, indent-ure, nurt-ure.
The consonant values of w and y are never terminal in a syllable, but are followed in the same syllable by a vowel. In attempting, for phonic practice, to sound either of these consonants apart from its vowel, make it continuous, not abrupt.
H cannot be separated from its accompanying vowel. Pronounce ha, he, hi, ho, hu, hy. Notice that the office of h is to cover the following vowel with breath. It will be seen, on careful examination, that any attempt to sound h alone will result in whispering a vowel with it.
Wh has for its initial sound simply unvocalized breath, poured through the lips placed in position for w. As a whole the digraph is sounded as it would naturally be if the order of the letters were reversed, thus, hw; as, when, while, whip, pronounced hwen, hwile, hwip.
Lisping children and Germans need to carefully observe the sounds of s and th.