Fricative consonants are produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together which produces friction, this air flow is called frication. Click oneach of these fricative consonants/f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/ /r/ in the chart on the right and repeat these sounds as many times as you need to.The fricative song She, well-known thanks to the film Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, sung by Elvis Costello, was, however, composed by the Armenian Charles Aznavour, who made it number one in England in 1974.
Listen to the song on this video and do the gap-fill activity just underneath by typing the missing words as you listen.
Once finished you can do the following crossword activitywith words taken from the lyrics.
To see the IPA phonetic symbols in the text, please ensure that you have installed a Unicode font that includes them all, for example Lucida Sans Unicode or Charis SIL (click name for free download).
This blog is mainly based on the field of phonetics addressed to teachers and students of English at all levels. The activities are interactive and can be used as lessons in class, a language lab, on-line or off-line (they can be photocopied).
