What is a consonant cluster?

A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.

It is important to distinguish between consonant clusters and digraphs with which they are often confused. In contrast to a consonant cluster, a digraph is a group of two or more symbols which really stand for just one sound (usually a consonant).

In the word chat, the letters c and h appear contiguously but are not a consonant cluster, even though both are separate consonants in other contexts (cat; hat). In this instance, ch is a digraph because the ch sequence represents a single sound in the underlying English sound system.

Here are some examples of consonant clusters:

• \sp\ and \ts\ in the word spots
• \spr\ in the word spray

• Concept module: consonant cluster
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): C
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International