What is consonants? Thanks.?

Answer 1

The word "consonants" is used in two different ways. To understand the term start by recognizing:

1) "consonant" is understood by distinguishing it from "vowel"

2) both these terms are first of all about SOUNDS, and only secondarily about the letters used to indicate those sounds

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So, look first at the two types of sounds:

"CONSONANTS" are sounds made by severly restricting or stopping the flow of air. Note that is not JUST those that stop the flow -- these sounds (like b,p, t,d, k,g), fittingly called "STOPS" [another useful term] are only ONE type of consonant. A great many consonants do not stop the flow, but they DO restrict it.

A way to remember this 'CONSonants CONStrict the air flow'.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/consonant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant

"VOWELS" on the other hand, are characterized by how they SHAPE the sound --esp by positioning of the tongue and shape of the mouth-- WITHOUT severely constricting the air flow. This is why they are so important to carrying speech and enabling us to open up our mouths and sing. Note that vowels almost always are "voiced" (sounded with the vocal chords); in many (most?) languages (English included) ALL vowels are voiced. A great many consonants --including those that don't stop the air flow-- are not voiced. This characteristic use of the voice (compare "vocal") is the origin of the term "vowel" itself.
http://www.webster.com/dictionary/vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel

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So much for vowel and consonant SOUNDS. What about the LETTERS called by these terms?

Notice that the letters are one step removed from speech. For the most part our "consonant"-letters match up with consonant-SOUNDS and "vowel"-letters with vowel-sounds. What causes confusion is:

a) Spoken language and written language don't always change together... so that a letter may be written that no longer matches the sound made. For example, silent letters (mostly consonants) -- lamb, knight, soften. There are also "digraphs", that is, combinations of two-letters used to indicate ONE sound. In English these formed by adding an h to another consonant (ch, ph, sh, th), but since all the sounds and letters are identified as consonants there should not be much of a problem.

Many people understand all this at some level. The real issue and cause of confusion is . .
b) There is a set of sounds called "semi-vowels" on the "borderline" between consonants and vowels. Based on how they combine with surrounding sounds they may become one or the other. This accounts for the letter "y" being for a consonant-sound in "yell" but for a vowel-sound in "shy" (and actually, the "y" originally marked a VOWEL sound, and still is used in English for vowel sounds much more often than for consonants). Similar is the letter "w" which at the beginning of a syllable marks a consonant-sound ("well"), but latter in a syllable marks a vowel. (In modern English this only happens in the vowel-combinations ['dipthongs'] "aw", "ew", "ow", though in words from Welsh it can stand alone [like cwm, pronounced "coom"])

Thus it is accurate to say that, except when letters are silent (not marking ANY sound!), the letters a,e,i,o and u are used to mark vowel sounds, the other letters indicate consonant sounds -- EXCEPT w and y which are sometimes used to mark consonants (beginning of syllables) and something to mark vowels.

Answer 2

What Is Consonents

Answer 3

The word consonant comes from Latin and means "sounding with" or "sounding together.

It means that these letters don't sound on their own. They depend the nearby vowels.

The vowels in English are a,e,i,o,u. Other than these, all the other alphabets are consonants.

Answer 4

no longer a stupid question, yet one that toddlers might desire to nicely ask you......I asked Jeeves and that's what i stumbled on. be conscious that the desription is persisted with a hyperlink, so in case you like greater on it pass to Wikipedia Encyclopedia: Consonant source:Wikipedia A consonant is a valid in spoken language that's characterised by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to reason audible turbulence. The be conscious consonant comes from Latin and capacity "sounding with" or "sounding mutually", the assumption being that consonants do no longer sound ... greater »

Answer 5

Consonants are ALL OF THE letters of the alphabet EXCEPT the vowels which are a,e,i,o,u

Answer 6

b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z,

The letter Y stands for the consonant [j] in "yoke" but for the vowel [ɪ] in "myth", for example.

Answer 7

I think it needs to be "are" not "is.. and they are the letters that are not vowels, if you don' t know that either then I suggest going back to say maybe the first grade.

Answer 8

the letters that are not vowels

Answer 9

ask samuel...duh