speech sounds

What are the different types of speech sounds?

Updated: Aug 11

Did you know there are different types of speech sounds? Have you worked with a child in the past who has focused on back sounds, or flow sounds, and wondered what does that mean?

Well, us humans are clever things and utilise different parts of our mouth and throat, controlling airflow in particular ways to produce a range of sounds. As a native English speaker, I’ll focus on English sounds but there may be some theory you can put towards sounds in any other language you are using with your child.

Speech Sounds: Voice, Place, Manner

This is the foundation phrase Speech and Language Therapists use when referring to speech sounds. Some sounds can be loud, like a D or V sound and others can be quiet or whispered like a T or H. This refers to the use of voice , utilising the voice box for the louder sounds and switching it off (or not vibrating the vocal folds) for quieter sounds.

When looking at place , this refers to where in the mouth the sound is made i.e. at the front or the back, with the tongue, teeth or lips.

The Manner of articulation indicates air flow and whether a speech sound is made when the air flow is stopped, allowed to flow a little or whether it is a sound made when the air flows out of the nose (like when producing a M sound).

Different places of Articulation

We make speech sounds in a few different places in our mouth and throat.

Lip sounds - these sounds are made by using the lips in some sort of way. P, B and M are made with both lips pressed together, W is made with lips rounded and F and V are made with the bottom lip tucked under the top front teeth.

Alveolar sounds - this refers to the hard palatal ridge just behind your top teeth. Here we make the T, D, N, S, Z, L, SH, CH, J. These are also referred to as front sounds .

Back sounds - sounds made towards the back of the mouth include K, G, NG. There are some other sounds made here in other languages, for example the Spanish ‘j’, Greek Ɣ and German ‘ch’.

Glide sounds - these are made when articulators move, R, L, W, Y.

Stop and flow sounds

Some of the sounds that we produce are made when the airflow is stopped and then released. Think of the ‘p’ sound. We produce this sound by pressing our lips together and letting air come out of our lungs but stopping it with our closed lips. Then we release the lips and the ‘puh’ sound is made.

The same thing happens for the ‘t’ sound, except this time we use the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth (the alveolar ridge) to stop the air flow and then release to make the ‘tuh’ sound. Try it.

The technical term for these ‘stoppy sounds’ is plosive . Stop sounds used in English are P, B, T, D, K, G.

Other speech sounds are made by letting the air flow through our articulators. Like the ‘s’ sound. For this sound we hover the tongue tip on the ridge behind the top teeth and let the air flow through to make the ‘sss’ sound.

Now try with the ‘f’ sound. For this we need to trap the bottom lip under the top teeth gently so that we can let the air flow to make this sound. This is one of my favourite sounds to help children with because we can make a rabbit face.

The technical term for ‘flowy sounds’ is fricative. Flow sounds in English are F, V, TH, S, Z, SH, H.

How can we tell there is a problem?

When speech sound difficulties occur, it is usually because a child is replacing one type of speech sounds with another. For example, they may be replacing a front sound T with a back sound K/C (saying key instead of tea ). OR they may replace a flow sound F with a stop sound D (saying dock for sock ).

A Speech and Language Therapist will be able to use samples of a child’s speech, usually with a picture naming assessment, to figure out what sounds a child can say, what sounds are missing or replaced, if the child has any particular difficulty with saying a type of sound and then decide on the best way to help make these difficulties better.

If this all sounds interesting to you, I go into much more depth and theory in my online course Speech Sounds: Steps to Success .

In this comprehensive training, we'll look at types of speech sound difficulties and common error patterns, as well as the development of speech sounds and the age children are expected to be able to produce certain types of sounds.

Then we go on to look at fun ways that you can resolve your child's speech sound difficulties and the different stages of their journey, from producing single sounds to being able to use their target sounds in sentences.

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The 44 sounds in English with examples

Do you want to learn more about American English sounds? You’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we discuss everything you need to know, starting with the basics.

Definition of Phonemes

• English Keywords

Phonics: The way sounds are spelled

English consonant letters and their sounds.

• Bringing it all together

The vowel chart shows the keyword, or quick reference word, for each English vowel sound. Keywords are used because vowel sounds are easier to hear within a word than when they are spoken in isolation. Memorizing keywords allows easier comparison between different vowel sounds.

Phonemic awareness is the best predictor of future reading ability Word origins. The English word dates back to the late 19th century and was borrowed from two many sources. The 44 English sounds fall into two categories: consonants and vowels.

Below is a list of english phonemes and their International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and some examples of their use. Note that there is no such thing as a definitive list of phonemes because of accents, dialects, and the evolution of language itself. Therefore you may discover lists with more or less than these 44 sounds.

A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant letters, for example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds.

English vowel letters and their sounds

A vowel is a particular kind of speech sound made by changing the shape of the upper vocal tract, or the area in the mouth above the tongue. In English it is important to know that there is a difference between a vowel sound and a [letter] in the [alphabet]. In English there are five vowel letters in the alphabet.

Do you find it difficult to pronounce English words correctly or to comprehend the phonetic alphabet's symbols?

The collection of English pronunciation tools of the EnglishPhonetics below is for anyone learning the language who want to practice their pronunciation at any time or place.

(FREE) English Accent Speaking test with Voice and Video

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To Phonetics Transcription (IPA) and American Pronunciation voice

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Contrasting Sounds or Minimal Pairs Examples

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Vowel sounds and syllable stress

Vowel sounds and syllables are closely related. Syllables are naturally occurring units of sound that create the rhythm of spoken English. Words with multiple syllables always have one syllable that is stressed (given extra emphasis).

Unstressed syllables may contain schwa /ə/, and can have almost any spelling. In addition, three consonant sounds, the n sound, l sound, and r sound (called 'schwa+r' /ɚ/ when it is syllabic) can create a syllable without an additional vowel sound. These are called syllabic consonants.

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Eriberto Do Nascimento

Eriberto Do Nascimento has Ph.D. in Speech Intelligibility and Artificial Intelligence and is the founder of English Phonetics Academy

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July 8, 2024

Speech Sound Development Chart

Children learn to speak at a very young age, and while speech sound development often follows a predictable pattern, each child’s speech development will vary. This speech sound development chart can help caregivers and speech-language pathologists determine if a child’s speech is on track and help make decisions about when a child needs speech therapy.

Speech Sound Development

Recently, a cross-linguistic review by McLeod and Crowe (2018) reviewed 64 studies from 31 countries to analyze the development of speech sounds across multiple languages.

Further analysis of this data was done across 15 studies of 18,907 children for English in the United States (Crowe and McLeod, 2020). The analysis reported the following:

Children are able to produce English speech sounds relatively early, with most sounds acquired by 4 years of age , and almost all speech sounds acquired by the age of 7 .

Here’s a speech sound development chart with a breakdown of when specific consonant speech sounds are acquired.

What Speech Sounds Develop at What Ages?

Most speech sounds develop between the ages of 2 to 7 years old (though speech can develop before and after these ages as well). The 24 English consonant speech sounds can be broken up into early, middle, and late-developing sounds.

Early sounds are typically easy for a young child to produce and are learned by age 3. Middle sounds are acquired next and are learned by age 4. Finally, four speech sounds are considered late-developing sounds, and these usually aren’t acquired until the age of 7.

Early 13 Sounds (Ages 2-4)

The first “early 13” speech sounds that children learn include:

• B, N, M, P, H, W, D, G, K, F, T, NG, and Y.

Middle 7 Sounds (Age 4-5)

The next “middle 7” speech sounds that children learn include:

• V, J, S, CH, L, SH, and Z.

Late 4 Sounds (Ages 5-7)

Finally, the last “late 4” speech sounds that children learn include:

• R, Voiced TH, ZH, and Voiceless TH.

Speech Sound Development By Age

To get an even more specific view of speech sound development by age, let’s break down these speech sounds further by each year of development.

The following sections include the average age at which 90% of children acquire English speech sounds. Keep in mind, that there is variability in when children acquire and subsequently master speech sounds. This list should be used as a basic guide to help determine if a child’s speech is developing appropriately.

A quick note on intelligibility: The intelligibility noted below is how much speech (in sentences) an unfamiliar listener can understand. An unfamiliar listener is someone who does not listen to the child on a regular basis.

2-3 Years (24-35 months)

Toddlers are often difficult to understand, as they are learning the different speech sounds and how to communicate with others. Two-year-olds still make many speech errors, and these are considered developmentally appropriate, but they should be able to say relatively simple speech sounds.

Intelligibility: Children should be at least 15% intelligible at 3 years old.

By the time a child turns 3 years old, they should have acquired the following sounds:

• P. (As in p ay, o p en, and cu p .)
• B. (As in b oy, ro b ot, and tu b .)
• D. (As in d og, ra d io, and sa d .)
• M. (As in m op, le m on, and ja m .)
• N. (As in n ose, po n y, and pi n .)
• H. (As in h am, be h ind, and fore h ead.)
• W. (As in w eb, a w ake, and co w. )

3-4 Years (36-47 months)

Young preschoolers are continuing to learn many speech sounds, and they are becoming easier to understand. Speech errors are still common and appropriate at this age, but they should be able to say 13 total speech sounds.

Intelligibility: Children should be 50% intelligible at 4 years old.

By the time a child turns 4 years old, they should have acquired the following sounds:

• T. (As in t op, wa t er, and ha t .)
• K. (As in k iss, ba k er, and boo k .)
• G. (As in g um, wa g on, and lo g .)
• NG. (As in ha ng er, and swi ng .)
• F. (As in f an, so f a, and lea f .)
• Y. (As in y es, can y on, and ro y al.)

4-5 Years (48-59 months)

An older preschooler’s speech should include most speech sounds, though a few errors are still developmentally appropriate (like saying “wabbit” for “rabbit” or “fumb” for “thumb.”). 

Intelligibility: Children should be 75% intelligible at 5 years old.

By the time a child turns 5 years old, they should have acquired the following sounds:

• V. (As in v an, se v en, and fi ve . )
• S. (As in s un, me ss y, and ye s )
• Z. (As in z oo, li z ard, and bu zz .)
• SH. (As in sh oe, wa sh ing, and fi sh . )
• CH. (As in ch in, tea ch er, and pea ch .)
• J. (As in j ump, ban j o, and ca ge .)
• L. (As in l id, sa l ad, and hi ll .)

5-6 Years (60-71 months)

As a child enters grade school, their speech continues to improve and correctly saying speech sounds will be important to their success in school and their ability to read. Few errors in speech are now considered developmentally appropriate.

Intelligibility: Children should be 80% intelligible at 6 years old.

By the time a child turns 6 years old, they should have acquired the following sounds:

• Voiced TH. (As in th ey, wea th er, and smoo th .)
• ZH. (As in mea s ure, vi s ion, and gara ge .)
• R. (As in r un, ze r o, and fa r .)

6-7 Years (72-83 months)

A child’s speech at this age should be continually improving, with one final sound learned when they are in their 6th year. By the time a child reaches their 7th birthday, most will have acquired all speech sounds, and you should be able to understand almost everything they say.

Intelligibility: Children should be 90% intelligible a little past 7 years old.

By the time a child turns 7 years old, they should have acquired the following sound:

• Voiceless TH. (As in th ink, py th on, and ma th .)

This speech sound development chart is a helpful visual guide to gauge how “on track” children are with developing speech in comparison to other children their same age. Keep this speech sound acquisition chart on hand to determine if your child or client is acquiring speech sounds appropriately.

Click on the image below to download the speech sound development chart PDF.

Speech Sound Acquisition

These milestones are a good place to start to help track your child’s speech development. If your child hasn’t acquired speech sounds at the ages specified above and you are concerned about their speech, reach out to a speech-language pathologist.

Remember! These speech sound milestones are to be used as a general guide to help you determine if your child’s speech is developing appropriately. These norms are only one piece of the puzzle in determining if a child’s speech is delayed and if may benefit from speech therapy. They are not set-in-stone “cut-off” ages for when your child should be perfectly saying each speech sound in conversation as children continue to “master” these sounds after the ages specified above.

Interested in learning more about speech therapy and speech development? Check out these related posts below!

• How to Become a Speech Pathologist
• Speech Intelligibility

Place Manner Voice Chart

If you have concerns about your child’s speech, please contact us or speak with a local speech-language pathologist for further information and recommendations.

Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). Children’s English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology . https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168

Hustad, K.C., Mahr, T.J., Natzke, P., & Rathouz, P.J. (2021). Speech development between 30 and 119 months in typical children I: Intelligibility growth curves for single-word and multiword productions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research . https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142

McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology . https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100

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Speech sounds, what are speech sounds  .

Speech sounds are the sounds we use for talking. We use our tongue, lips, teeth, and other parts of our mouth to create different speech sounds. Speech sounds are not the same as letters. For example, the word ‘sheep’ has five letters, but only three sounds: ‘sh’ ‘ee’ ‘p’.  

When do children learn different speech sounds?   

As children learn to talk, they gradually learn to make more and more speech sounds. This means that they cannot say all speech sounds straight away. Some sounds like ‘m’ are easier to make than sounds like ‘th’. The chart below shows the ages that children who speak English can normally say different sounds.  

Children who can’t make these speech sounds at these ages might need extra help from a speech and language therapist. Children may lisp ‘s’ sounds until around age four or five. See our factsheet on lisps.  

Even when children can make a speech sound by itself, it can be much trickier to use speech sounds when saying whole words and sentences! Children often find simpler ways to say words when they are finding a speech sound tricky. This chart shows examples of how your child might say words at different ages:  

By five or six years old, nearly all words will be clear and easy to understand. Children who say words like a much younger child, or who say their words in an unusual or unpredictable way, might need extra help from a speech and language therapist.  

I can understand everything my child says, but other people can’t.   

Families can often understand their child much better than other people. Families might be able to guess what their child is talking about and they learn to tune into how their child says words. It can be much harder for other people who don’t know your child! Here is a rough guide about how clear your child’s talking should be at different ages:  

What causes challenges with speech sounds?  

Children’s speech is often unclear when they first start to talk, but most children will get clearer in time. Some children, though, have particular challenges making or using speech sounds and will need extra help from a speech and language therapist to talk clearly. We often do not know why a child has challenges using speech sounds, but it can be linked to:  

• Challenges with other areas of their communication skills, for example talking and understanding words  
• Glue ear (see glue ear page for more information)  
• Cleft palate  
• Having other family members who needed help with their speech sounds.  

What about dummies?    

In the past, professionals usually warned against using a dummy after age one as it could cause problems with speech sounds. Recently, studies show that this may not be completely true. For most children, their speech sound challenges are not caused by dummies. We have more information on the pros and cons of dummies here.  

I am worried about my child’s speech sounds, what should I do?     

If the information here has made you think that your child’s speech sounds are not as clear as other children their age, it is best to talk to your child’s nursery or school, or contact a speech and language therapist. Please see our ‘How do I find a speech and language therapist’ guide for more information.  

We also have a free speech and language advice line , which is a confidential phone call with an experienced speech and language therapist. During the 30-minute call, you will be given the opportunity to talk through your concerns and questions regarding your child’s development. You can book your phone call here.  

What can I do to help my child at home?   

• Focus on trying to understand what your child is saying, rather than how they are saying it. Turn off any background noise and get down to their level so you can see and hear each other easily.   
• It is usually best not to correct your child or ask them to copy you saying tricky sounds or words.  
• Model words. This means saying the word correctly to your child, but not making them repeat it after you. You can do this if you hear them make a mistake. Try to repeat the word a few times for your child. For example, if they say, ‘Mummy, there’s a tat!’, you could say, ‘Oh yes a cat! A ginger cat. What a lovely cat.’  
• Show your child how to use other ways to communicate what they want and need. Our information on visual supports is a good starting point.  
• Listening to and playing with sounds and music can help develop your child’s awareness of sounds. Things to try:    
• Sing nursery rhymes or read rhyming books together. See if your child can finish the rhyme: Jack and Jill went up the… (hill).    
• Sing, dance or clap along to their favourite music and songs.   
• Play with musical instruments. Copy each other’s tune or rhythm.
• Drum together: Beat out a rhythm together using drums or household objects like pans and spoon.  

We don’t suggest trying mouth exercises such as practicing blowing or sucking. Mouth exercises are not helpful for most children with speech sound challenges.  

Useful websites:     

BBC – Tiny Happy People

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