What is the sound of k?
The letter 'k' sound is a voiceless or unvoiced sound because the vocal cords do not vibrate together. Instead, we use air. The sound of the letter k is /k/ and is a counterpart of the sound of /g/. For example kid, kitten, kettle, etc.
- conflict [kɔnflɪkt]
- crazy [kɹeɪzi]
- cannot [kænɑt]
- could [kɪd]
- could [kʊd]
- could [kəd]
- quite [kwaɪʔt]
- can't [kænt]
However, silent ⟨k⟩ and ⟨g⟩ occur because of apheresis, the dropping of the initial sound of a word. These sounds used to be pronounced in Old and Middle English.
Use the letter 'k' with the vowels i and e. Use the consonant digraph 'ck' only at the end of 1-syllable words when the /k/ sound IMMEDIATELY follows a vowel.
- keen (adjective)
- keep (verb)
- key (adjective)
- key (noun)
- kick (noun)
- kick (verb)
- kickoff.
- kid (noun)
The alphabet letter k, by itself, makes 1 sound.
| keeps | knead | kites |
|---|---|---|
| kench | kevel | kiddy |
| kilos | knack | kneel |
| knelt | knoll | knobs |
| koala | kooky | knurl |
- kabalistic.
- kabbalisms.
- kabbalists.
- kailyarder.
- kaiserdoms.
- kaiserisms.
- kaisership.
- kakebutons.
The Four Letter Words That Start With K are Knob, Knew, Knot, Kind, Knee, Kaki, Kale, Kilo, King, Know, Knit, Kiwi, Keen, Keto, Keep, Kill, Kite, etc.
The silent K: You need to know
The 'k' in English is traditionally a hard-sounding vowel 'cah' or 'kah', especially when it's at the end of a word: back, for instance. However, when the letter 'k' precedes the letter 'n' at the start of a word, it falls silent; such as 'know'.
Which word has a silent K '?
The silent k in a slew of common words demonstrates a callousness for beginner spellers especially: knee, knife, knight, knit, knob, knock, knot, know, knuckle.
The K-Percent Rule was a proposal by economist Milton Friedman that the central bank should increase the money supply by a constant percentage every year. The K-Percent Rule proposes to set the money supply growth at a rate equal to the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) each year.
C and K Spelling Rule
When your students hear the /k/ sound at the beginning of a word, they probably think of the letter “c.” Teach that K comes before the letters i and e in a word. Like in the words “kid” and “key.” On the other hand, the letter c comes before the letters a, o, and u, like cat, cod, and cup.
However, /k/ is a voiceless consonant while /g/ is a voiced consonant. When you pronounce /k/, your vocal cords should not vibrate.
K comes from the Greek word kilo which means a thousand. The Greeks would likewise show million as M, short for Mega. So if we stay consistent with the Greek abbreviations, then billion would be shown as a letter G (Giga). Think of your computer expressing bytes of memory as kilobyte, megabyte or gigabyte.
kismet (n.) kittenish (adj.) knight (n.) knockout (n.)
1. variable noun. K is the eleventh letter of the English alphabet. 2. K or k is used as an abbreviation for words beginning with k, such as ' kilometre', 'kilobyte', or 'king'.
- ack.
- ark.
- ask.
- auk.
- dak.
- eek.
- elk.
- erk.
| Kaatzes | kabaddi |
|---|---|
| kabukis | Kabyles |
| kacchas | kachcha |
| Kachchi | kacheri |
| kachina | kachori |
| kab | kae |
|---|---|
| kid | kie |
| kif | kin |
| kip | kir |
| kis | kit |
What word has a double K?
K. K isn't typically doubled in English—unless two words are getting pressed together into one. That's how we came to have bookkeeper (and bookkeeping) and jackknife. Knickknack is in the same category, but came to be through the process of reduplication from knack.
| ka | KB |
|---|---|
| kc | KD |
| kg | ki |
| kk | kl |
| km | ko |
Antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters)
A term referring to a political movement in 19th century Britain that sought to separate church and state.
| Aghvank | airlock |
|---|---|
| bangkok | bannock |
| barrack | bashlik |
| bashlyk | bawcock |
| beatnik | bechalk |
| # | Capital Letter | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | J | jay |
| 11 | K | kay |
| 12 | L | el |
| 13 | M | em |
| aback | abask |
|---|---|
| borak | borek |
| Borok | brack |
| brank | break |
| brick | brink |
K is unvoiced, kk, meaning, only air passes through your mouth. And G is voiced, gg, gg, meaning, you're making a sound with your vocal cords. These consonants are stop consonants, which means there are two parts to the sound. First, a stop of the airflow, and second, a release.
The velar consonant [k] is the most common consonant in human languages.
...
| K | |
|---|---|
| Other letters commonly used with | k(x) |
In the case of "knee", the origin is an Old English word, "cneowian", so it looks as if the good doctor decided to bring it into line with the other Germanic words and begin it with a "k".
Is k silent in night?
Silent K is a common pattern. If you see a word that starts with KN-, you only pronounce the N. So knight sounds exactly the same as night and knot is pronounced exactly the same as not.
Silent K Words
Rule: K is not pronounced when it comes before an n at the beginning of a word. For example: knee, know, knock.
The single letter c pronounced as /k/ can come almost anywhere in the word and comes before the vowels a, o, and u. The double letter c pronounced as /k/ comes after a short vowel. The letter k comes before the vowels i, e, or y. It also comes at the end of one-syllable words after any sound except a short vowel sound.
We use K at the end of a word when it contains a vowel digraph (a double vowel). BOOK, LOOK, COOK, SEEK, CHEEK, MEEK, CREEK, GREEK. spelling tip: the single c is used when there's a word with 2 syllables or more!
- Every word has at least one vowel.
- Every syllable has at least one vowel.
- C can say /k/ or /s/. ...
- G can say /g/ or /j/. ...
- Q is always followed by a u (queen).
- Double the consonants f, l, and s at the end of a one-syllable word that has just one vowel (stiff, spell, pass).
Replacing the letter c with k in the first letter of a word was used by the Ku Klux Klan during its early years in the mid-to-late 19th century. The concept is continued today within the group. For something similar in the writing of groups opposed to the KKK, see § KKK replacing c or k, below.
Why do C and K sound the same? Because they belong to two different alphabets, c to the Latin alphabet, k to the Greek alphabet. Loan words from Greek continued to be written with kappa (k) while words of Latin and Germanic origin were spelled with c.
Soft ⟨k⟩ is typically a palatal [ç] or an alveolo-palatal [ɕ], and occurs before not only ⟨i⟩, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨y⟩, but also ⟨j⟩, ⟨ä⟩, and ⟨ö⟩. Another similar system with hard and soft ⟨k⟩ is found in Faroese with the hard ⟨k⟩ being /kʰ/ and the soft being /t͡ʃʰ/, and Turkish where the soft ⟨k⟩ is /c/.
To make the /k/ sound, put the back of your tongue against the top of your mouth towards the back on what is called your soft palate. With your tongue in this position, draw air through your mouth and release it by lowering your tongue. This unvoiced release of air is the /k/ sound.
K is unvoiced, kk, meaning, only air passes through your mouth. And G is voiced, gg, gg, meaning, you're making a sound with your vocal cords. These consonants are stop consonants, which means there are two parts to the sound. First, a stop of the airflow, and second, a release.
What are k and G sounds called?
K and G sounds, also known as velar sounds, are produced in the back of the mouth. The back of the tongue touches the velum (soft palate). Make a few K sounds with your hand on your throat. Hopefully you'll be able to feel that the sound is coming from the very back of your mouth.
To make the /k/ sound, put the back of your tongue against the top of your mouth towards the back on what is called your soft palate. With your tongue in this position, draw air through your mouth and release it by lowering your tongue. This unvoiced release of air is the /k/ sound.
However, /k/ is a voiceless consonant while /g/ is a voiced consonant. When you pronounce /k/, your vocal cords should not vibrate.
That is the same order in which we try the letters when building a word. C and k are by far the most common ways to spell the sound of /k/ at the beginning of a word. Used much less frequently, ch represents the sound of /k/ in words of Greek origin (Christmas, chorus) and will be highlighted in a later level.
Basically, what you do is place the cereal behind the bottom front teeth and have the child place the tip of his tongue in the cereal hole and hold it there to keep the tip down while making the /k/ using the back of the tongue. This technique is explained in detail in the Talk Tools program.
In the International System of Units (SI), the SI prefix for one thousand is kilo-, officially abbreviated as k: for example, prefixed to metre/meter or its abbreviation m, kilometre or km signifies a thousand metres.
K comes from the Greek word kilo which means a thousand. The Greeks would likewise show million as M, short for Mega. So if we stay consistent with the Greek abbreviations, then billion would be shown as a letter G (Giga). Think of your computer expressing bytes of memory as kilobyte, megabyte, or gigabyte.