WHY or WINE? English consonant n word ending pronunciation listening practice with minimal pairs

Many English learners have difficulty pronouncing and distinguishing consonant endings that don't exist in their native languages. Many Thai learners of English have difficulty distinguishing between consonant endings that follow diphthongs such as /aɪ/, and the lack of a consonant ending. They may confuse endings when pronouncing such words ending with a consonant, or drop the consonant ending altogether.

This activity is intended to help train you to hear the difference between words with the consonant /n/ after the diphthong /aɪ/ and those without any consonant after /aɪ/.

This video has many examples of the English minimal pair words ''why" (/waɪ/) and "wine" (/waɪn/). In general North American English, the only difference in the pronunciation of these words is that "wine" ends with the consonant (/n/).

Listen to each word and decide if you are hearing "why"', which does not end with a consonant , or "wine", which ends with the consonant (/n/). Pause the video if you need more time. The word will then play again and you will see the correct answer. See how many you can get right!

Note: In this video "why" is pronounced /waɪ/, the same as the English name of the letter "Y", and the English word "wai" (from the Thai word ไหว้ for the Thai greeting gesture). These words are generally homophones North American English. "Wine" and "whine" are also homophones in general North American English. However, in some varieties of American English, words that start with "wh" such as "why" are pronounced with a different phoneme, /ʍ/, which sounds like "hw".