4 ms·

Orthographically speaking, 'p' is the first consonant, 'r' is the second consonant, and 'k' is the third consonant. Phonetically speaking, 'k' is the second con

• thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Yes, I understand what you're saying. I am curious, though, how you would personally describe orthographic consonant clusters such as "th" and "sh", and how, in your experience, other people usually refer to them.
  • kd5bjo 7y ago
    In my experience, the unqualified terms “consonant” and “vowel” unambiguously refer to individual letters, and the terms “consonant sound” and “vowel sound” are used to refer to the noises produced when speaking. Thus, most people I know would refer to both “th” and “sh” as two consonants. This is coming from a general US education with no focus on linguistics, and feels like the sort of thing that may have significant regional variances.