Minimal Pair Browser

A minimal pair is two words that differ by exactly one sound, like ship and sheep. Pick a contrast below to browse frequency-sorted pairs from this build's pronunciation records, with IPA transcriptions and short glosses.

Word lists generated from a fixed pronunciation dataset — not therapy advice. Consult a certified speech-language professional for assessment or treatment decisions.

Classic contrasts

  • rip / lip
  • wing / ring
  • wake / lake
  • yet / let
  • tea / key
  • date / gate
  • pat / bat
  • time / dime
  • coat / goat
  • fan / van
  • bus / buzz
  • sip / ship
  • sink / think
  • fin / thin
  • day / they
  • close / clothe
  • chip / ship
  • cheap / jeep
  • chop / top
  • berry / very
  • vet / wet
  • yet / jet
  • mine / nine
  • sin / sing
  • sheep / ship
  • bit / bet
  • bet / bat
  • cut / cat
  • fool / full
  • boat / bought

About the minimal pairs

Pairs come from a build-time index over the retained CMUdict-derived primary pronunciations in the current data release (v1/2026.07-lexical.6): two words pair when their stress-stripped primary pronunciations differ by exactly one substituted sound. Ordering uses this build's frequency evidence (build-specific ranking bands).

Limitations

  • Substitution pairs only; insertion or deletion neighbours (cat/cast) are out of scope.
  • Primary pronunciation variants only, and CMUdict primarily reflects North American English.
  • The browser covers this page's curated contrast table, and each contrast keeps a bounded, deterministically capped pair list.
  • The offensive-word display policy is always applied; there is no unfiltered mode.

These are word lists, not therapy advice. Generate position-specific practice lists with the Speech Sound Target Words tool.