It's important to be able to hear the difference between sounds in order to produce them accurately. Discriminating between sounds is often practised using 'minimal pairs'. A minimal pair is a pair of words where only one sound is different, for example 'pin' versus 'bin'.

The Minimal Pairs Tutor contains over 5,000 minimal pairs, complete with images and example pronunciations. It also encourages accurate speech production by recording your voice and providing feedback on your pronunciation.

Minimal pair lists

The Minimal Pairs Tutor contains over 500 minimal pair lists. Each list contains a series of minimal pairs that contrast two different sounds, for example /b/ versus /p/. You can also create your own minimal pair lists.

Contrasting minimal pairs

Once you've selected your list, you can contrast the minimal pairs by clicking on each image and listening to an example pronunciation.

Pronouncing minimal pairs

To encourage accurate speech production, the tutor lets you highlight minimal pairs with your voice. To highlight a particular word, simply click record and speak when prompted.

Once you've stopped speaking, the recognized word is automatically highlighted. If the correct word is not highlighted, press record and try again. You can practise each word as many times as you like.

In addition to highlighting the recognized word, a speech intelligibility score is displayed. This provides a measure of how well the word was pronounced.

Listening to your pronunciation

The Minimal Pairs Tutor also records your voice, so you can listen to your pronunciation and compare it to the example.

Who should use it?

The Minimal Pairs Tutor can be used by speech and language therapists or by their patients wishing to practice between sessions. It can also be used as an aid to learning the English language.