In many Nigeria languages, there is no consonant cluster but in English, there may be an initial cluster of two or three consonants. In some English vowels, it is not easy to identify consonant cluster by merely looking at the written form of the word. Such words manifest the cluster only when they are pronounced. The following are example: bitten, coffin, garden, raffle, peddle, little, bangle,
Word                                      Correct pronunciations
New                                        / nju: /
Few                                        / fju: /
Tune                                       / tju:n /
View                                       / vju: /
Stew                                       / stju: /
Stupid                                     / stju:pld /
Cluster of two consonants
Bride                           crime
Dwell                          flame
Glad                           crop
Play                            tray
Thrice                         spice
Shrink                         stand.
Cluster of three consonant
Sprint                          spring
Splash            stray
Scrap                         scream
Squire                         squeeze
Strong                        stripe.
In an English word, there may be a consonant at the end of a word. While two or three consonant can occur at the beginning of a word in English the language permits at most four consonants in a cluster at the end of a word. This can be expressed as: ( C 0 – 3 ) v ( C 0 – 4 ) or ( CCC) V (CCCC).
Cluster of four consonant
Tempts                       exempts
Sixths             texts
Prompts                     sculpts
Glimpsed                    twelfths.
See also
FORMAL AND INFORMATION LETTERS