F phoneme /f/

/f/ is a consonant phoneme that occurs in English as one of the standard English phonemes.

Naming

Naming this phoneme, like other consonant phonemes, is somewhat difficult. It could be called the F phoneme after the letter F, or fuh /fə/ after its sound when initial. Or lengthened to fff /f:/.

Classification

This can be classified as Consonant phoneme > Fricative phoneme > Bilabial fricative phoneme.

Representation

In phonemic notation using the International Phonetic Alphabet, the F phoneme is represented by lowercase F, ⟨f⟩ as its IPA symbol. This has the IPA number 128. In SAMPA and X-SAMPA, f is also used. In IPA Braille, ⠋ (124) is used, which is also used for letter F in standard Braille.

Phonotactics

F may be initial or final.

This forms a few consonant clusters. Initial consonant clusters include:

• Initial consonant cluster /fl/, e.g. flower
• Initial consonant cluster /fr/, e.g. freedom
• Initial consonant cluster /sf/, e.g. sphere

Final consonant clusters include:

• Final consonant cluster /fs/
• Final consonant cluster /ft/
• Final consonant cluster /fts/
• Final consonant cluster /fθ/
• Final consonant cluster /fθs/

Pronunciation

The standard pronunciation of this phoneme is as a voiceless labiodental fricative [f]. After /s/ however, in initial consonant cluster /sf/, it becomes a voiced labiodental fricative [v].

Some EFL learners may pronounce /f/ as a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ], which is sufficiently close to [f] that it will be perceived by most English speakers as /f/.

Spelling

Spelling is reliably ⟨f⟩ (e.g. fish), ⟨ff⟩ (e.g. off) or ⟨ph⟩ (e.g. elephant, telephone), or ⟨ft⟩ (often, soften).

Phonogram	Example words	Notes
⟨f⟩	fat, fish, flat, frog
⟨ff⟩	off,
⟨ph⟩	elephant, telephone,
⟨ft⟩	often, soften
⟨v⟩	Romanov,	From Russian; alternatively /v/.