The consonants are all the letters that are not vowels: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

American English has quite a few consonant combinations. You need to know these in order to have strong listening and spelling skills. Notice that most combinations have L or R. L and R are half-vowels phonetically. This means that when L or R is not the first letter, we hear a slight vowel sound, as in "ul" or "ur." When you say "blue," it sounds like "bulue." The word "grow" sounds like "gurow." It takes a little time to get from a consonant to an L or R sound. Here are the major consonant combinations: