Voicing Minimal Pairs - Word Bank

The Voicing Minimal Pairs - Word Bank is a specialized resource designed for speech-language pathologists, educators, and researchers to support speech and language therapy, particularly for addressing phonological disorders related to voicing contrasts. This database contains English minimal pairs—words differing by a single phoneme, such as base–pace (/b/ vs. /p/) or sheath–sheathe (/θ/ vs. /ð/)—where the differing phonemes are voiced versus voiceless counterparts (e.g., /p/ ↔ /b/, /t/ ↔ /d/, /s/ ↔ /z/). It is used in the conventional minimal pair approach to help individuals, especially children, distinguish and produce voicing contrasts through auditory discrimination and production practice, correcting errors like devoicing (e.g., saying pig for big). The word bank was created from a custom-built database of approximately 8,000 unique English words, thoughtfully curated over several years to ensure a robust and diverse set of pairs, supporting a wide range of speech and language therapy needs, from articulation practice to phonological research and English language instruction.

Voicing Minimal Pairs - Word Bank → Download Word Bank (PDF)