1. How many different ways can you spell the sound "sh"
(a) 1   (b) 2   (c) 3   (d) 4 or more

2. You can pronounce the non-words (or word parts) glish, anch, and iddle as in Englishman, branches and fiddles. Now, how are these word parts pronounced:

fici      (a) "fee see"   (b) "Figh sigh"   (c) fish   (d) ficky
missi   (a) "me see"   (b) My sigh       (c) mish (d) my she
titi       (a) "tee tee"   (b) tie tie           (c) tish   (d) tie tee

3. Some words can easily be pronounced by sounding the letters from left to right. Examples of some of these words are bag, tip, pop, dad, mud, and Ted. Starting with the letter a used as a word, how many sound changes can you make take place by adding just the letter m in front of a and as many other letters as you can after it?

(a) two    (b) three    (c) four    (d) 5 or more

Answers:

1. d (ci as in special, si as in suspension, ch as in chef, ssi as in mission, ti as in initial, ss as in pressure).

2. c for all three. fici is "fish" as in official. titi is "tish" as in petition
missi is "mish" as in mission.

3. d (a, ma, may, magi, magic, magic) 7 changes.
   The word a is pronounced "uh" not "ay". If we add m in front of a we get ma which rhymes with fa, la, tra, da and pa.
   Add the letter g to ma and we get mag. Notice the g changes the sound of the vowel from "ah" to short a. Mag rhymes with bag, lag, flag, rag, brag, tag, stag, nag, snag, etc.
   But add the letter i to Mag and we get Magi (Madge eye). Notice the letter i changes the sound of the g to that of j.
   Add the letter c and we get magic. Notice that the letter c changes the sound of the long i to a short i.
   Now, add ian and we get magician. The ending now changes the sound of the second letter ("a" in ma) to "muh", puts the accent on gici ("Jish") and makes it "muh JISH un."