Semi-Minimal Pair Finder
What is a minimal pair? Phoneticians and phonologists use the term minimal pair to refer to a pair of words that differ in just one sound. Minimal pairs are important because they prove that two sounds are phonologically relevant for the language in question and can create a difference in meaning.
Minimal Pair Finder can help teachers, researchers, students and language learners looking for such pairs of words. Bear in mind that this tool relies on:
[1] lists of words coming from big text corpora and
[2] automatic transcriptions of such words.
This means that unfortunately it can make mistakes, and for this reason it may not be ideal as a method of unsupervised pronunciation learning.
We define a semi-minimal pair as a pair of words that differ by at least 2 (contiguous) sounds. E.g.: carta /karta/ and torta /torta/, differing in /ka/ vs /to/. You can use Semi-Minimal Pair Finder to search for such word pairs. Use the buttons below to compose the 2 opposing strings of sounds.
NB: strings 1 and 2 will be taken just as they are: if you want a stressed vowel, you should include the stress symbol (directly before the vowel, as in the result).
Semi-Minimal Pair Finder
Select language:
Compose string 1: //
Compose string 2: //