Glides

Here we have information about glides. We will define what a glide is, show you some examples of words that contain a glide, and even provide audio recordings so that you can listen to these examples, solidifying your overall understanding of glides.

Glides are phonetically similar to vowels but are used like consonants. They are interesting because although similar to vowel sounds, they are still classified as consonants and are slightly more constricted.

Two sounds that are classified as glides include w and j, which are both notated on the IPA chart of American English consonants.

A couple of examples of words that contain these sounds are “Wick” and “You.” Below you can see their IPA transcriptions with the glide indicated by a color.

We have also recorded these words for your convenience. For each example, you will first hear the pronunciation of the glide, followed by the word.

Wick = [wɪk]

You = [ju]

More Information

American English IPA Consonants
Go here to view all of the American English IPA consonants in their sound classification chart.

Stops
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