Introduction to the Consonant Sounds Followed by /KW/
Although now written with a consonant and a vowel as qu-, the /kw/ sound is made up of two consonants. As a result, it falls under the consonant cluster category. The letter q is used the most rarely of all English letters with the exception of z. In the Old English period it was very rarely seen, as even the sound /kw/ was usually represented by the letters cw- as in cwen “queen”. However, in the Middle English period, English began using q more frequently due to the massive influence of French, which used it much more. Q has thus taken on two sounds /kw/ and /k/, the latter often being spelt qu- in French as in words like plaque /plæk/, clique /kli:k/ and cheque /tʃek/, which English has borrowed from that language. In this post, we will deal with qu- words with the /kw/ sound.
Some of the modern qu- words that have evolved from forms in Old English appear to have a trembling shaky quality. These words are dynamic and mobile, they are all aquiver. Many are fearful and pulsating, others, like quell and quash may cause trembling or subdue an uprising. Below are more examples of words with the /WK/ consonant sound-
| quite | He’s quite good-looking. | |
| quiet | If the baby is asleep there is peace and quiet. | |
| quilt | The quilt is filled with feathers from the eider duck. | |
| query | I sent my query by email. | |
| question | He was reluctant to answer my question. | |
| squid | A squid has eight arms. | |
| square | There is a fountain in the market square. | |
| liquid | Evaporation is a type of vaporisation of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. * | |
| request | I hope you won’t refuse my request. | |
| conquest | The small country was his last conquest. | |
| require | Playing in a team requires commitment. | |
| equal | Make sure you get an equal share. | |
| equator | Latitude is how far North or South a place is from the Equator. * | |
| equipment | A machine operator installed the equipment. * | |
| inquiry | There will be an inquiry into the plane crash. | |
| aquarium | There were many exotic fish in the aquarium. | |
| earthquake | The earthquake made the ground shake. | |
| inquisitive | An inquisitive child asks many questions. |
Punctuation Marks
Punctuation marks are symbols that are used to aid the clarity and comprehension of written language. Some common punctuation marks are the period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, apostrophe, quotation mark and hyphen. The puntuation marks in English language are exclusively discussed below-
Punctuation Marks: Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences. You use punctuation marks to structure and organise your writing.
We use a variety of punctuation marks, such as full stop/period, comma, question mark, brackets, etc. in our writing to separate sentences, phrases, etc., and to clarify their meaning. We need to familiarize ourselves with some basic rules in order to use these punctuation marks correctly…
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