If you remove the initial sound from "stone", what word remains?

If you remove the initial sound from "stone", what word remains?

• A. Stone
• B. Tone
• C. Bone
• D. Cone

Answer: (B)

This question tests phoneme deletion: taking away the first sound of a word to hear what remains as another word. In “stone,” the first sound is the “s” sound. If you drop that sound, you’re left with the sounds s? No, the remaining sequence is t, o, n, e, which spoken together is “tone.” Since “tone” is a real word formed by removing only the initial sound, it’s the correct result. If you removed the whole initial consonant cluster /st/ you’d get “one,” which is a different outcome, but that’s not what this prompt asks for.

This question tests phoneme deletion: taking away the first sound of a word to hear what remains as another word. In “stone,” the first sound is the “s” sound. If you drop that sound, you’re left with the sounds s? No, the remaining sequence is t, o, n, e, which spoken together is “tone.” Since “tone” is a real word formed by removing only the initial sound, it’s the correct result. If you removed the whole initial consonant cluster /st/ you’d get “one,” which is a different outcome, but that’s not what this prompt asks for.