What is the final sound in 'lamp'?

What is the final sound in 'lamp'?

• A. L
• B. A
• C. P
• D. M

Answer: (C)

Think about what the final sound means: the last phoneme you hear when the word is spoken. In lamp, the spoken form is /læmp/. The sequence of sounds is /l/ (the L sound), /æ/ (the short A vowel), /m/ (the M sound), and /p/ (the final P sound). So the last sound is /p/, a voiceless bilabial stop produced by bringing the lips together and releasing a burst of air. If you drop the final sound, you’d have /læm/—“lam”—which shows the final sound was indeed the /p/. The earlier sounds /l/, /æ/, and /m/ occur before the final /p/, so they aren’t the last sound.

Think about what the final sound means: the last phoneme you hear when the word is spoken. In lamp, the spoken form is /læmp/. The sequence of sounds is /l/ (the L sound), /æ/ (the short A vowel), /m/ (the M sound), and /p/ (the final P sound). So the last sound is /p/, a voiceless bilabial stop produced by bringing the lips together and releasing a burst of air. If you drop the final sound, you’d have /læm/—“lam”—which shows the final sound was indeed the /p/. The earlier sounds /l/, /æ/, and /m/ occur before the final /p/, so they aren’t the last sound.