The environment of a sound may be adjacent sounds, or a break in sound, such as at the beginning or end of a syllable , word or phrase.

(English)

Here is an example of the environment of the sound [Q] in the English word tap:

• word: [tHQp] ‘tap’
• environment: [tH…p]

(Spanish)

Here is an example of the environment of the sound [o] in the Spanish word gato:

• word: [gAto] ‘cat’
• environment: [gat…#]

(The symbol “#” represents the end of a word.)