Random Consonant Generator

The Random Consonant Generator does one thing: each press of the button shows a single upper-case consonant chosen at random from the 21 consonants of the English alphabet. A, E, I, O and U are never drawn. There are no options to set, no history and no batch mode, which makes it quick for the small classroom and game jobs where you need "a letter, but not a vowel" and don't want to reach for dice or a bag of Scrabble tiles.

Which letters can come up

The pool is B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y and Z. Y counts as a consonant here, so it can appear; if you are running an activity where Y should be treated as a vowel, just re-roll when it shows up. Every letter has the same 1-in-21 chance on every click. The picks are independent, so getting Q twice in a row is unusual but perfectly normal, and the tool does not avoid repeats.

If you also want vowels in the mix, the Random Letter Generator draws from all 26; the Random Vowel Generator is the mirror of this page and only gives A, E, I, O or U.

What it is used for

• Phonics and spelling drills. Draw a consonant, then have the class list words that begin (or end) with it, or build CVC words by pairing it with a vowel from the vowel tool.
• Countdown-style word games. The TV game lets players ask for "a consonant" or "a vowel" nine times; this page and its vowel counterpart replicate that draw for a home version.
• Alliteration prompts. Writers pick a consonant and write a line, a tongue-twister or a character name where every stressed word starts with it.
• Hangman and Wordle-style practice. Choose an opening guess at random instead of always starting with the same letters.
• Naming and brainstorming. Force a product, band or D&D character name to start with whatever letter comes up. The Fake Word Generator can then build a made-up word around it.

Consonants in English, briefly

English has 21 consonant letters but roughly 24 consonant sounds, which is why the letter you draw can stand for more than one sound: C is /k/ in "cat" and /s/ in "city", G is hard in "go" and soft in "gem", and X is usually the pair /ks/. Some consonants are rare in running text. In typical English prose Z, Q, X and J together account for under 1 percent of letters, while T, N, S and R are among the most common. That matters for word games: the generator gives Q the same odds as T, which is deliberately not how Scrabble tile bags or real text behave.

Y is the awkward one. It is a consonant at the start of a syllable ("yes", "beyond") and a vowel in the middle or at the end ("gym", "happy"). Because most alphabet-based games count it as a consonant, this tool does too.

Sample draws

For whole words rather than letters, the Random Word Generator and Random Noun Generator are the next step up, and everything of this kind lives under all word & language generators.