#03. Improve Your Pronunciation - Study Session 3

Voiceless and Voiced Consonants

Consonant Sounds /p/ and /b/

[ Click on the image to see it on a large scale! ]

-{ Click 'HERE' for the transcript of my voice }-

Step 1: Watch the videos (I've given the transcript for an easy grasp of the speech.)

First, while you are watching a video, make the consonant sound and pronounce

the words as instructed by Alex.

Second, play the video again but this time look at the transcript while listening to Alex.

Again, don't forget to make the consonant sound and pronounce the words.

Voiced and Voiceless Consonants

(Video 1 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

. .

In English, some consonants are voiced - like /v/ and some are voiceless - like /f/.

So, what is it to mean voiced or voiceless?

Listen to this: /v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/

Now, you can’t see the difference; you might be able to hear the difference but you can definitely feel the difference!

Watch this: /v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/

When I make a voiced sound like /v/, my throat vibrates. But, when I make a voiceless sound like /f/, it’s just air coming through my mouth. Now, you can also hear if you put your hands over your ears like this… (watch Alex)

/v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/ : /v/ … /f/

When I make the voiced sound /v/, it vibrates in my ears and my throat. Now, why is it so important? Because in English, sometimes the only difference between a pair of words is when one consonant is voiced and the other consonant is voiceless. For example, ‘van’ /væn/ and ‘fan’ /fæn/.

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Voiceless Consonant /p/

(Video 2 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

This is a voiceless sound.

You can hear it at the beginning of the words ‘pack’ /pæk/ and ‘pan’ /pæn/.

In the middle of the words ‘copy’ /ˈkɒpi/ and ‘happen’ /ˈhæpən/.

And at the end of the word ‘hop’ /hɒp/ and also at the beginning and end of the word ‘pop’ /pɒp/.

Now you try. Listen and repeat after me.

pack ./pæk/

pan /pæn/

copy /ˈkɒpi/

happen ./ˈhæpən/

hop ./hɒp/

pop ./pɒp/

Similar Sounds: /p/ and /b/

To speakers of some languages, it may be difficult to tell the difference between this voiceless sound /p/ and its voiced partner /b/, which you can hear at the beginning of the word ‘back’ /bæk/.

Listen carefully to hear the difference. For each examples, I’ll say the word with the voiceless sound /p/ first.

pack /pæk/ back /bæk/

punch /pʌnʧ/ ..bunch /bʌnʧ/

pump ./pʌmp/ bump /bʌmp/

pull /pʊl/ bull ./bʊl/

Could you hear the difference? Now, let’s look at the difference. Watch the piece of paper!

Now, you try. Let’s go through the words again. Listen and repeat after me. (refer to the above list)

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Voiced Consonant /.b/

(Video 3)

This is a voiced consonant.

You can hear it at the beginning of the words ‘back’ /bæk/ and ‘bag’/bæg/.

And, in middle of the words ‘hobby’ /ˈhɒbi/ and ‘habit’ /ˈhæbɪt/.

At the end of the word ‘job’ /ʤɒb/ and at the beginning and end of the word ‘bob’ /bɒb/

Now you try. Listen and repeat after me.

back ./bæk/

bag /bæg/

hobby /ˈhɒbi/

habit /ˈhæbɪt/

job /ʤɒb/

bob ./bɒb/

Similar Sounds: /b/ and /p/

To speakers of some languages, it may be difficult to tell the difference between this voiced sound /b/ and its voiceless partner /p/, the one you can hear at the beginning of the word ‘pack’ /pæk/.

Listen carefully to hear the difference. For each examples, I’ll say the word with the voiced sound /b/ first.

back /bæk/ .pack ./pæk/

bare ./beə/ .pair /peə/

cab /kæb/ .cap /kæp/

symbol /ˈsɪmbl/ simple /ˈsɪmpl/

Could you hear the difference? Now, let’s look at the difference. Watch this!

Now, let’s try the words again. Listen carefully and repeat. (refer to the above list)

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SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO

(Video 4 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

This is an interesting video teaching the differences between voiced and voiceless consonants.

For example: voiced /v/ and voiceless /f/ ... voiced /b/ and voiceless /p/

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Step 2: Do the activities

.
(a) . Click on the image below for the animation of the speech organs. Watch what happens

inside our mouth when the voiceless consonant /p/ and voiced consonant /b/ are produced

in isolation.

.Give it a try! It only takes a click of your mouse!!

Follow these steps if you are not sure where to start from: (refer to the numbers)

1. Click the tab 'stop' to make the three pairs of consonants appear first.

2. Click the phonetic symbol of the voiceless consonant /p/ and you'll see the rest.

3. Click the 'play' button to watch the animation of the voiceless consonant /p/

4. Click the 'radio button' and 'play' button again to watch the articulation in steps.

5. Click the right 'play' button for the front view of the mouth when /p/ is articulated.

6. Click the 'speaker icon' to listen to the voiceless consonant used in words.

Please note that the words are of American pronunciation and not British!

7. Follow steps 1 - 6 to listen to the voiced consonant /b/

(b) . Follow the link to our EC in-house Minimal Pairs - /p/ and /b/. Practise saying the words

in pairs. Make a clear difference between the two consonant sounds.
http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs-b-p.htm.

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Step 3: Your Audio Assignment:

Record the following as per the instructions given. You can use one of the voice recorders

I recommended in my blog 'Make your voice heard!'

1. Say each phoneme five times.

Voiceless consonant: /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/ /p/

Voiced consoant .: /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/ /b/

D2. (A) Read the list of words in pairs.

pet......../pet/ bet......../bet/

prick...../prɪk/ brick....../brɪk/

peach.../pi:ʧ/ beach.../bi:ʧ/

(B) Read the sentence. (Focus on the consonants /p/ and /b/)

Bob Barber, a bad bald butler, is a peculiarly peeping person.

/ˌbɒb ˈbɑːbə | ə ˈbæd bɔːld ˌbʌtlə | ɪz‿ə pɪˌkjuːliəli ˌpiːpɪŋ ˈpɜːsn/

D3. Read the short paragraph. (Focus on the consonants /p/ and /b/)

A pop band was playing a popular song in a busy public bar. A bulky bobby with a

beautiful poppy in his button hole popped in. He stumbled over a big paper basket, which

panicked the poor piano player.

D4. Read the tongue twister. (Optional) Say it three times in rapid succession.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;

             A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
             If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
             Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

*The above tongue twister is focused on the voiceless consonant /p/.

Here's another one that I picked from the comment box below, contributed by Prostomolotova Galina.

In this tongue twister the emphasis is placed on the voiced consonant /b/. Thank you, Galina!

A big black bug bit a big black bear,

but the big black bear bit the big black bug back.

( You can copy and paste this tongue twisters below your audio player. Look at my sample!

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.
* Participants are encouraged to comment on each other's work and recordings!

*Onlookers are welcomed to share their observations, specially teachers!

This will surely make the session more lively and fruitful.

Thank You!

This Study Session is moderated by G & G: Gabriel | Galina

" A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination.

An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear. "

~ James B. Stockdale ~

~* GS *~
July 21th, 2012

P.S. Study Session 4 will be posted on July 30th, 2012

Click HERE to go (back) to the contents page at EC Virtual Classroom.

Study Session 2 Study Session 4

Don't forget to click the 'Like' button if you find the posting useful!

Tags: English, Gabriel Sowrian, Pronunciation

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Mod Comment by Robbie on November 3, 2012 at 16:20: Hello to Teachers G & G!

Here's my audio assignment. Please bear with the delay of my participation.
Cheers!

R☺bbie

Comment by Bimal on August 31, 2012 at 12:21: Dear Teachers,

Excellent program! I love watching this program. Step by step, I will be able to gather everything.

Good Luck to You all!

Bimal

Comment by Scarlett on August 22, 2012 at 21:04: Dear, teacher Gabriel!

I'm very happy to see all your correction. You are really kind dear, How can I say enough thank for you? I'm lucky to join in this virtual class and become your student... I will try my best.

Ya, I remembered all and I will try to practice to revise it then can I record again? and hope to be correct from you.

Wish you have nicest time dear teacher.

Comment by Gabriel Sowrian on August 22, 2012 at 18:47: Hello, Scarlett!

I’m only too pleased to see you taking part in this pronunciation study session. It was very wise of you to join the rest of the learners! First of all, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome to the ‘virtual class’.

Now, let’s see how well you’ve fared in your audio assignment. Here we go…

1. Both your voiceless /p/ and voiced /b/ consonants sound perfect!

2. (A) Try to make the sound of the letter combination ‘ch’ in peach and beach clear. You pronounced it more like the /t/ sound as in peat and beat

You can listen to the difference in pronunciation using the online OAL Dictionary. Now, you can click on each of the following words to do just that!

                peat   –   peach

                beat   –   beach

2. (B) ‘person’ and 3. ‘song’

You letter ‘s’ in both these words sound like the ‘sh’ in shoe. You could learn to differentiate these sounds by listening to the audio pronunciation of the words below. Just click on them to hear! (You'll be lead to online OALD again!)

                 see     –    she

                 save   –    shave

                 sow    –    show

4. Tongue-twisters! I should say that they are, basically, quite difficult to say for all of us! But, you did a great job. I'm impressed!

Just take note that... i)   you forgot to pronounce the letter 's' in peppers

                                   ii)   you pronounced bear like beer

Ok! Overall you’ve started very well, Scarlett. You should able you overcome all your pronunciation problems as you go along with the study. This session is only the very beginning. Thus, don’t shun away from the class as making mistakes and correcting them is part and parcel of learning a language! Happy learning!!

Best regards,

~* GS *~

Comment by Scarlett on August 22, 2012 at 7:28

Comment by Scarlett on August 21, 2012 at 17:15: Dear my teachers Gabriel and Ganila.

I'm grateful for your useful lesson and feedback all of us, I am so sorry for too late for doing lesson due to some problem with my headset. This is my first record for study session 3. there are so much mistakes I think, I hope to receive your correction for it.

I will try again and again and again...till it be good.

One more time, I want to send you my gratitude for all your help us.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0pVixXiohjB

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 20, 2012 at 13:45: Dear Wadarig!

We're really glad to greet you here! You've made a right decision! Well, your first audio assignment is really good. Your spoken English is great. You pronounced all the sounds correctly. You even practised a tongue-twister!!! And this is the most challenging part of audio assignment. I see you decided to study phonetics seriously! Good job! Keep it up!

P.S. I'd like to pay attention to the following words. In the word bald we pronounce the sound /ɔ:/ /bɔ:ld/.

In the word peck we pronounce the sound /e/ /pek/.

In the word Piper the first sound is /aɪ/ /ˈpaɪpə/.

Please, try to follow the instructions doing the audio assignments given in my blog. This is the link:

http://my.englishclub.com/profiles/blogs/some-practical-steps-to-ac...

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 20, 2012 at 13:22: Tawfeeq!

One more great work!

This audio assignment is also very good as your previos ones. All the sounds were pronounced clear and in a proper way. Tawfeeq, why don't you want to try to pronounce a tongue-twister. It's a very good exercise for developing speech. And what about using Text To Speech option in Audiopal? You can copy any text ( e. g. a tongue-twister) and paste it in Audiopal, listen how native speakers pronounce this text and then try to imitate it. Doing it, you'll acquire good English intonation.

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 19, 2012 at 13:23: Wow! Dina!

Fantastic work! I even didn't expect that you'll try to pronounce the first tongue-twister not three but four times! What great determination! I respect you a lot for being such a hard-working learner. You pronounced the tongue-twistes very good trying to observe all the sounds and really very fast!

I'd like you to pay attention to the word peck: it contains the sound /e/ /pek/. And be careful with the word bit, it's the second form of the word bite. In the word bit we pronounce the sound /ɪ/ /bɪt/.