#04. Improve Your Pronunciation - Study Session 4

Voiceless and Voiced Consonants

Consonant Sounds /t/ and /d/

[ 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.
.

Voiceless Consonant /t/

(Video 1 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

This is a voiceless consonant.

You can hear it at the beginning of the word ‘tin’ /tɪn/;

In the middle of the word ‘button’ /ˈbʌtn/;

At the end of the word ‘get’ /get/;

And, at the beginning and end of the word ‘tight’ /taɪt/.

In English, we make this sound with the tongue behind the teeth.

( *Put the tip of your tongue against the tooth ridge, the bulge of the gum, NOT ON the TEETH )

Now, let's try. Listen and repeat after me.

tin . . /tɪn/

button . /ˈbʌtn/

get . /get/

tight . /taɪt/

.
Similar Sounds: /t/ and /d/

Now, you may find it difficult to hear the difference between this voiceless sound /t/ that you can hear at the beginning of the word ‘tin’ /tɪn/ and its voiced partner /d/ that you can hear at the beginning of the word ‘din’ /dɪn/.

Listen carefully to hear the difference. For each example, I shall say the word with the voiceless sound /t/ first.

tin . . /tɪn/ .din /dɪn/

two . /tu:/ do /du:/

town /taʊn/ down . /daʊn/

eight /eɪt/ . aid . /eɪd/

bet /bet/ bed .. /bed/

Did you hear the difference? Perhaps you can also see the difference. Did you notice how the puff of air at the beginning of ‘tin’ /tɪn/ makes the paper move?

Now, let's practise these examples. Listen carefully and repeat. (refer to the above list)

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Voiced Consonant /.d/

(Video 2 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

This is a voiced consonant.

You can hear it at the beginning of the word ‘dame’ /deɪm/;

In the middle of the word ‘ladder’ /ˈlædə/ ;

At the end of the word ‘odd’ /ɒd/

And, at the beginning and end of the word ‘did’ /dɪd/.

In English, we make this sound with the tongue behind the teeth.

( *Put the tip of the tongue against the tooth ridge, the bulge of the gum, NOT ON the TEETH )

So, let's practise. Listen and repeat.

dame . /deɪm/

ladder /ˈlædə/

odd /ɒd/

did /dɪd/

Similar Sounds: /d/ and /t/

You may find it difficult to hear the difference between this voiced sound /d/ that you hear at the beginning of the word ‘dame’ /deɪm/ and its voiceless partner /t/ that you hear at the beginning of

the word ‘tame’ /teɪm/.

Listen carefully to hear the difference. For each example, I shall say the word with the voiced sound

/d/ first..

dame /deɪm/ tame ../teɪm/

doom . /du:m/ .tomb /tu:m/

medal /ˈmedl/ .metal /ˈmetl/

heard ./hɜ:d/ hurt . /hɜ:t/

Did you hear the difference? You might be able to see the difference. In English, we say the sound at the beginning of the word 'tame' /teɪm/ with a big puff of air.

Let’s practise. Listen and repeat after me. (refer to the above list)

..........................................................................................................

SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO

(Video 3 - Watch in 'Full Screen')

In English, a LETTER can have multiple SOUND values! This often makes it difficult for a learner to get his pronunciation right! For example: office, wolf, onion, ocean, word, griffon, organ, obey and prove. The letter 'o' in all these words are pronounced differently; no two o's have the same sound! This is why we need phonetic symbols to tell us the different sounds that a letter could make. Now, just watch the video; don't worry too much about the details!

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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 /t/ and voiced consonant /d/ are produced

in isolation.

.Don't feel shy! You can click on me!! .

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 /t/ and you'll see the rest.

3. Click the 'play' button to watch the animation of the voiceless consonant /t/

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 /t/ is articulated.

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

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

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

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

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Step 3: Your Audio Assignment:

Record the following as per the instructions given. You can use any of the 5 voice recorders

that I've suggested in my blog 'Make your voice heard!'. Embed your recorded audio in the

comment box below.

1. Say the phonemes the number of times they appear.

[Make sure the tip of your tongue taps/touches the 'alveolar ridge' for both consonants - Step 2 (a)]

Voiceless consonant: /t/ /t/ /t/ /t/ /t/ ....................... (say slowly)

Voiced consoant .: /d/ /d/ /d/ /d/ /d/ ....................... (say slowly)

A mixture of both ...: /t/ /d/ /d/ /t/ /t/ /d/ /t/ /d/ /d/ /t/ /d/ . (speed up; say in reverse too)

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

ten...... ./ten/ .den..... .../den/

try.... ./traɪ/ ..dry.... ../draɪ/

trunk. ../trʌŋk/ ...drunk... . /drʌŋk/

(B) Read the sentence. (Focus on the consonants /t/ and /d/)

A dish of tasty roast turkey is the dream of a dirty tattered tramp.

D3. Read the tongue twister. (Optional) Say it three times in rapid succession.

A tutor who tooted the flute,

tried to tutor two tooters to toot.

Said the two to the tutor:

'Is it harder to toot, or to tutor two tooters to toot?'

..............................................................................................................

Note: If you are not sure how to pronounce a word that you practised with the videos or given in the

above audio assignment, you could use the online 'Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary' and

listen to its pronunciation. Steps to follow:

1. Key in your word in the search box shown by the green arrow and press the 'search' button.

2. Your word, beautiful for example, will appear as shown below. Now, you have an option of

listening to either the British or American pronunciation - just click the speaker 'icon'.

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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 mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. "
~ Anonymous ~

~* GS *~
July 30th, 2012

Attention!

Galina and I have decided to hand "Special Gifts" if you do every single * audio assignment given by us without fail, starting from Study Session 3 until the last

one – Study Session 27. If you have left out any previous *work, please get it done. What is that ‘Special Gift’? You may ask! Let it be a ‘Surprise!’ Have fun!

P.S. Study Session 5 will be posted on August 6th, 2012

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

Study Session 3 Study Session 5

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

Tags: English, Gabriel Sowrian, Pronunciation

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Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on September 7, 2012 at 17:01: Delete Comment

Hello, Wadarig!

Glad to see ( and hear) you again here with us practising pronunciation. I'm greately impressed with your voice recording. It's great! All the sounds in your audio assignment are pronounced clearly and in a proper way! Good job! And the way you pronounced the tongue twister!!! Your speed! It's unbelievable! How could you manage to pronounce it so quickly and correctly! Please, try to pronounce it a bit slower for the first time just to hear better all the sounds, ok?

P.S. You mispronounced some sounds that we haven't practised yet, not in the audio assignment. But we'll practise them later, so you'll improve them.

Comment by Scarlett on August 29, 2012 at 17:35: Dear teacher Gabriel and Ganila,

This is my second record for session 4, I hope it will get better than the first one.

Comment by JayVee on August 24, 2012 at 5:35: Thank you teacher Galina, I need to practice it as much as possible... Thank you so much :)

Comment by Scarlett on August 23, 2012 at 18:25: Dear teacher Gabriel,

I found that I have problem with pronounce the letter "S" and especially in pronunciation of some words which are almost same sound. I need to practice practice practice so much.

Many thanks teacher because you have to spend your time to correct me. I will try again.

I won't let you down.

Send you my Best Regards .

Scarlett.

Comment by Gabriel Sowrian on August 23, 2012 at 6:22: Hi, Scarlett!

Here’s my general observation on your audio assignment!

1. You’ve no problem saying the consonant sounds /t/ and /d/ in isolation.

2. (A) – The ‘a’ in tasty is pronounced /eɪ/ as in make, late, race and save.

    (B) – Could you listen to your ‘dream’ and pay attention to the letter ‘d’ ? Does it sound like /d/ or /t/?

3. Tongue- twister: You failed to pronounce the letter ‘s’ in tooters. Make sure the ending ‘s’ in words, especially plural nouns, is always heard. Try saying the following words a few times.

               - words

               - nouns

               - always

               - times

               - tooters

Note: Please click on these words and learn how they are pronounced:

               - session

               - assignment

               - voiceless

You’ve been doing quite well so far! Keep up the good work, Scarlett! Bye!

Regards,

~* GS *~

Comment by Scarlett on August 22, 2012 at 7:26

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

Thank you very much for useful lesson. This is my audio. Please correct me. I'm very glad to have your precious adjust.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0KIPq5sgdGT

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 18, 2012 at 17:06: Grace!

This is really a beautiful work! There aren't any mistakes at all! Grace, I really admire you! How can you manage to work ( I mean your job) and learn English so hard ?!!! You're awesome! Keep it up!

Mod Comment by Grace on August 18, 2012 at 10:50: Audio recording software >>

Comment by Prostomolotova Galina on August 17, 2012 at 14:43: Tawfeeq!

You know I'm not tired to admire the level of your spoken English! Where did you learn and practise it, I wonder? All the sounds are pronounced correctly. You even honestly pronounced the tongue-twister three times. I have nothing to add but: Bravo!