For the first time on our English blog, let’s talk about pronunciation. English pronunciation is an important and sometimes challenging part of learning the language. You might think it will be difficult to improve pronunciation by reading, but if we use the correct vocabulary, we can definitely make pronunciation make more sense. Today we’re going to talk about our voice, and specifically, we’re going to talk about sounds that use our voice (voiced sounds) and sounds that don’t use our voice (voiceless sounds).

What do we mean by our “voice”? We are talking about vibrations. Some sounds make our throat vibrate and other sounds do not.

Let’s use two creatures in nature to help us understand voiced and voiceless.

Let’s use an insect: a bee.

Let’s also use a reptile: a snake.

The first sound in “bee” is /b/.                                            

The first sound in snake is /s/.

/b/ is a voiced sound. This may sound silly, but you can feel this if you put your hand on your throat and say /b/. You can feel your throat vibrating, so the sound /b/ is voiced.

Now try the first sound in snake, /s/. If you put your hand on your throat and say /s/, you do not feel your throat vibrating, so this sound is voiceless.

We can also think about the sounds that these creatures make.

When a bee flies, it sounds like this: “bzzzzzzzz”   

When a snake hisses, it sounds like this: “ssssssssssss”

Let’s try again. Put your hand on your throat and make a sound like a bee: “bzzzzzzzz”          

You can feel your throat vibrating because the sounds /b/ and /z/ are voiced.

Now put your hand on your throat and make a sound like a snake: “ssssssssssss”

You don’t feel your throat vibrating because the sound /s/ is voiceless.

Ok. Why is this so important? We need to understand the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds because some pairs of words only have small differences, and sometimes these differences are just between voiced and voiceless sounds. In addition, when you make these sounds, your mouth, teeth and tongue are in the same position.

Let’s look at an example:                
big                 and                 pig
/b/                                         /p/

Listen:

We make the sounds /b/ and /p/ by pressing our top lip and our bottom lip together and then releasing them. Like this:

Listen to the sounds. First you will hear /b/ three times, followed by /p/ three times.

The only difference is that the /b/ sound uses a vibration and the /p/ sound only uses air.    

Practice pronouncing the two sounds with your hand on your throat. Make sure that your throat only vibrates when you are pronouncing the sound /b/. When you pronounce the sound /p/, you should not feel a vibration. You should only hear and feel the movement of air.

/b/ and /p/ are what we call a minimal pair.

Here are some other minimal pairs. The only difference between the pronunciation of these minimal pairs is that one sound is voiced with a vibration and the other sound is voiceless with no vibration.

Here is a very common minimal pair. This involves the sounds /d/ and /t/

do                   two

/d/                   /t/                   

Listen:

In this pair, our tongue touches the top of our mouth near the front, behind our teeth, like this:

The difference is: vibration in one sound /d/ and no vibration in the other sound /t/

Listen to the sounds. First you will hear /d/ three times, followed by /t/ three times.

Another minimal pair happens when the middle of our tongue touches the top of our mouth near the back, like this:

This happens in the sounds /g/ and /k/:

game             came

/g/                  /k/

/g/=vibration

/k/=no vibration

Listen to the sounds. First you will hear /g/ three times, followed by /k/ three times.

Remember to feel your throat! 

Here is another example:                
vase               face                 

/v/                   /f/                   

To make each of these sounds, we press our top teeth down lightly against our bottom lip. The shape of our mouth is the same for both sounds, like this:

With /v/ you should feel your lip and throat vibrating.

With /f/ you should only hear air moving through your top teeth and bottom lip.

Listen to the sounds. First you will hear /v/ three times, followed by /f/ three times.

Let’s try an example that has a minimal pair in a different location of the words:

price               prize

    /s/                   /z/

Here the sounds are at the end of the words instead of the beginning, but the idea is the same. Our mouth is in the same shape, and our tongue is in the same location, behind our teeth, like this:

Try alternating between the two sounds. Pay attention to the position of your tongue in your mouth and feel your throat for a vibration or for no vibration:

/s/      /z/      /s/      /z/      /s/      /z/

Listen:

Your tongue does not need to change to a new position in your mouth. 

/s/ is voiceless (no vibration)

/z/ is voiced      (vibration)

This is the only difference between the two sounds.

This has been a basic introduction to voiced sounds and voiceless sounds in English. The main idea from our post this week is to become aware of some English sounds with vibrations and some English sounds without vibrations. It is also helpful to listen carefully when we hear native English speakers pronouncing these sounds. 

Here is a final tip: one great way to practice pronunciation is in front of a mirror (or using the camera on your smartphone). This will allow you to see the shape of your mouth, including the position of your lips, teeth or tongue. If you are feeling self-conscious* about your pronunciation, it can be very helpful to practice the sounds that are difficult for you when you are alone: driving in a car, walking alone or taking a shower. However, try not to feel embarrassed about your pronunciation. Everyone needs to practice their pronunciation when they learn a new language, so don’t worry!

*https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/self-conscious