Author: topshelfboss

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English Sounds

Consonant Pair: /s/ and /z/

/s/ and /z/ are a consonant pair. The only difference between them is that you use your voice for /z/ but not for /s/. These letters often present problems for ESL learners because a word may be spelled with one letter, but make the other sound, such as the word Thursday, which is spelled with an “s” but makes a /z/ sound.

Video Script

This pair of matched consonants is /s/ and /z/. /s/ is voiceless and /z/ is voiced. The sides of the tongue touch the insides of the teeth on the sides of the mouth. The sound is made when air is forced through the small gap between the teeth and the tongue. All right, here are some examples: sill, suit, safe, soup, size. And from this list: fasten, pricing, hasten, crisis, faces. And from this list: peace, pass, less, mouse, loss. Okay, let’s take a look at some words with /z/. Start over here is we always do: zeal, zinc, zoo, zebra, or zebra if you prefer – where I come from, we say zebra – zone. Here in the middle or medial position: easy, and this by the way, let’s just stop here, just for a minute. You notice that that is clearly an S and yet the sound a /z/. This happens a fair amount with matched consonants, where we will write one but say the other, especially when we will write the voiceless version and then we say the voiced version. So just be aware that it is quite common; it’s not a mistake. Another example: we say Thur/z/day even though we write Thur/s/day. Okay, so, you have to listen to the sound, not always look at the spelling. Alright, let’s start this list again: easy, noisy, wiser, dizzy, pauses. And over here: word-final position: does, haze, buzz, boys, wise. Alright, let’s see if you can pick up the difference. This first one – oh boy, if you’re not sure what this is you’re going to have to look this up. This is a mistake I hear all the time. In fact, this one… I’m not going to do our test right away, I’m going to explain this. This is pronounced miss, okay? And this is used for women who are unmarried. This is Ms and this is what is used most often in business contexts these days because this does not let let anybody know the marital status of the person you’re talking about, of the woman you’re talking about. Very often, I hear my students.. this is what’s written. and it’s often what they, what they write on their own paper, but this is what they end up saying. So again, clearly, or so again so you can hear them clearly, this one is Miss and this one is Ms. It does make a difference! All right, let’s start: Ms, joys, sauce, seal, close, devise, phase, scarce, sink, and use. Notice that with three words here the /s/ or /z/ is what makes the difference in terms of whether it’s one part of speech or another. So again, another reason to to make sure you’re getting this right. Okay, so there are the answers; that’s what I said. How did you do? If you’d like more practice, look below.

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English Sounds

Consonant Pair: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/

Here are another two sounds that people often do not realize are closely related until they are shown how. As with all consonant pairs, the only difference is that one sound uses your voice, and the other doesn’t. Both of these sounds can be spelled many different ways, and the letter we often use to make these sounds can make other sounds, as well, so be careful!

Video Script
This matched pair of consonants is /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. /tʃ/ is voiceless and /dʒ/is voiced. /tʃ/ and… sorry! CH and J and G are the most common ways to write these sounds – but not the only ways. The tip of the tongue touches behind the top teeth. When air is forced out, the tongue slides forwards. The release of air is what makes the sound. Let’s look at some examples. So we’ll start here with the examples in word-initial position: chess, chime, chest, chase, cheque. Next, our word- medial list. Notice that the spelling is different here; we don’t see a CH. Creature, natural, nurture. Okay well there’s two CH’s coming up – teacher, searcher. And in word final position: peach, ouch, couch, touch, rich. Alright and let’s look at some /dʒ/ sounds. So here we go…word-initial position: jade, joy, June, job, join. Word-medial: Roger, lodger, wages, hedges, edging. And here in word- final position: ridge, badge, nudge, bridge, dirge. Are you ready to see if you can tell the difference? I hope so ’cause I’m going to ask you now. I’m going to say the words… a word either from this list or from this list. Listen carefully so you can decide which words I’m saying: chest, gyp, Jill, cheap, ridge, cheer. I want to say that one again: cheer, March, jive, bodge, jug. Okay, the word that I just said I’m going to make bold. There we go, that’s what I said. So, how did you do? If you’d like some more practice. look below.
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English Sounds

Consonant Pair: /k/ and /g/

This consonant pair can create some problems at the end of the words for speakers of certain languages. Be sure that you are voicing when you should, and de-voicing when you should. Most English speakers will understand you, but it can be a bit confusing sometimes.

Video Script
/k/ and /g/ are a matched pair. /k/ is voiceless and /g/ is voiced. The tongue is raised at the back of the mouth. The sound is made when air forces the tongue down and the air is allowed to come out. Let’s look at some examples. We’ll start with the list here; word initial position: key, came, keel, cow, coil. Now we’ll take a look at medial: tickle, sickle, checker, looking, beaker. And now let’s take a look at this list: lick, neck, black, hack, like. Okay and now let’s practise some /g/ sounds. So start here of course: geese, guy, gear, gown, good. Medial: soggy, logger, hugging, bagging, ragged. And some in word final position: fig, hug, bog, rug, wig. Okay, let’s see how good your ear is at hearing the difference. I will say one of these words either (the) word on this side or (the) word on this side. You listen and remember which word it is that I say: glam, cape, card, crate, glass, sag, huck, dig, sick, lag. Okay, here’s the answers, so you can see how you did. The words that I said just became bolded How did you do? If you want some more practice, look below.
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English Sounds

Consonant Pair: /p/ and /b/

Especially when they come at the beginning of a word, these two sounds frustrate a lot of ESL students. The difference is that we use our voice for /b/ but not for /p/. The problem is that in some languages, there is no difference in these sounds, so speakers of those languages go back and forth between the sounds. In English, we can’t do that, because these sounds are contrastive, which means that it makes a difference when we use one or the other.

Video Script

Another pair of matched consonants is /p/ and /b/. /p/ is voiceless and /b/ is voiced. To make both of these sounds, the upper and lower lips are pressed together, stopping air from coming out. The sound is made when the lips move apart and the air is released. Both /p/ and /b/ are clear in word-initial position because they are both aspirated: pea, bee. In the middle of a word. /p/ is aspirated mildly and /b/ is not aspirated: vapour, rubber, so that with a P, with a /p/ there’s aspiration. With the /b/ – rubber – there isn’t. At the end of a word /p/ is often not aspirated; it depends on the speaker and /b/ is not aspirated: rope, rope; rope, robe. Notice also how the /p/ or /b/ changes how long the vowel is. Let’s look at some examples of words that uh, that use /p/. So we’ll start – sorry – start over here and when the sound comes at the beginning of the word: pill, peel, pain, pad, pack. And now for examples where it’s medial: happy, hoping, piper, sloppy, ripen. And then now in word-final position: hoop, gripe, pup, cop, type. Now let’s take a look at some words with /b/. We’ll start here at the beginning, of course. I probably don’t need to write this arrow every time, do I? Best, bathe, beef, bean, bed. In medial position: robber, ruby, cabby, rubber, blubber. And then word-final position: fib, scab, nib, robe, job. Okay you think you’re pretty good at that? Let’s have a little quiz here and see. So I’m going to say one of these two words and I need you to decide which one it is. Is it the one on the left or the one on the right? Banned, blead, plot, breast, pride, plank, cop, pill, cub, pup. Okay, let’s see how you did. The words that I said just got bolded. So how did you do? If you want some more practice look below. Okay, see you next time.

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English Sounds

Introduction to Consonants

Consonants are all the sounds that are not vowels. The difference between consonants and vowels is that consonants limit or stop the flow of air out of the mouth. For example, to make a /b/ sound, you have to first close your mouth to stop any air from escaping. You also need to use your voice – which you don’t need to do for some consonant sounds. Interested? I hope so. Watch this video to prepare yourself for the remaining consonant videos on this site.

Video Script
Hello! I’ve made a whole bunch of different videos about consonants, but before we get started with those videos, you need to watch this video so that you know what I’m talking about when I use some of the terminology when I go through those those other sounds. So, let’s take a look. First of all, what is a consonant? Well, a consonant is: not a vowel. Vowels are sounds that we make when our mouth is more or less completely open. With consonants on the other hand, your mouth is limiting the air that comes out. So if I make a an example vowel: AAA You can see my mouth is wide open and there’s lots of air and lots of sound coming out. With a consonant – I’ll just choose one randomly /b/ /b/ – my mouth at one point is completely closed stopping all the air from coming out. So vowels are sounds that that come out quite freely; there’s no restriction or very little restriction. Consonants have a lot more limit on the sound that is coming out, so that’s the difference. So before we talk too much about consonants and before you watch those other videos, there are three things that you need to know. First of all: what voicing is. There are two different… or there’s one way of dividing consonants into two different categories, and that’s whether they are voiced or devoiced, or we can also say voiceless. And that means quite simply whether or not I’m using my voice. If you are thinking: “Wait a minute when I’m speaking I’m always using my voice” I have some interesting news for you, so hold on. Many consonants appear in voiced and voiceless pairs. So, let’s take a look at this little table here. The top row, these sounds, these consonants are all voiceless. The bottom row, those are all voiced. Let’s take a look… a good way to explain it is with this pair, so I’m going to use those two. So, if I say, for example, this word or this word, those are almost exactly the same. They are what we call minimal pairs. Listen carefully as to how I… as to what those words sound like. So I’ll start with the top one: fan, fan. Now I’m going to say the bottom one: van, van. Now I want you… I’m going to say both those words again, but I want you to only look at my mouth. Okay I’m in fact – you know what? I’m gonna turn… when I edit, I’m going to turn the sound off so that you can’t hear what I’m saying. Just looking at my mouth, tell me: Am I saying the top one or am I saying the bottom one? Ready? Okay so which one did I say? There’s absolutely no way to know. My mouth makes exactly the same motion in both situations, so the only difference between those two words when I say them is whether or not I use my voice on the first sound. And with this one, I do not use my voice, so watch /f/ and down here, I’m going to put my mouth in exactly the same position but I am going to use my voice. /v/ Watch this: I’m gonna say the top one: /f/. I hit my throat and it makes no difference to the sound because I’m not using my voice. Now, watch what happens or listen what happens when I say the bottom one: /v/ There we do hear the difference because when I hit my my throat it’s interrupting the flow of air that’s coming out. Okay, so again the top one: fan, the bottom one: van. My mouth is exactly the same shape; I’m doing exactly the same thing. The only difference is whether or not I’m using my voice and as you can see from from this table here, there are lots of voiced/voiceless pairs. So that’s one idea that you need to understand; you need to know whether you’re using your voice or not to make a particular sound. There are other consonants as well. Now these, as I said, these are paired consonants one – some are voiced, some are voiceless – these are not all the consonants, but we’ll look at those other ones later. I’m going to talk just briefly about something else that’s related to voicing… kind of. It’s called aspiration, and that’s the sound, but the sound of the breath only. So if I say the word “hockey” for example, I say the word “hockey”. This is a good example in English. You hear all of those sounds, right? I don’t say “ocky” I don’t start, I don’t start here. I don’t say “ockey” there is definitely a sound that comes from this H but I’m not using my voice; it’s only the air that’s coming out. “Hockey, hockey” That’s true of a lot of words that start with H in English but not only there! If I say for example the name: “Peter, Peter” – now you might or might not notice but there’s actually a tiny little H sound there as well. Peter, Peter, and that’s the the sound of the aspiration. So aspiration, again, it’s the sound of the breath only. I’m not using my voice but the air is coming out fast enough that I can … the air is coming out fast enough that you can hear it. Okay, the next thing you need to know is the effects of voicing. So if a consonant is voiced or devoiced, of course that’s going to make a difference in how it sounds, but it also affects other things. It often changes the vowel before it. “Wait a minute! This is a video about consonants!” Yes it is, but the consonant and whether it’s voiced or voiceless also affects the vowels. This is important both when speaking and listening. Let’s take a look at an example here. So again we have another minimal pair here. These two words are identical there… there all the way to the last letter. So, /t/ which, is what I’m saying here and /d/ which is what I’m saying here, those two consonants are identical except for the fact that /t/ is voiceless and /d/ is voiced. So we know that, but don’t listen to that; listen to the vowel sound that comes before: goat, goat. All right, now listen to the second one: goat, goat. The vowel sound is the same but I stretch it out with the second one. I stretch it out here. Why? Because this is voiced. Now if you ask native speakers about this, they won’t, they won’t probably agree with you; they don’t get it, they don’t notice it, but if somebody, like you, who’s listening very closely to the sounds that people are making, you need to know that when the… when there’s a voiceless – sorry when there’s a voiced consonant, it often changes the sound of the vowel that comes before it. Let’s look at another example. Now if you look these up in the dictionary you will see that that the spelling is different but you will see that the sound that’s here and here are the same. But, listen when I say it It depends on what comes after as to how long I hold the vowel: root, root, rude, rude. So again, the sound of the vowel gets changed very often depending on the consonant that comes after it – if it’s voiced or voiceless. Here’s an example of why you want to be careful with this: I eat my food for dinner. Now, I’m going to leave this sound the same but I’m going to shorten the vowels here: I eat my foo(t) for dinner. It sounds like something that you don’t want to say, okay? So, when this is voiced, these vowels become longer. All right, the next thing you need to know is that location matters. So (a) letter’s plac… a letter’s placement in the word or sentence (which we call the environment) sometimes dictates the sound that the letter makes. So the /t/ sounds different depending on where it appears in the word. Okay so sorry, I’ll just go back here. So here we are, we’re looking at /t/ and /d/. Okay so /t/ sounds different depending where it appears in the word: /t/ take, take, take. It’s easy to hear. Look here though, when I put those sounds in the middle: latter, ladder. Which one am I saying? Well, it doesn’t matter because they sound exactly the same, okay? So, a /t/, /t/ and a /d/, /d/ in the middle, they can sound… they can sound the same in some dialects of English, including mine, which is a standard North American accent. So, I’ll say this one over here: latter. I’ll say this one: ladder. They sound exactly the same, so at the beginning of the word there was a difference in the sound. In the middle of the word, sometimes there isn’t and this is a good example of there not being a difference. Now, take a look at this one: listen carefully to this T: wet clothes, wet clothes. “Well you didn’t say the T!” No, I didn’t. Why? Well because it’s in the middle of this phrase. If I said inst… instead of saying “I had wet clothes” I said “My clothes were wet.” Now that wet comes at the end of the sentence; now it’s more likely that most speakers would say it, but when it’s in the middle, you may or may not hear it, okay? So again: He was wearing wet clothes. It’s quite common to not release that, so we don’t hear the aspiration that comes after that. Okay, so now that you know those three things – or maybe I should say three and a half because we learned about aspiration as well, now that you know these things, now you’re ready for the consonant videos, and you’ll understand what is being said, okay? Good luck!

Now that you understand these ideas, go back to the English Sounds page and practise the sounds of English until you’re a master!

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English Sounds

Consonant Pair: /t/ and /d/

These two sounds can be difficult for ESL students to tell apart, depending on where they come in the word. To make things even more difficult, we often don’t really say either of these two sounds. Instead, we compromise, and say a sound that is a variation, called a flap. In a flap, the tongue is flicked against the top of the mouth behind the top teeth, and then immediately brought back down again.

Confused? Don’t be. Just watch the video!

Video Script
The first pair of consonants we’re going to look at is /t/ and /d/. So, /t/ is voiceless and /d/ is voiced. The front of the tongue is raised and stops air from coming out – this is true for both of them – remember the only difference is whether they’re voiced or not. The sound is made when the tongue moves down and the air is released. So for /t/ it’s only the aspiration for /d/ there’s also the voicing. Both /t/ and /d/ are clear in word initial position: tire, dire. You hear both of those and they’re quite clear. If it’s between vowels in an unstressed syllable /t/ will often sound like /d/ so – now this isn’t true for every dialect but again it’s true for what I speak, which is standard North American. Water. Water. Now in some parts of the world they might say water and that might be a clear T but not in most of North America. Water. The next word: computer, computer. Again, it sounds more like a D and, now, listen carefully here to what goes on with this word: potato, potato. This one – potato, potato – sounds like a clear T. This one sounds like a D, sounds like a /d/. Well, why is that? Potato, potato. Well, the answer is right up here. It’s whether or not something is in an unstressed syllable. So potato this T is pronounced like a t – this is unstressed so it’s pronounced like a /d/. Potato, potato. /t/ is often not aspirated at the end of a word and /d/ is often very quiet. So, if the word is by itself, it’s more likely you will hear it, but if there’s another word or the sentence continues after that it’s much less likely. So listen carefully: goat skin goat skin. You can’t hear that T because I didn’t say it. Goad him into, goad him into. So there we did hear the D a little bit – goad him into. Here it disappears. Well, if this one is hard to hear and this one isn’t there at all, how do we know what you’re saying? The answer is you have to listen to the vowel that comes before. If it’s a shorter vowel sound it’s going to be a voiceless consonant. If it’s a longer vowel sound, it’s going to be a voiced consonant, so I kind of have to work backwards. All right which is the last point that I have going here. Notice how the /t/ or /d/ changes how long the vowel is. All right, I’m going to read a list of words that have the /t/ sound in them. Over here on this side it says initial. That means to come at the beginning of the word. Medial in the middle and then final…I bet you can figure that one out. It means at the end of the word. So I will start over here. If you want to repeat, you can stop the video. I’m going to leave a pause but not not too long. Here we go: team, tax, teeth, tame, take. Now for medial: litter, writing, lightest, yeah you notice that you can hear this one clearer more clearly than you can hear this one. Lightest, lightest, dirty, dirty. Again stress is out here, so this ends up sounding like a /d/ instead of a /t/. Hurting, hurting. And we’ll now listen to it final, word file position. These ones, they come at the end of the word and there’s no no sentence that continues afterwards so it’s probably going to sound much clearer: pet. On the other hand, if I said – if I said this, if I said pet food, pet food, I probably wouldn’t hear that T but because this comes at the end, there’s nothing that goes afterwards. Excuse me. You’re not going to hear the T as clearly. So, once again here: pet, pet food, got, wet, but, and sit. All right this is a YouTube budget; I don’t I don’t do things again! All right, now, I’m going to read some words that have a /d/ sound. We’re going to go through the same progression: deem, dike, dale, dim, dose. Medial: loading, ruder, coded, body, moody. And word final position: need, mad, kid, toyed, speed. Okay, so do you think you’ve got that? Let’s see. I have a list of words here that are what we call minimal pairs. They’re the same except for one sound. Now the spelling isn’t the same but – sometimes it is – but it’s not always but the sound is except for one sound, okay? So we can see here I’ll circle whole world there. We can see those words are the same except for, well, except for the one sound that isn’t. So, I’m going to say either this one or this one, and I want you to remember which and then I will give you the answers. Let’s begin: team, team; dip, dip; lid, lid; bat, bat; head, head; right, right; slight, slight; tend, tend; tear, tear – sorry, that word can be pronounced more than one way; I had to make sure I was going to say it the right way – and finally, toes, toes. All right here’s the answers. The words that just – whoops! – the words that just got a little bit bigger are the ones that I said. How did you do? Okay, thank you very much see you next time.