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Lesson Transcript

Ryan: Hi everyone, I'm Ryan. The Pronunciation of Consonants.
Chihiro: Hey everyone, it's Chihiro, and in this lesson, we'll explore American English consonants. American English has voiced consonant sounds and voiceless consonant sounds. Now, Ryan, what does this mean?
Ryan: Well, we make a voiced sound when our vocal cords vibrate. All vowel sounds in the previous lesson, for example, are voiced. A voiceless sound is when your vocal cords are not vibrating, and the sound is made with the shape of our mouths, the position of our tongues and air.
Chihiro: There are twenty-four or twenty-five consonants in total - the number varies depending on the researcher. As with the vowel lesson, we will give you the sound with an example word. Ready Ryan?
Ryan: Let's do it.
Chihiro: The first sound is the voiceless sound "p" in
Ryan: "pin"
Chihiro: The voiced "b" in
Ryan: "bin"
Chihiro: If you put your hand up in front of your mouth when you make those two sounds, you should feel a puff of air. Okay, the next consonant is the "t" in
Ryan: "tin"
Chihiro: The "d" in
Ryan: "doe"
Chihiro: The "k" in
Ryan: "cap"
Chihiro: The "g" in
Ryan: "gap"
Chihiro: The "ch" in
Ryan: "choose"
Chihiro: The "j" in
Ryan: "juice"
Chihiro: The "m" in
Ryan: "main"
Chihiro: The "n" in
Ryan: "name"
Chihiro: The "h" in
Ryan: "hang"
Chihiro: The "f" in
Ryan: "fast"
Chihiro: The "v" in
Ryan: "vast"
Chihiro: The "th" in
Ryan: "thick"
Chihiro: The "th" in
Ryan: "this"
Chihiro: Those two sounds are made with the tongue between the teeth. Okay, carrying on, the next sound is the "s" in
Ryan: "sap"
Chihiro: The "z" in
Ryan: "zap"
Chihiro: The "sh" in
Ryan: "shin"
Chihiro: The "szh" in
Ryan: "pleasure"
Chihiro: The "h" in
Ryan: "house"
Chihiro: The "w" in
Ryan: "wine"
Chihiro: The "r" in
Ryan: "rose"
Chihiro: The "y" in
Ryan: "young"
Chihiro: The "l" in
Ryan: "left"
Chihiro: And those are the main ones we're going to go over. You may have noticed that some sounds are pairs with their voiced and voiceless counterparts. For example "t" and "d" have the same tongue positioning, and the difference is that one is voiced, and the other isn't.
Ryan: Can you pick out the others?
Chihiro: Many of these sounds may be familiar to you from your native tongue. However, you may not use some of these sounds in your language. Pay attention to the sounds that you do not use in your native language so that you can get used to the tongue positioning of the word.
Ryan: There are also sounds in American English such as the flap, the glottal stop, and the velar nasal
Chihiro: Before you say what the heck is that? Ryan will explain the first one in a very simple way.
Ryan: The flap is when the tongue quickly taps the top of your mouth. This sounds occurs in American English for words like
Chihiro: “ladder”
Ryan: or
Chihiro: “twitter”.
Ryan: Even though the words are spelt with a “d” and “t” the sound that is made is with the tongue tapping the roof of the mouth.
Chihiro: Right, simple as that. The glottal stop is common in English, for words like
Ryan: “hat”
Chihiro: and the interjection
Ryan: “uh oh”
Chihiro: The pause in the middle is actually the vocal chords pressing together. That is why some people say that the American’s don’t enunciate their words clearly. It's because the vocal chords are pressing together... which means we aren't really saying the letter as expected.
Ryan: And the last one is the velar nasal. It sounds like "ng" as in
Chihiro: "sing"
Ryan: and
Chihiro: "fling"
Ryan: The last sound combination of the “ng” is actually not that clearly distinguished, and they melt into each other. That is what the combination sounds like.
Chihiro: "ng"
Ryan: and not
Chihiro: "ng"
Ryan: There are some more sounds in English that we will not go over, because we believe that this is enough to get you started down the right track.
Chihiro: Be aware that English spelling can be tricky and that the same combination of letters may not always have the same pronunciation in different words.
Ryan: With some patience and much practice, the pronunciation will become easier and the words will be less difficult to pronounce.
Chihiro: Thanks for listening, everyone.
Ryan: See you all soon!

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