These are the next two consonant sounds
we're going to target. /b/
as in 'buy' and /p/ as in 'pie'. So, one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. Remember how
to distinguish voiced and unvoiced. Put a
hand over your throat and you can feel
the vibration. The first sound /b/ /b/ you can feel the vibration in your
throat. The second sound /p/ /p/ no vibration. So the second sound is a very quiet sound.
/p/ /p/ as in pie and /b/ the first sound voiced /b/ /b/ buy. Now the second thing that I
really want you to notice is the force
of the sounds. I want you to put your hand
over your mouth and feel the air on your
hand. Let's try the first sound /b/
/b/ /b/ You can feel a little burst of air
on your hand. Now let's try the second
sound. /p/ /p/ /p/ The burst of air is much much stronger. Even though the sound is
quieter, the burst is much stronger. So this is also a difference between the
two. /b/ is less forceful than /p//p/ Buy pie. /p/ the second sound is much more
forceful. This is because when we have a
voiced sound, for example /b/, our voice
actually makes a sound. The vibration is
quite loud. But when we have a sound like /p/
there's no vibration, so we have to actually force more air to
produce some noise, otherwise there would be no noise. That's why unvoiced
sounds are very often more forceful in
the air that we push out. Just keep
this in mind when you're producing these
sounds. /p/ is much more forceful. Let's move
on now to the target sound practice for
the first sound the voiced /b/ Remember,
as you can see, my lips are closed and
then opened. This is how we make the
sound. First the lips are closed and then
we release the air /b/ /b/ Can you see
that? Exactly the same with the second
sound except it's unvoiced /p/ /p/ as in pie.
We're building up the air in our mouth
and then we're opening the lips to
release the sound. This is how you make
this sound. So the first target sound
practice. Listen and repeat after me.
Bus. Job. Label.
Double. Rabbit. Blueberry. Bananas. Brother.
Brazil. One thing I want you to
notice with the /b/ sound: when it's at
the beginning of a word it's usually
more forceful. Let me give you an example.
Bus bus. However when it comes at the end of a word, for example job, you can hear
that it's not as strong. Bus job. So there is a difference between
some sounds when they come at the
beginning of a word and at the end of a
word. It's the same sound but
there's slightly less force at the end
of a word. The same goes for the /p/ sound which you'll see in just one second.
Just keep that in mind. Some sounds in
English have a slight difference when
they're at the beginning to when they're
at the end. OK, now let's move on to the
second target sound practice. This is for
the unvoiced /p/ sound. Remember close your
lips, build up the air and open your lips
to release the sound. Listen and repeat
after me. Push. Pen.
Puppy. Help. Lamp. Pepper. Passport. People.
Paris. Again, let me just take your
attention to the sound when it's at the
beginning of a word and at the end of a
word. When it's at the beginning it's
more forceful: push push. When it's at the
end it's slightly less forceful: help
help. Can you feel the difference? You
repeat after me.
Push help. A little bit different.
Same sound, just slightly less force.
Let's move on to the minimal pairs. This
will help you really distinguish the
difference between the two consonant
sounds, the voiced and the unvoiced. On
the left we have the /b/ sounds and on
the right the /p/ sounds. So listen to each
pair and repeat. Bin, pin. Bear, pear.
Blank, plank. Robe, rope. Cab, cap. Beach,
peach. Excellent. So I hope now you can
feel the difference between the two
sounds when they're at the beginning and
at the end of a word, and the difference
between the two sounds themselves. Now
the last section, the target sounds in
use. Let's have a look at the sentences.
The first one we're targeting the /b/
sound, the voiced sound. Again, listen
and repeat after me. Billy bought Albert a book about Britain.
Sentence two we're targeting the unvoiced /p/ sound. Listen and repeat. Philip, please
put the potatoes in the pan. And the
third sentence we have a mix of the two
target sounds. Brian always plays
badminton with Paul. They both hope to
become Olympic champions.
There we go. Two more consonant sounds done.
Of course, don't stop here. Move on to the extra resources,
the extra video I provide for you with a close-up of my mouth,
the PDFs, and most importantly, the MP3s. Grab all of those
and start to really master these two English sounds.