Learn How To Pronounce The American English Consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /ch/, /sh/
Transcript
Voiceless consonants are short. You can think of it as it takes longer to turn on the car engine and to rev the motor. That’s sort of what’s happening when we’re vibrating the voice the vocal cords when we say a ‘th’ sound; we’re vibrating to make that sound. But when we say it’s kind of like hissing sounds Shh, I’m not using my vocal cords. In fact you could even whisper. If you’re whispering you’re not using your vocal cords. So like the ‘Puh’ sound is a whisper. But the opposite of ‘Puh’ is the voiced sound ‘Buh’. So we have Puh and Buh.
Okay we’ll get into this in a minute. I just want to go through the consonant placement of articulation. We have the we have the D and the N all produced with the tip of the tongue touching the avelor ridge, which is just behind the upper teeth – right behind the upper teeth. It’s where the roots of the teeth go into the gums.
Then we have s and z. One is voiceless which is the S one is voiced which is the Z. So, words that end in s, actually the vowel is shorter, than words that end in Z. But you’ll see this in a minute.
We have L which is a voiced consonant. We are actually using the voice when we say oh oh so you’re vibrating the vocal cords it’s a voice down or our same thing her
be using the vocal cords and then if we were to sort of produce by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate we would have a voiceless Shh and the
voiced would be G we would have a voiceless Shh we would have a voice Shh we would have a voiceless one as opposed to the other so voiceless, voiced, voiceless, voiced. Here’s shh-shh-shh. Again I’ll do it again. So where the sh as in fish or dj as in measure, you hear the voiced sound vibrating on the zh sound- measure.
When you have a vowel that precedes a voiced consonant, that vowel will be longer as opposed to shorter. Voiceless sounds are produced with vibration of the vocal cords. The air flows like a whisper when we say Sh and we say when we say the P. I’ll give you a list here in a moment. The voice sounds are produced with the vocal cords vibrating, so like when you turn the motor to the car on, you feel the vibrations you hear the vibrations.
That humming sound that you feel you could even feel when you put your tips of your fingers on your Adam’s apple .You say it. Voice consonants are like an R sound. It ends in a voiced consonant / if you say rope it ends in a voiceless consonant. Fine and vine F&V those are voiceless and voiced. S and Z are also voiceless voiced.
All vowels are voiced. When you’re making an R you’re using your vocal cords. R. But when you’re saying consonant sounds, sometimes they’re voiceless but they’re also broken down into oral sounds which are voiced sounds and the nasal sounds, as in NG. Stop sounds are also broken down.
The opposite or cognate of P is B. So, we have buh then we have voiced M nasal consonant. now we have their voiceless voiced. And we have M. We have Guh then we have ng and Dj so again I’m gonna break these down for you in another chart and another way in a moment. But these are the manner of articulation the stop sounds were with the lips P B and T D and they’re stopping the airflow.
Because when you get again. Why are we reviewing this? Because when you get to a long vowel sound it’s pronounced correctly when there’s a voiced which is a long consonant sound though we have to know the difference between long and short consonants affricates there is a long and a short liquids there’s a long and glides there’s those are long. So here we have the voiceless sounds and and then we the opposite of those would be the voice sounds which would be buh and guh. So if we were to take a word that ends in a voiceless consonant P like hike the way you would say that would probably be sound correct because it ends with a voiceless pipe.
You have to be careful of the voiced which would be hide so whatever ends whatever the ending is if it’s long then the vowel must be long if it’s short the vowel can be short okay nasals there’s just one type there’s M N and ng then we have the fricative which is voiceless F knife would be pronounced short that’s fine v would be pronounced short or nice but the V ending is long therefore words that end in V have to be I long I wives it wouldn’t be wipes but wives were wise even though it ends with an S it ends with an S but that s should sound like Z and it would be wise wise and then even some African sounds like short.
But we have voiced what J that’s the one that should be yeah so if we were to look at the final one which is voice which is our and also L my my it’s ending and there’s nothing there to stop it like fight kite there’s there’s a T sound stopping it’s shortening it there’s nothing there to stop it it’s just lingering on if there’s a voiced consonant ending try Haven takes longer to turn on that sound look good there’s more time for it to sort of stay vibrating so look so what is long one is short it’s a noun.
Therefore, it’s voiceless if it if it were a verb or a plural like if it were truck like a verb like flies so whenever it ends in a voiced or voiceless sound oftentimes is because it’s a noun or a verb.
Learn the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants in American English — and how they affect vowel length and pronunciation.
Understanding voiced vs. voiceless consonants is essential for clear American English pronunciation. In this lesson, you’ll learn how vocal cord vibration changes consonant sounds, why some vowels sound long or short, and how consonant endings affect meaning in spoken English.
In this video, you will learn:
- What voiced and voiceless consonants are
- How vocal cord vibration works
- Why all vowels are voiced
- How consonant endings affect vowel length
- Common pronunciation patterns in American English
- How pronunciation differences can signal nouns vs. verbs
🔹 Voiced vs. Voiceless Consonants Explained
Voiceless consonants are produced without vibration of the vocal cords. The airflow sounds like a whisper or hiss.
Examples include:
- /p/
- /t/
- /k/
- /s/
- /f/
- /ʃ/ (sh)
Voiced consonants are produced with vibration of the vocal cords. You can feel this vibration by placing your fingers on your throat.
Examples include:
- /b/
- /d/
- /g/
- /z/
- /v/
- /ʒ/ (zh)
🔹 Place and Manner of Articulation
Many consonants are produced in the same place in the mouth but differ only by voicing:
- /t/ vs /d/ (alveolar ridge, just behind the upper teeth)
- /p/ vs /b/ (Labial; lips)
- /k/ vs /g/ (velar stops) – made at the soft palate with the back of the tongue
- /s/ vs /z/ (sibilant alveolar fricatives)
- /ʃ/ vs /ʒ/ (voiceless, voiced)
The airflow may stop completely (stop sounds) or continue (fricatives, liquids, nasals).
🔹 Why This Matters: Vowel Length
Vowel length in American English depends on the final consonant sound.
- Voiceless final consonant → short vowel
- height
- knife
- nice
- height
- Voiced final consonant → long vowel
- ride
- lives
- wise
- ride
Even if a word ends in “s”, it may be pronounced as /z/ (voiced), which lengthens the vowel.
Example:
- wise → /z/ sound (long vowel)
🔹 Special Consonants That Allow Vowels to Continue
Some sounds do not stop airflow:
- /r/
- /l/
- /ŋ/ (ng)
Because nothing blocks the sound, vowels before these consonants are often long:
- my
- try
- life
🔹 Key Takeaway
- All vowels are voiced
- Consonants can be voiced or voiceless
- Voicing affects vowel length
- Understanding this improves pronunciation clarity and listening accuracy
This concept is especially important for American English learners working on accent reduction and intelligibility.
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