How to pronounce P vs B (WITHOUT confusing them) | American English Pronunciation

Hey there! It's a Hadar and this is the Accents way.

And today we're gonna talk about how to pronounce the b sound and p sound.

And how to not confuse them. Now let's begin at the beginning.

These two consonants are a consonant pair where they're both pronounced the same except

for one thing that distinguishes the pronunciation.

Now that one thing is the voice. The P sound is produced with the lips closing

the air pressure builds up and then you release the air with a puff

p, p,

Here it's just the air that comes out for your mouth.

For the B sound, everything happens exactly the same way.

Only this time the vocal cords are vibrating. b

Take a look at my lips p - b

Same thing, right?

pay-bay

The P sound is usually aspirated in American English when it appears at the beginning of the word

or at the beginning of a stressed syllable as in the word "pay".

So it feels like you have a little H right after.

p(h)ay, p (h)eople

It's like you're whispering before you are pronouncing the vowel that comes after the P.

p(h)eople

p(h)icture

Okay? So that's the P sound.

For the B you want to activate your vocal cords.

Now to understand how to activate your vocal cords intentionally let's try it with a different consonant pair.

So let's start with an F sound where the bottom lip touches the top teeth. f-f

Now put your hands here on your throat f-f. Now turn it gradually to up you sound a V sound,

v-v

We created a different sound but we haven't changed anything here, right.

let's do it again ff-vv

Now did you feel the vibrations here, on your throat?

These are the vocal cords vibrating creating a different sound but still while keeping everything the same.

So same thing with a P sound and the B, b-b

To make the B sound you want to activate your vocal cords.

So again let's start with a f-v sound for others maybe the S verses Z sound,

S versus Z might be easier to practice. So try this: ss-zz

The most important thing is that you recognize when your vocal chords start vibrating

ss-zz, ff-vv

and then the same thing you want to start doing with P sound and the B. p-p

Activate the vocal cords. p-b

Now what we've done here is we learned how to pronounce the B sound for people who already

know how to pronounce the P sound and tend to substitute the B with a P.

However, some speakers may do the other thing.

They know how to pronounce the B but the P is difficult for them.

So let's start now from the B and understand how we pronounce a P sound.

So let's start with a B which might be easier for you.

For example, for Arabic speakers, there's only B in the language and not a P.

So let's start b, b. Now say the word "bay". Bay, like Baywatch,

right.

And now I want you to whisper this word: bay, bay

Now when you're whispering a B sound you're actually pronouncing a P sound.

Listen: pay, p(h)ay

The beginning is the same the whispered "bay" versus the word "pay" pronounce normally.

So again a whispered B sound is actually a P sound.

So that's how you can start practicing it.

Let's say you want to say the word "pack", "pack"

and what comes out is "back", "back".

So let's start with whispering the word: back, back

and then start with a whisper and move on to the word "pack", "pack".

And make sure that you control your vocal cords

so they don't vibrate as you pronounce the P sound.

Pay,

picture,

people

and

pack.

Okay, that's it. Thank you so much for watching.

Now I want you to write down in the comments below as many minimal pairs as you can come up with of B and P.

For example, bay-pay, back-pack. Okay?

I'm waiting to see all your comments and also it's going to be an excellent practice resource for the community.

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It's a B sound, not of a P, Hadar!

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