Speaking English: How to say P, F, B, V

Welcome to the pronunciation lesson with Ronnie. That took me a bit, but I've gotten it now.

Today, I'm going to teach you the differences between one, two, three, four letters in English

that are very difficult. But after you hear and see this lesson, it's going to be a lot

easier for you. Again, with most letter sounds in English, the reason why it's so difficult

is because in your language, maybe you do not have this sound at all. Or the sounds

in your languages are very, very similar. So instead of saying a P, it's a mix between

a P and an F.

So let's go through one thing that's very, very important when you're learning any word

that you're going to say, and it is what I've written in blue here: unvoiced and voiced.

Do you know what the difference is between "unvoiced" and "voiced"? I will teach you.

What you've to do is you have to put your hand on your throat. Not too hard. Don't kill

yourselves. And you're going to make this sound. Just the letter. You're going to "puh,

puh, puh." Now, when you make the "puh" sound, you've to be careful of two things. The first

one is your mouth. What is your mouth doing? Okay? When you make the P sound, your lips

have to go together and blow out like you're smoking. So it's "puh, puh". Okay? I like

to call this "kiss mouth". So when you make a kiss mouth, it's like you're going to kiss

someone. You go, "puh". Or you can call it a "smoking mouth". It doesn't matter. When

you are saying the P sound, you're going to make your kiss mouth, "puh"; you're going

to put your hand on your throat; and you're going to realize that your throat or your

vocal cords do not vibrate. So try. "Puh, puh". You should not feel any vibration in

your throat. This non-vibration is called "unvoiced". So if something is "unvoiced",

it means it does not vibrate in your throat. So "unvoiced" means no vibration. Okay? So

the P sound is a kiss with no vibration.

Let's look at an example of a "voiced" letter. We're going to make the same mouth style,

and we're going to blow a kiss or a smoke. But the difference between the P "puh" and

the B, is that when we make the B sound, you have to vibrate your throat or your vocal

cords. So you have to go "buh, buh, buh". Your lips are making the same movement, but

the vocal cords are going to vibrate. So try this. "Buh, buh, buh." Then, if you do it

without voicing it, it's "puh, puh, puh". So your lips are making the same movement,

but your vocal cords vibrate and do not vibrate. So if it's voiced, it means that your vocal

cords vibrate.

The next letter that a lot of people have problems with is the F. Now, when I make the

F sound -- "fff, fff" -- I need to do something very important. I need to take my teeth and

stick them out over my bottom lip. I like to call these "beaver teeth". Have you ever

seen a beaver? Do beavers have teeth? Sometimes, the animal beaver has teeth. And beavers have

very predominant -- very big front teeth because they chew trees. So when I say "beaver teeth",

I mean you stick your teeth out like a beaver. Okay? So this sound is very different from

the P and the B sound because first of all, your mouth is making a different position.

So when you make the F sound, your teeth are out, and it is unvoiced. So again, you're

going to put your hand on your throat and go "fff". The air is going to come out at

the bottom of your teeth between your bottom lip and your top teeth. So it's "fff". It

feels like you're pushing the air down. "Fff." With the P and the B, you're pushing the air

out like you're smoking. With the F, the air is going down. So try. "Fff, fff, fff."

When we say the V sound or the "vuh", again, we're going to have beaver teeth. So you're

going to stick your teeth out, except this time, it is voiced. So like the F sound, same

mouth position, but you must vibrate your vocal cords. So it's "vuh, vuh, vuh." This

is rather difficult, so I suggest you practice. "Vuh, vuh, vuh." It might take a little bit

of time and a little bit of practice for you to get it. But the important thing for you

to understand is that F does not vibrate, and "vuh" vibrates.

So a lot of people maybe have problems with the B and the F, okay? So you've to look at

this. The B is a kiss mouth, "buh, buh". And the F is a beaver mouth, and it's "fff, fff".

We're going to go through some exercises to help you say these words even though they're

very difficult. Let's check it out.

The first one, remember, mouth like a kiss or like you're smoking. And it's going to

be unvoiced, and you say, "Puh, puh, pan. Pan. You can smoke a pan." Good.

The next one, we're going to voice it. So it's the exact same ending, but it's "buh,

buh, ban". So we have, "pan, ban." The ends of these words will vibrate. So you have to

be careful. You want to listen to the beginning of the word. So it's "puh, puh, pan and buh,

buh, ban." You try. "Pan, ban." Good.

Then, we have the F word "fan, fan." So you're going to want to stick your teeth out and

blow the air down and say "fan". Again, with the voiced sound, you're going to want to

stick your teeth out. You're going to vibrate your vocal cords and say "van, van." Try these

two together. "Fan, van, fan, van." Try this one. "Pan, fan." Beaver mouth -- sorry. Kiss

mouth, "pan". Beaver teeth, "ban". "Pan, fan." Let's try these ones. "Ban, van. Ban -- out.

Van -- down." So when you guys do these two together, it's also difficult. So we have

to practice the sounds.

Let's look at another example of the P, the B, and the F. The first one we have, again,

is "puh, puh, puh". So we say "puck, puh-uck, puck." The next one we have with the B sound

is "buh, buh, buh, buck. Buck." So we have "puck" and "buck".

Question mark! We have a word that rhymes with "puck" and "buck", and it starts with

an F. So you can say, "fff-uck, fff-uck." Try this. "Fff-uck, buh-uck, puh-uck." Don't

say a bad word.

And the last two that we're just going to contrast the P and the F. These are difficult,

especially if you're a Korean speaker. So you want to be careful. It's "pork". You're

going to blow a kiss or have a cigarette. "Pork." Something you eat with your pork is

your "fork, fork." "Pork, fork. I eat pork with a fork. Do you like pork? I have a fork.

I eat pork with a fork." Ta-ta, for now.