English Pronunciation - P & B

Hi there, my name is Ronnie and I'm here to teach you English.

Today we're going to do some pronunciation, one of my favorites, and another set of words

or letters that are very difficult for many people to pronounce are the words P and B.

So I'm going to try and help you, hopefully, get this done, make it easier for you to both

hear and to say the differences between P and B.

The very first thing and a very important thing that I want to teach you is what we

call in the English world "voiced" and "unvoiced" letters.

The voiced letters means that if you put your hand on your throat, you can feel your throat

move.

That's your voice, your vocal cords actually moving inside your body.

So if you put your hand on your throat and you say your name, most names are voiced.

If I say my name, Ronnie, I can feel actually the vibrations on my hand.

Sounds kind of cool, it's fun.

So let's look at our first one.

The letter B. When I say out loud the letter B, I feel vibrations in my throat.

So everyone try that.

Just put your hand on your throat, not too hard, just a little bit, and say B. Good.

Now for the other one, P, it is actually unvoiced.

Now to hear the difference, do this again.

Put your hand on your throat and go P, P. You don't feel the vibration like you did

when you hear or say B.

So try this, B, P, B, P. The second thing that you can do is, like all pronunciation

words, the shape of your mouth when you say P and B. So when I make a B noise, it's

like I'm smiling, B. And you can see these things at the side of my mouth are called

dimples.

Let's write that down, shall we?

Let's write it here.

Not everyone has dimples, but that's okay.

Dimples are the indents at the side.

So when you want to say B, make like you're smiling and show off your cute little dimples,

B.

Okay?

Also, put your hand here and go B, and you will find the difference.

Whereas if you say P, my mouth is tighter and it does not vibrate when I say P. B, P.

P is a very big smile, and P, not so much of a smile.

So we have P, no vibration, and B, vibration, good vibrations.

So let's have a look at some common words we use in English and try and practice your

pronunciation.

The first one is police.

If you want, when we do this exercise, keep your hand on your throat and you can learn

what letters are voiced and which ones are unvoiced.

The first word, police, police.

Number two, double P, paper, paper.

Next one, picture, picture.

For play, that one has an L sound in it too, so remember to move your tongue, play.

And that's one, happy, happy, good, okay.

We can contrast these words here when we want to learn the difference between the P and

the B. This one we have play, and this is bay.

So remember, when we do the B, get your smiles out, get your dimples out, and make sure that

you hear your voice, your vocal cords vibrating.

Bay, box, baby, that's a double vibrator there, baby.

Bank, bank, and blue.

So you can practice at home, and a good way for you to learn pronunciation is to think

about, from now on forever, which sounds, which letters are voiced and which ones are

unvoiced, or sometimes people might say less voiced.

With the voiced B, you can feel the vibration, the unvoiced P, there's very little, if any,

vibration.

Please go to www.engvid.com and you can take a test or a quiz on the difference pronunciations

between P and B. Bye-bye.