24 Consonant Sounds in American English with the IPA

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer.

Do you remember how many letters there are in the English alphabet?

26. But how many sounds are there? That's not as easy to answer because

there are different varieties of English, and people have different ways of

categorizing the sounds. In my playlist on English vowel sounds, I

covered 15.

Right now, I'd like to offer you an overview of the 24 consonant sounds in

English. I'll give you an important key to clear

production of these sounds. Be sure to watch the

whole lesson because at the end I'll give you another

important key to successful pronunciation in general.

The key to learning and producing consonant sounds in English

is understanding what sounds have in common and what makes sounds different.

First, voicing. All vowel sounds are voiced.

When we say vowel sounds, we can feel vibration.

For example, /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ/.

But consonant sounds can be voiced or unvoiced,

voiced or voiceless. Repeat after me and say these unvoiced consonant sounds.

Keep your hand on your throat and be sure there's no vibration.

/p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, h, tʃ/ Now say these voiced consonants and be

aware of the vibration of your vocal cords,

your vocal folds.

/b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, v, ð, z, ʒ, dʒ, w, l, r, y/

It helps to be aware of consonant pairs that are basically the same

except for voicing. Repeat after me. We'll say an unvoiced consonant followed

by a voiced one.

Some pronunciation resources talk about manner

and place of articulation. That's just a fancy way of saying

how we make a sound and where we make it. How and where are key. Some

sounds share the same manner. Some sounds share the same place.

Pronunciation books use other terminology that can be hard to remember,

so many years ago, 2011 to be exact, I proposed user-friendly names for

consonant groups. Teachers, please check out that ELT post

on my WordPress blog. I'll put the link in the video

description. Right now i'd like to share those names

because I think they'll help you remember how consonant sounds are made.

We'll start with the Tie-Dyed group. Traditionally known as stops.

We stop the airflow and then release it. First, we'll use our lips. Repeat after me.

/p/ pie /b/ bye

Next, we'll use the tip of our tongue and

the tooth ridge, that hard place behind your upper teeth.

/t/ tie /d/ dye

Finally, we'll use the back of our tongue and the soft palate.

That's the soft place far back on the roof of your mouth.

/k/ coat /g/ goat

Repeat after me. Peggy wants to buy a tie-dyed t-shirt.

Next, we'll look at the Nose Group. Traditionally known as nasals.

If you pinch your nose, you can't say these sounds properly

because the air flows through your nose.

/m, n, ŋ/

It just doesn't work.

Repeat after me. First, we'll stop air from leaving our mouth

with our lips.

/m/ seem

We also used our lips to say /p, b/, but that was with the release of

air through our mouth. With /m/, we force the air to go through our nose.

We only open our mouth if there's a following vowel sound, as in

"me."

Next, we'll stop the air from going out of our mouth with the tip of our tongue

and the tooth ridge, that hard place behind our upper teeth.

It's similar to how we said /t, d/, but again there won't be any release

of air. Let the air go through your nose when

you say /n/ seen.

We only open our mouth if we go into a following vowel sound,

as in "knee." Finally, we'll use the back of our tongue

against the soft palate like we did with /k, g/.

But we're going to hold the contact and let the air flow through our nose.

/ŋ/ sing

Repeat after me. Maddie knows she can sing, so she has her nose

in the air.

Let's go on to the High Vine Group. Traditionally known as the fricatives.

Parts of her mouth come close together and air has to push its way through.

There's no stop, only friction.

Repeat after me. First, we'll use our upper teeth.

against our lower lip. Move the teeth to the

inside of your lip. Don't stop the air just. Push the air out

to create friction. /f/ fine

Add your voice. /v/ vine

Next, we'll use the tip of our tongue and our upper teeth.

Again, don't create a stop. Push the air out and create friction.

/θ/ think Add your voice. /ð/ them

Now use the tip of your tongue and the tooth ridge. Your tongue is behind your

upper teeth, close to that tooth ridge, but not

touching it. Don't create a stop. Just push the air

through, make a hissing sound for

/s/ Sue Add your voice. /z/ zoo

Next, use the front of your tongue and the hard palate.

That's behind the tooth ridge. Watch the position of my lips as well.

I'm not creating a stop, just friction as I push out the air.

/ʃ/ show Add your voice. /ʒ/ measure

Finally, there's the H sound. This is a glottal sound, which means it's made in

our throat. It's as simple as breathing out.

We can hear our breath, but not our voice. Say /h/ hi.

Repeat after me. Show me the high vines. I think I can measure them just fine.

There's a small group of consonant sounds that I named the Chain Group.

Traditionally known as affricates. They're a stop followed by some friction.

Repeat after me. Use the front of your tongue

against the hard palate. Remember where that is?

You have your upper teeth, tooth ridge, hard palate,

soft palate, and then your throat. Use the front of your tongue right now

against the hard palate.

/tʃ / chain

Now add your voice. /dʒ/ Jane

Repeat after me. Jane chose a fancy chain.

We have one last group to talk about. The Railway Group.

Traditionally known as approximants. It's a big word. Right?

Kind of looks like "approximate," which means

nearly or close. With these consonant sounds,

parts of her mouth come close together, but never

actually touch. There's no stop, and there's no friction.

All the consonant sounds in the Railway Group

are voiced. You'll feel vibration.

Repeat after me. Bring your lips close together

and then open them. Release into the following vowel sound

for /w/ way.

For the L sound, use the tip of your tongue against the tooth ridge.

Hold it there and let the air flow along the sides of your tongue. /l/

Your tongue can drop down into a following vowel sound: lay

For R as a consonant sound, pull your tongue up and back

toward the roof of your mouth. Your lips can be pulled a little forward.

/r/ ray

For the Y sound, make the center of your tongue go up high

and then move forward.

/y/ yes

Repeat after me. Yes, I would love to take a long railway trip.

So, that's the overview of the 24 consonant sounds in English.

It's important to say them clearly, but here's the final key I promised you.

More misunderstandings probably occur because of inaccurate vowel sounds.

That's why I built a whole playlist on those 15 vowel

sounds in English, and I explained each one in detail.

I also feel that rhythm and intonation play a strong role

in accent training and accent reduction. For that reason, I devoted a whole

playlist to the intonation patterns in American English.

So, what's my advice? Practice the sounds you know you need to improve to have

more accurate English, but keep in mind there's a lot of

practice you can do at the word, phrase, and sentence level. I go over

linking in my Fast Speech series. I pull everything together in my Oral

Reading Fluency series. I'll put all useful links in the video

description.

I also recommend the Blue Canoe self-study app for spoken English,

especially pronunciation. They teach you why word stress and vowel

sounds are so important in spoken communication.

I like their methodology, and I think you enjoy the learning experience.

The first couple of lessons on Blue Canoe are free,

and there's one exercise type that allows you to practice

200 common words in English. I have an affiliate code that you can

use if you want to check out the Blue Canoe app.

I'll put it in the video description.

Please also follow me on Instagram. I focus on listening and speaking,

and many of my free videos there target specific pronunciation skills.

We'll end here. Please like and share this video if you found it useful.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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