Something I learned recently is that for
Arabic speakers the letters B and P or
the sounds /b/ and /p/ are difficult to
distinguish and produce so today I'm
going to explain the difference and then
we're going to practice and you'll be
perfect and everything's going to be great!
So this all relates to voiced sounds
and unvoiced sounds
What are voiced sounds and unvoiced sounds?!
I'm glad you asked
"Voiced sounds" produce a vibration in the throat
for example in letters or
sounds like b or /b/ so when you put
your hand to your throats and say B or
/b/ you can feel the vibration
you can feel the vibration
That means it's "voiced"
whereas with a /p/ sound
there's no vibration this means it's "Unvoiced"
Try it with me!
No vibration, no nothing, it's just a puff of air from your mouth
So how do we distinguish this?
Let's practice!
For example:
These two words
"Bob" has two /b/ sounds
Two "voiced" sounds
"Pop" however has two "unvoiced" sounds
For this practice you're going to need a piece of paper
and hold it close to your mouth
When you produce "voiced" sounds, you won't
you won't see the paper move
But when you produce "Unvoiced" sounds you'll see the paper move
Because there's no vibration in the throat
There's just a puff of air pushing that paper
Pushing that paper
So let's begin
Nothing however with "pop"
So you see with every /p/ sound, the paper moves
Because of that puff of air from your mouth
So try it with me, put the paper to your mouth
and say these two words:
Doesn't matter how loud you get
The paper won't move
But with "pop"
Two /p/ sounds
You'll feel it move, try with me
paper to the mouth
Even if you say it quietly, it will still move
Okay let's try some other words
For example:
"Voiced" shouldn't move
Nothing, great! Just a vibration no puff of air
"Pull" however is that unvoiced sound
So you'll get the puff of air moving a paper
Say it with me!
Okay let's try another one
"Bunch" - voiced, shouldn't move
Did you do that? How about "Punch"
So when you say it with me, you should not feel the paper move
for the /b/sounding words
But the paper should move for the /p/ sounding words
So how else can we practice this?
Well we can look at tongue twisters!
Really try and enunciate
Pronounce those sounds properly, fully
You can be as loud as you want
for the "voiced" you shouldn't get any movement in the paper
for the "unvoiced", you should feel that that puff of air
and the paper should move
If you can think of any cool tongue twisters to use with the /B/ and the /P/
Write them in the comments
and if you have problems with any other sounds write it in the
Write it in the comments, I'll try and include it in a future video
Remember to subscribe, follow us on social media
and I'll see you in the next class