Pronounce English Accurately

Video Text

/p/ and /b/ are made by bringing the lips together so the passage of air from the mouth is completely stopped, and then releasing this stoppage suddenly:

[p - p - p - p]

[b - b -b - b]

As I said earlier, sounds involving complete stoppage and then release are called 'stops' or 'plosives'.

You can see and feel this very clearly.

Because both the lips are used in their production, /p/ and /b/ are also 'bilabial' consonants.

/p/ is the sound at the start of 'Peter' /ˈpiːtə/, and 'post' /pəʊst/, and 'pow!' /paʊ/.

It's always written with a 'p' or double 'pp' as in 'apple', and it's transcribed in the IPA with a /p/, so that's easy.

/b/ is the sound at the start of 'bat' /bæt/, and 'bin' /bɪn/ and 'barn' /bɑːn/.

What's the difference between /p/ and /b/?

The first, /p/, is aspirated - this means there is a puff of air when we say it.

/b/ is not aspirated - there's no puff of air, or at least it's much weaker.

We can actually see this puff of air in /p/ if we hold a piece of paper up in front of our lips.

/p/ blows the paper away; /b/ is much weaker and doesn't.

Another difference between /p/ and /b/ is that /p/ is voiceless.

Put your hand on your Adam's apple and say [b b b b - b b b b] and you should feel the voicing.

Now say [p p p p - p p p p] - there should be no vibration of the vocal folds.

So the complete phonetic description of the /p/ sound is a voiceless, aspirated stop or plosive.

/b/ is a voiced, unaspirated stop or plosive.

The vocal folds in English don't actually vibrate during the /b/ sound itself, because it's a stop, but they start vibrating very soon after the /b/ has been released.

Let's do some examples.

We'll do some 'minimal pairs' - these are words which differ in one sound only - so that we can isolate and contrast these two sounds.

We'll start with words with /p/ and /b/ at the beginning of a word.

'pig' /pɪg/ - 'big' /bɪg/

'pie' /paɪ/ - 'buy' /baɪ/

'push' /pʊʃ/ - 'bush' /bʊʃ/

'pear, pair, pare' /peə/ - 'bear, bare' /beə/

'pin' /pɪn/ - 'bin' /bɪn/

If you can't easily hear the difference between these words, then the /p - b/ distinction is a very important one for you to work on as it makes the difference between a lot of words.

Arabic speakers particularly find this distinction difficult.

And at the end of words - in final position:

'nip' /nɪp/ - 'nib' /nɪb/

'pup' /pʌp/ - 'pub' /pʌb/

'cup' /kʌp/ - 'cub' /kʌb/

'cap' /kæp/ - 'cab' /kæb/

'rope' /rəʊp/ - 'robe' /rəʊb/

'loop' /luːp/ - 'lube' /luːb/

'lope' /ləʊp/ - 'lobe' /ləʊb/

Compare the vowel in these words.

Is it exactly the same each time whether the word ends in /p/ or /b/ or is it different? Is the vowel in 'loop' the same as the vowel in 'lube'?

It's the same phoneme - the same target sound - but phonetically the /u:/ in 'loop' is not the same as the vowel in 'lube'.

'Lube' is considerably longer.

Vowel sounds before voiceless consonants are always shorter and more clipped than those before voiced consonants.

Another name for voiceless consonants is 'fortis' consonants - 'fortis' is Latin for 'strong' - and as we have seen, voiceless /p/ is much more strongly articulated than /b/ - that's why the candle is blown out.

This lengthening of vowels before voiced consonants, or shortening them before voiceless ones - however you want to see it - is called 'pre-fortis clipping' and is a feature of all the sounds of English, not just /p/ and /b/.

We'll hear it and practice it repeatedly throughout the course.

Now let's have some minimal pairs which have /p/ and /b/ in the middle of words - in medial position.

'crumple' /ˈkrʌmpəl/ - 'crumble' /ˈkrʌmbəl/

'simple' /ˈsɪmpəl/ - 'symbol' /ˈsɪmbəl/

'rumple' /ˈrʌmpəl/ - 'rumble' /ˈrʌmbəl/

'staple' /ˈsteɪpəl/ - 'stable' /ˈsteɪbəl/

Just as with /p/ and /b/ in final position, we have the same effect of lengthening the preceding vowel before the voiced consonant.

Compare the length of 'simple' and 'symbol' - the /ɪm/ is noticeably longer in 'symbol', shorter and more clipped in 'simple'.

Drawing out the preceding vowel before all voiced consonants and clipping it short before all voiceless ones is a good trick if you find the consonant distinction itself difficult because the distinction doesn't exist in your first language.

The distinction between /p/ and /b/, and between all the pairs of voiceless and voiced consonants, is vitally important because it makes the difference between a huge number of words.

For most learners it is most difficult at the end of words - making and perceiving the voiced consonant is the problem.

So a word like 'dogs', with voiced /gz/, must be differentiated from 'docks', with voiceless /ks/.

'Dogs' has the lengthened vowel; 'docks' the clipped, shortened vowel. 'Dogs' has soft, long, voiced consonants, 'docks' has powerful, sharp, clipped, voiceless consonants.

Some more examples:

'lap' /læp/ - 'lab' /læb/

'tap' /tæp/ - 'tab' /tæb/

'lop' /lɒp/ - 'lob' /lɒb/

'rip' /rɪp/ - 'rib' /rɪb/

This voiceless/voiced distinction at the end of words is a problem for many learners - German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese all come to mind as these languages have no equivalent of the voiced consonants at the end of words.

Also Chinese learners have a problem with final stop consonants in general and voiced ones in particular, again because they don't occur in their first language.

You will notice that although some of the examples have consonants together - like 'simple' and 'symbol' with 'mpl' and 'mbl' together - I haven't gone into any great depth on consonant clusters - consonants next to each other like this with no vowel between them.

This is because I'm going to leave my detailed look at consonant clusters until later, in a section of their own, so you can find them more easily for reference.

Finally, some sentences to practice /p/ and /b/ in initial position. Listen and then repeat.

Peter the impoverished piper plays for pennies down the pub.

Perhaps putting plaster in the pot might permanently solve the problem.

Big, burly bison blundered blindly down the barren banks.

Behind those bushy brows hides a brilliant, but sometimes barmy, brain.

Basking in the blinding sun of the Balearics, poor Brian breathed his last.