In American English, make sure the sound is placed far back in your mouth. Imagine that you have so much space in the back of your mouth that an entire Apple could fit there. This space creates an echo chamber where the sounds can ring or resonate. If you don't leave enough space in the back of your mouth, then you can't really resonate. And your voice will sound kind of constricted, like this. We don't want that kind of vocal quality.
So let's open up our mouths and have a ringing vowel sound. vowel sound different before different types of consonants. So let's learn the two different types of consonants, voiceless and voiced. So that you can learn to distinguish between these types of consonants. Your vocal cords which are located in the middle of your throat, create buzzing when we make a voiced consonant, such as z. z is the easiest consonant to understand with voicing, it sounds like this. If you place your fingers over your vocal cords like this, and you say, you can feel the vibration in your throat.
Now, the voiceless counterpart for z is S, which sounds like there's no more vibration in my throat, and it sounds like a hissing, almost whispering kind of sound. So now I'm going to show you all of the voiceless and voiced consonant pairs so that you can start to memorize them. Once you understood And why they're voiced or voiceless, then it'll be really easy to memorize them. It's just intuitive, don't worry, but it's essential that you memorize them before you can understand all of my other lessons. Let's begin. The first pair of voiceless and voiced consonants is P and b, p is voiceless.
And B is voiced. Put your fingers over your throat to feel the difference. pa, pa, T and D. Ta, da. Next ch and J, cha cha K and G, CA, CA FNV we have two types of th both voiceless and voiced s and Z. Sh and z h. h is a voiceless consonant Ha. The remaining consonants are all voiced and they don't have any voiceless counterparts are l la why yeah WY M, M, and M, and finally mg M. In the other course, I'll teach you all about all of these consonants, but for now you need to understand which ones are voiced and which ones are voiceless. To learn about all the vowels, please rewind and replay this section until you've memorized or really understand the difference between the voiced and voiceless consonants.
Vowel lengthening is important because vowels do not sound exactly the same before different types of consonants. When you put a vowel before a voiced or vibrating consonant set, BDJGV or Z, then you need to stretch out that valor spends more time on that Val. When you put a vowel before a voiceless consonant or a non vibrating consonant like PTCHKF or es, then you need to save the vowel more quickly. If you spend too long on the vowel, then the vibrating nature of the valve will contaminate the voiceless consonant that comes after it. Finally, if your value is at the end of a word, you want to spend the most time on it. You want to really let that vowel ring, you can even go up and down on the same vowel to stretch it out, such as in the word key.
I don't just say P, but I say P. I really stretch it out. Let's look at some other pairs. have words so that we can show how to contrast them. App app. Notice that I set up very quickly, but in the second word, I stretched out the vowel app. rates, raid, Ray.
List, laser life live. Notice that in this pair that long if sounds very different before a voiceless or a voiced consonant, before the voiceless consonant F, I don't open my mouth nearly so much and it's very quick life. But before the V and live, I opened my mouth a lot more. Watch the difference in the size of my mouth opening life Live, built, build. Set, said pick pig. Insert, sir.
Buck bog. Note node. If you're not sure if you're making the voice lists or voice consonant, try placing your fingers over your vocal cords note node. When I do the second one, I feel the vibration lasting a lot longer node. Do not add a schwa or short you sound or any other vowel sound after a consonant at the end of a word. This might happen if you work Too hard to try to be clear.
Don't make a vowel sound after a consonant to try to make it clear. Let me show you some examples. Pig, not pig. Slide. Not slider, cage, not cage. glove.
Not Glover ranked, not ranked with not with finally each, not each