P and B sounds with Ronnie – English Pronunciation

Learn this simple technique to help you pronounce the difficult letters in English! This one is especially for Middle Eastern and Korean students.

It’s important to both hear and say the difference between P and B sounds.

B

It’s a voiced consonant. Saying it, we can feel vibrations in the throat. Its pronunciation also features dimples (hollows in our cheeks). So [bi:] requires smiling and showing some teeth.

P

It’s a voiceless consonant. We can feel their difference by putting a hand to the throat and saying [bi:] and [pi:] in turns. In pronouncing [pi:] the mouth is tighter and there’s no (or very little) throat vibration.

So by vibration check, we can distinguish voiced and less voiced sounds which with knowing sound pairs helps identify specific sounds.

Practice

police, paper, picture, play, happy, post, paper, plane, park, potter, part, picnic, poster, pole, prank, past, pack, planet, pork, pea, prince, pillow, PR, pace, peace, Pacific, pad, puddle, place, pretty, punk

bay, box, baby, bank, blue, big, brother, bottle, beer, bacon, boring, boss, breakfast, blonde, beast, brown, bread, blazer, bucket, bundle, bubble, back, bag, bomb, bring, block, bone, bowl, bed, blossom