More on how to improve pronunciation of English consonants: B & P

Happy Thanksgiving! Painting by Norman Rockwell.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how to improve pronunciation for B and P in English. This has been one of the most viewed topics so far. In addition to writing my opinion on the subject, luckily I received some great feedback from readers all over the world. I also found excellent pronunciation tips from BBC. The video has a U.K. accent but the message is the same: learn the 40+ sounds of English. Watch the short video! Also check out the BBC’s General & Business English site. Of course the BBC is an English organization, so the accent is slightly different than American English.

Kimmo Kosunen, Director at Tellus Group LTD, kindly suggested some additional comments that I will incorporate in my own teaching. Kimmo is an expert and has allowed me to share his thoughts, which clarify and amplify my own words. He writes, “When you explain how to pronounce the /b/ sound, worth mentioning [is] that – although there is no actual sound produced in the throat – the student should be able to feel his/her vocal cords constrict AND VIBRATE slightly. “

Kimmo also points out that, “When you tell the student to produce the bbbbuuuuh sound, might this possibly encourage him/her produce a vowel sound after the /b/ - especially confusing with /b/ in final positions (students producing ‘bibbuh’ instead of ‘bib’)?

Finally he offers “a practice we have found useful to demonstrate the difference between /b/ and /p/: students can practice this with a sheet of paper, the top of which they hold a couple of centimeters/an inch or so from their mouth, HANDS HOLDING THE PAPER HALFWAY DOWN THE SHEET; when they RELEASE the pressurized air /p/, the top of the paper should move noticeably and there should also be a noise produced by the air hitting the paper – in case of /b/, the top of the sheet should not move at all, nor should there be any sound of air hitting it.

Finally, it might be a good idea to illustrate the different positions of the tongue when these sounds are produced – the back of the tongue [should be] raised to direct some of the air through the nose in case of /b/ but not so with /p/… To demonstrate this to the students, they COULD BE asked to pinch their noses shut and then produce the sounds – there should be a noticeable difference in the airflow through the nose.”

Thanks to Kimmo for the additional explanation! As written in the previous article, mastering spoken English requires mastery of all the vowel and consonant sounds. However, once you achieve basic mastery of each sound, your English will sound much more fluent. Later you can work on further improvement of each sound.

Please email me with your questions or suggestions! Also, just clicking on even one of the ads here helps support me, so please take ten seconds to help. 

Food remaining after a meal that is stored to eat later is called leftover food. I am having leftovers for dinner tonight. What about you?

Another reason to improve your English: your kids

One of my favorite students wants to read bed-time stories to his two young daughters. Though he has lived in the U.S. for a long time, he wants to improve his fluency so that his girls can have a good role model. So, he selected a series of books for young children to study and improve his pronunciation. His strategy was completely new to me, and has proven very effective.

First, since the books are for young children, the words and ideas are simple and always have lots of pictures. Because the vocabulary is basic, students can focus on shaping the correct sounds with their voices and mouths. Wikipedia says, "The Magic School Bus is a series of children's books about science written by author Joanna Cole. They feature the antics of Ms. Valerie Frizzle, an elementary school teacher, and her class, who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips to impossible locations such as the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body. The books are written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" class. The class pet, Liz, a lizard, accompanied the class on their field trips." 

This series is surprisingly informative and subtly humorous. Though all the words and jokes are familiar to U.S. kids, their foreign born parents have trouble understanding everything. Before we work on pronunciation and reading out loud, we review all the text and discuss the cultural references Americans learn as kids but are not taught in schools. Children learn a lot of these sayings and expressions before they enter school. This knowledge is not normally included in academic study of English.

The book series we are using also includes numerous, puns-- word play-- intended for young children but completely wasted on their parents. My student's strategy includes analyzing the text details, as well as improving pronunciation. After learning to pronounce each word accurately, he can now connect the words in phrases, incorporate pauses for punctuation, and produce a pleasing, clear voice. 

Each meeting, he uses his phone to record me reading the book. Then he listens and practices while driving to work and around town. Even his co-workers have noticed his improvement and confidence. I think his skill will continue to grow.

Pronounce English fluently with these exercises

Vowels

Since language starts with vocal sounds, learning these sounds properly is fundamental. This approach to language learning is called phonics, and it stresses the physical production of individual letters and syllables instead of grammar and vocabulary. You may be able to really boost your fluency and reduce your accent with some simple practice. Start with the ABCs, the alphabet. Almost everybody knows that some of the 26 letters are vowels, while the rest are consonants. To simplify, just start with the vowels because there are only 5 or 6, compared to 20 or 21 consonants. For a helpful review on pronouncing vowels, watch this video.

We know the English vowels are a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. Each of these letters can have a different sound, though the actual possibilities are quite limited. A is first, and can represent around three different sounds. In the word "game," we call the first vowel "long" and the second vowel "silent" (silent e is often added in writing to signal that the previous vowel is long, as in game or fame.) The long form of each vowel sounds exactly like each vowel's name. If vowels can have a long form, they can also have a short form. Hat uses the vowel in its short form, as does cat, fat, bat, rat, mat, bath, lab, cab, etc. The short form does not sound like the name of the vowel, but is more open sounding.

In addition to long and short forms, the first vowel "a" stands for other sounds as well. It can sound like "ah" as in father or like "o" in warm. Though warm is spelled with an a, the vowel sounds exactly the same as the "o" in storm: "It was a warm storm." Maybe you can think of other examples. But focus on mastering the long and short forms of each vowel first.

Repeat out loud to yourself long a: "date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate."

Repeat out loud to yourself short a: "bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat, at, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat, at, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat, at, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat, at, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat."

Now, alternate the long and short forms: "a (as in fate), a (as in fat), a (as in fate), a (as in fat), a (as in fate), a (as in fat), a (as in fate), a (as in fat), a (as in fate), a (as in fat), a (as in fate), a (as in fat)." After alternating short and long sounds for a while, your jaw should feel the workout. After some practice, you can continue developing the muscle memory in your jaw by alternating the long and short vowel: "ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah,ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah,ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah,ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah,ay, ah, ay, ah, ay, ah"

Use the same principle with each of the vowels. Long "e" sounds like the name of the letter, and is usually highlighted by special spelling, such as meet, feet, seat, greet, beat, beet (the vegetable), beef, reef, bead. Notice the "e" is always partnered with another letter, either a duplicate or another vowel. The short form sounds like "eh" as in bed, fed, led, bet, let, met, jet,net, etc. As with the first vowel "a", the second vowel "e" has a long sound and a short sound: "eee" as in meet and "ehhh" as in met. The second vowel also represents other sounds besides the basic two, and there are exceptions. For example, "dead" has a partner vowel but is nevertheless pronounced using short e. sounding like bed: "He was dead in bed." Head is another example. Why these oddities? Because completely different words use the long form of "e." When you pay off your house, you get the deed, which sounds like feed and seed. So we must pronounce head like bed and ignore the spelling completely. E can sound like A: You can weigh your vegetables, or you can lose your way, perhaps on the highway. But focus on the basic long and short forms. You can learn exceptions later.

Substitute E for A in the exercises above. Finally you will master "eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh, eee. eh. Follow the same pattern for the other three vowels. At that point you will be able to accurately recite the long and short forms of each of the five main vowels. Y usually sounds like I or E so the sound is not really different.

The word examples are for reference only-- just practice the vowel sounds, no consonants:

• Ay - A (fate, fat) 
• Ee - Eh (meet, met) 
• I -ih (kite, kit) 
• Oh - ah (hope, hop) 
• Yu - uh (cute, cut) 

Let me know if this helps you! After the basic vowel forms, you can learn the consonant sounds the advanced vowel forms. Once you know these, you have mastered all the sounds used in the English language. Phonics is the study of spoken language that focuses mostly on the sounds themselves. After all, that is how we all learn to talk. Watch this video again, and watch a small mirror while you pronounce the vowels. Is your mouth moving the same way?