Hi. Welcome to the English Language Club. In this video we are going to be looking at
consonant pairs. The consonants are the sounds represented by the symbols in Blue on the
Phonetic Chart. In this video we are only going to be looking at the top two rows. These
sounds are referred to as Consonant pairs because the sounds can all be put into pairs
where both are produced in a very similar way.
Let me show you what I mean.
The first pair is /p/ and /b/. If you watch carefully when I say the sound, you will see
that the shape of my mouth is the same for both sounds; /p/ and /b/. I use both my lips
to stop the flow of air and then release it /p/ and /b/. The only difference is that the
/b/ is voiced and the /p/ is aspirated.
Voiced means that the sound starts in my throat and it is produced by the vocal chords. If
you feel your throat when you say the sound you should be able to feel some vibration.
The /p/ is not voiced but it is aspirated, this means that when you say the sound a short
burst of air will come out of your mouth, you can feel it
if you put your hand in front of your mouth.
For more on Voiced and Aspirated sounds, have a look at these links. You can also click
on any of the symbols that appear in this video and you will be taken to a video that
looks at that one sound in more detail.
Here are some example words for /p/ and /b/;
pat
park
pair
bat
bark
bear
The second pair is /t/ and /d/. Again if you look at my mouth you won't see any difference
between the sounds.
/t/, /d/
The sounds are produced by stopping the flow of air with the tongue just behind the teeth
and then releasing it. But /d/ is voiced and /t/ is aspirated.
Lets look at some example words.
Time
Train
To
Dime
Drain
Do
The third pair is /ʧ/ and /ʤ/. These sounds are very similar to the /t/ and /d/ but they
are longer and the sound is produced by pushing air over the tongue and through the teeth.
The /ʤ/ is voiced and the /ʧ/ is aspirated.
As in the words:
Choke
batch
rich
Joke
badge
Ridge
The next pair is /k/ and /g/. These sounds are produced by stopping and releasing air
flow with the back of the tongue almost at the top of your throat. /g/ is voiced and
/k/ is aspirated.
Lets look at some examples:
came
card
cap
game
guard
gap
Then we have /f/ and /v/. Now we are constricting airflow between the bottom lip and the upper teeth.
So to make this sound correctly your bottom lip needs to touch your upper teeth.
/v/ is voiced and /f/ is aspirated.
Here are some examples.
fan
ferry
leaf
van
very
leave
Then we have /θ/ and /ð/.
With these sounds you need to stick your tongue out a little bit,
because the sound is made by the air flow being directed through the top teeth
with the tongue. /ð/ is voiced and /θ/ is aspirated.
Here are some examples.
think
through
something
the
another
within
And the next pair is /s/ and /z/. With these sounds, air is pushed over our tongue and through
our teeth. /z/ is voiced and /s/ is aspirated.
ice
last
house (n.)
eyes
maize
house (v.)
And finally the last pair is /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
Again we are pushing air through our teeth but our lips are more
rounded and our tongue is lower in our mouth so the air flow is less intense.
Here are some example words.
She
Education
information
television
confusion
measure
So those are the consonant pairs. Remember you can see our other videos on the other
sounds as well as videos on other aspects of phonetics by clicking on these links.
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