Voiceless Sounds and Voiced Sounds

Do you know the only difference between pronouncing the English letters “f” and “v”?

Your voice.

You form your mouth exactly the same for those two sounds, but “v” has your voice behind it.

Try this: Put your hand on your throat and pronounce the sounds produced by f, s, p, and t. You shouldn’t feel any vibration happening in your throat. Now try the same exercise, but pronounce the sounds produced by the letters v, z, b, and d. Did you feel the difference? You should feel vibration in your throat. The reason is that the first group of sounds are “voiceless” and the second group of sounds are “voiced”.

Why does this matter? Well, it matters a great deal in English pronunciation. Some second language speakers of English confuse voiceless and voiced consonants. They might say something like “Half a great day” instead of “Have a great day.” When you confuse voiceless and voiced sounds, your meaning can be obscured to your listener.

So what sounds are generally “voiceless” and which ones are “voiced” in English? Check out the helpful list I’ve put together:

Voiceless Sounds: ch, f, h, k, p, s, sh, t, th (as in thing)

Voiced Sounds: b, d, g, j, l, m, n, ng, r, th (as in the), v, w, y (as in yellow), z

Now try pronouncing the following lists of words (called minimal pairs), paying attention to whether or not the FINAL sound is a voiced or voiceless sound.

bed/bet
tab/tap
white/wide
neat/need
prize/price
safe/save
etch/edge
lib/lip
luck/lug
trite/tried
cop/cob
belief/believe
batch/badge
hiss/his

Now try this list of minimal pairs where the FIRST sound is a voiced or voiceless sound.

cap/gap
file/vile
chest/jest
bear/pear
wrote/rode
Sue/zoo
plot/blot
cello/jello
vale/fail
toll/dole
zip/sip

To learn more about pronunciation, check out An Introduction to English Pronunciation on Udemy for $19 or the Voice (phonetics) Wikipedia page.

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