Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer.
Do you remember how many letters there are in the English alphabet?
26. But how many sounds are there? That's not as easy to answer because
there are different varieties of English, and people have different ways of
categorizing the sounds. In my playlist on English vowel sounds, I
covered 15.
Right now, I'd like to offer you an overview of the 24 consonant sounds in
English. I'll give you an important key to clear
production of these sounds. Be sure to watch the
whole lesson because at the end I'll give you another
important key to successful pronunciation in general.
The key to learning and producing consonant sounds in English
is understanding what sounds have in common and what makes sounds different.
First, voicing. All vowel sounds are voiced.
When we say vowel sounds, we can feel vibration.
For example, /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ/.
But consonant sounds can be voiced or unvoiced,
voiced or voiceless. Repeat after me and say these unvoiced consonant sounds.
Keep your hand on your throat and be sure there's no vibration.
/p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, h, tʃ/ Now say these voiced consonants and be
aware of the vibration of your vocal cords,
/b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, v, ð, z, ʒ, dʒ, w, l, r, y/
It helps to be aware of consonant pairs that are basically the same
except for voicing. Repeat after me. We'll say an unvoiced consonant followed
Some pronunciation resources talk about manner
and place of articulation. That's just a fancy way of saying
how we make a sound and where we make it. How and where are key. Some
sounds share the same manner. Some sounds share the same place.
Pronunciation books use other terminology that can be hard to remember,
so many years ago, 2011 to be exact, I proposed user-friendly names for
consonant groups. Teachers, please check out that ELT post
on my WordPress blog. I'll put the link in the video
description. Right now i'd like to share those names
because I think they'll help you remember how consonant sounds are made.
We'll start with the Tie-Dyed group. Traditionally known as stops.
We stop the airflow and then release it. First, we'll use our lips. Repeat after me.
Next, we'll use the tip of our tongue and
the tooth ridge, that hard place behind your upper teeth.
Finally, we'll use the back of our tongue and the soft palate.
That's the soft place far back on the roof of your mouth.
Repeat after me. Peggy wants to buy a tie-dyed t-shirt.
Next, we'll look at the Nose Group. Traditionally known as nasals.
If you pinch your nose, you can't say these sounds properly
because the air flows through your nose.
/m, n, ŋ/
Repeat after me. First, we'll stop air from leaving our mouth
/m/ seem
We also used our lips to say /p, b/, but that was with the release of
air through our mouth. With /m/, we force the air to go through our nose.
We only open our mouth if there's a following vowel sound, as in
"me."
Next, we'll stop the air from going out of our mouth with the tip of our tongue
and the tooth ridge, that hard place behind our upper teeth.
It's similar to how we said /t, d/, but again there won't be any release
of air. Let the air go through your nose when
We only open our mouth if we go into a following vowel sound,
as in "knee." Finally, we'll use the back of our tongue
against the soft palate like we did with /k, g/.
But we're going to hold the contact and let the air flow through our nose.
/ŋ/ sing
Repeat after me. Maddie knows she can sing, so she has her nose
Let's go on to the High Vine Group. Traditionally known as the fricatives.
Parts of her mouth come close together and air has to push its way through.
There's no stop, only friction.
Repeat after me. First, we'll use our upper teeth.
against our lower lip. Move the teeth to the
inside of your lip. Don't stop the air just. Push the air out
Next, we'll use the tip of our tongue and our upper teeth.
Again, don't create a stop. Push the air out and create friction.
/θ/ think Add your voice. /ð/ them
Now use the tip of your tongue and the tooth ridge. Your tongue is behind your
upper teeth, close to that tooth ridge, but not
touching it. Don't create a stop. Just push the air
through, make a hissing sound for
/s/ Sue Add your voice. /z/ zoo
Next, use the front of your tongue and the hard palate.
That's behind the tooth ridge. Watch the position of my lips as well.
I'm not creating a stop, just friction as I push out the air.
/ʃ/ show Add your voice. /ʒ/ measure
Finally, there's the H sound. This is a glottal sound, which means it's made in
our throat. It's as simple as breathing out.
We can hear our breath, but not our voice. Say /h/ hi.
Repeat after me. Show me the high vines. I think I can measure them just fine.
There's a small group of consonant sounds that I named the Chain Group.
Traditionally known as affricates. They're a stop followed by some friction.
Repeat after me. Use the front of your tongue
against the hard palate. Remember where that is?
You have your upper teeth, tooth ridge, hard palate,
soft palate, and then your throat. Use the front of your tongue right now
/tʃ / chain
Repeat after me. Jane chose a fancy chain.
We have one last group to talk about. The Railway Group.
Traditionally known as approximants. It's a big word. Right?
Kind of looks like "approximate," which means
nearly or close. With these consonant sounds,
parts of her mouth come close together, but never
actually touch. There's no stop, and there's no friction.
All the consonant sounds in the Railway Group
are voiced. You'll feel vibration.
Repeat after me. Bring your lips close together
and then open them. Release into the following vowel sound
For the L sound, use the tip of your tongue against the tooth ridge.
Hold it there and let the air flow along the sides of your tongue. /l/
Your tongue can drop down into a following vowel sound: lay
For R as a consonant sound, pull your tongue up and back
toward the roof of your mouth. Your lips can be pulled a little forward.
/r/ ray
For the Y sound, make the center of your tongue go up high
/y/ yes
Repeat after me. Yes, I would love to take a long railway trip.
So, that's the overview of the 24 consonant sounds in English.
It's important to say them clearly, but here's the final key I promised you.
More misunderstandings probably occur because of inaccurate vowel sounds.
That's why I built a whole playlist on those 15 vowel
sounds in English, and I explained each one in detail.
I also feel that rhythm and intonation play a strong role
in accent training and accent reduction. For that reason, I devoted a whole
playlist to the intonation patterns in American English.
So, what's my advice? Practice the sounds you know you need to improve to have
more accurate English, but keep in mind there's a lot of
practice you can do at the word, phrase, and sentence level. I go over
linking in my Fast Speech series. I pull everything together in my Oral
Reading Fluency series. I'll put all useful links in the video
I also recommend the Blue Canoe self-study app for spoken English,
especially pronunciation. They teach you why word stress and vowel
sounds are so important in spoken communication.
I like their methodology, and I think you enjoy the learning experience.
The first couple of lessons on Blue Canoe are free,
and there's one exercise type that allows you to practice
200 common words in English. I have an affiliate code that you can
use if you want to check out the Blue Canoe app.
I'll put it in the video description.
Please also follow me on Instagram. I focus on listening and speaking,
and many of my free videos there target specific pronunciation skills.
We'll end here. Please like and share this video if you found it useful.
As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!
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