Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 133rd episode.

Today I'm going to revisit Stop Sounds at the beginning of words.

This topic seems so simple, yet it is hugely important

when it comes to being understood. First, let's review the concepts of stop sounds and of

voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds. Stops are created when we stop the air before letting it out of our mouth,

and then release it quickly and without friction.

English has six consonant stops.

The T sound, T, D sound, D, D, P sound, P, D sound, D sound, D, P sound, P, p, b sound, b, b, k, k, and g, and g, g. The other very important point

about stop sounds is that they occur in voiced and unvoiced pairs.

At a broad level of description, a voiced sound uses our vocal cords during the sound's creation,

and an unvoiced sound does not.

To understand this better, place a few fingers against the front of your neck and say the D sound.

D.

You should feel a vibration against your fingers.

Now say the T sound.

T.

Be careful not to add a vowel sound to the T sound.

Don't say t, just say t. Say them both again so you can feel the difference between the voiced and unvoiced sound. D. T. A voiced and unvoiced pair uses the same movement of the vocal tract to form both sounds of the pair.

For instance, my tongue moves to the same place for the T sound and the D sound, T, D.

Similarly, the lips have the same movement during the P sound and B sound.

P, b.

...