A voiced sound causes your vocal chords to vibrate. A voiceless sound does not cause your vocal chords to vibrate.

American English has 8 voiced/voiceless consonant pairs such as /z/ & /s/ and /v/ & /f/. Here are a couple of examples:

Put your fingers lightly on your throat and say “zoo”. You should feel a vibration when you say the /z/.

Keep your fingers on your throat and say “Sue”. You should not feel a vibration when you say the /s/.

Now put your fingers lightly on your throat and say “save”. You should feel a vibration when you say the /v/.

Keep your fingers on your throat and say “safe”. You should not feel a vibration when you say the /f/.

When you are speaking English it is very important to recognize the difference between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds. If you say these sounds incorrectly it will both mark your grammar as incorrect and contribute to your foreign accent.

A great book for learning about voiced and voiceless sounds in American English is:

Pronunciation Pairs Student’s Book with Audio CD

Click on the link to see this fun and educational book for learning American English pronunciaton.

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American spoken English has 24 consonant sounds. Fifteen of these sounds are voiced and nine are voiceless. Voiced sounds create a vibration in your vocal chords when you say them. Voiceless sounds do not.

The 15 voiced consonant sounds are: /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /δ/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /l/, /r/, /y/, /w/.

The 9 voiceless consonant sounds are: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /∫/, / t∫/, /h/.

There are many very important reasons why you need to understand voiced & voiceless consonants in order to improve the way you speak American English. I teach these reasons in my accent reduction coaching course.

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In the past two posts I wrote about syllable stress and the duration of vowel sounds. Today I will write about voiced and voiceless consonant sounds.

Using voiceless consonant sounds instead of voiced consonant sounds at the end of words will contribute to your accent. Here is what happens-

Non native English speakers frequently pronounce the word final /g/ as a /k/ so that the word dog sound like dock. Or they pronounce the word final /z/ as /s/ so that the word peas sounds like peace.

Learning to used voiced consonants at the end of words (and lengthening the vowel sounds that come before these) will help you avoid these types of mistakes and reduce your accent.

Tomorrow I will finish this series by talking about sound substitution.

I recently came across a website that featured 10 Tips on English Pronunciation & Accent Improvement (for Indians). I think that the following tips on the website are the most accurate and important for reducing your accent and speaking with a more American sound.

1. Using the tapped T sound in words such as butter, later, water & doctor.

2. Articulating the /v/ & /w/ sounds as in web, weather and on-on-one.

4. The voiced th sound as in there, this & that.

8. Using syllable stress correctly.

You can read the complete list and details by clicking on the link below. This is a free list.

accent reduction for Indians

English spelling is the way that words are written using the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. Since English is not a phonetic language there is not always a one-on-one relationship between the letters in the English alphabet and spoken sounds.

This lack of sound spelling correspondence makes English a very difficult language to pronounce. Let’s look at some sound-spelling situations that are frequently confusing to non-native speakers of American English. We’ll start with the letter s.

When you are speaking English the letter s can represent several different sounds depending on its location within a word.

In the words simple and same the s sounds like /s/. This is what most non-native speakers expect. The /s/ is a voiceless sound

In the words resign and design the s sounds like /z/. The letter s is often pronounced as /z/ when it occurs between vowels. The /z/ is a voiced sound.

In the words leisure and pleasure the s sounds like /ʒ/. This is also a voiced sound. The s often sounds like /ʒ/ before a schwa vowel sound.

The fact that the letter s is pronounced three different ways can be very confusing when you are trying to pronounce English correctly!

One way to improve your pronunciation is to be aware of the variety of sounds that some letters can have.

The best way to do this is to listen attentively when American English speakers are talking. Try to increase your awareness of sounds and spelling patterns. Enhanced listening skills are one of the first steps in improving your American English pronunciation.

Keeping in mind that Singaporeans come from many language backgrounds, here are a few problems that Singaporean English speakers often have when they speak American English.

Syllable Structure and Stress

American English pronunciation patterns are based on syllable stress patterns. You must know and use these stress patterns if you want to sound more “American”.

American English speakers also delete syllables in many multi-syllabic words. Singaporean English speakers tend to pronounce all the syllables in a word and that sounds strange to Americans.

Vowel Lengthening

In spoken American English we lengthen the sounds of vowels in stressed syllables. We also lengthen the sounds of vowels that occur before voiced consonants. Many Singaporean English speakers do not lengthen their vowel sounds enough and this makes their speech sound choppy to American listeners.

These are just a couple of examples that I’ve heard when I’ve done accent coaching with professionals living in Singapore.

Voiced sounds cause the vocal chords to vibrate. Voiceless sounds are softer and do not cause the vocal chords to vibrate. Here are a few examples:

In spoken English the /s/ & /z/ sounds employ the same tongue position and mouth shape but the /z/ is voiced and the /s/ is voiceless.

The English /k/ & /g/ sounds are both produced in the back of the throat but the /g/ is voiced and the /k/ is voiceless.

The /p/ & /b/ sounds are both made by pushing your lips together and then releasing them but the /b/ is voiced and the /p/ is voiceless.

Many non-native English speakers used the voiceless sounds /s/, /k/ & /p/ when they should use the voiced sounds /z/, /g/ & /b/. Making this type of pronunciation mistake will both contribute to your accent and cause misunderstandings.

Be careful when you pronounce the letter P. Portuguese speakers often pronounce the American English /p/ sound like a /b/ sound. This can be confusing to American listeners because when you do that:

pill sounds like bill

pull sounds like bull

poor sounds like boor

Peter sounds like beater

The /p/ and /b/ sounds are articulated almost the same way in spoken American English. To make both sounds place your lips lightly together and then push the air out of your mouth in a short burst.

The difference is that /p/ is a voiceless sound and /b/ is a voiced sound. When you make the /p/ sound you should not feel a vibration in your throat. When you make the /b/ sound you should feel a vibration in your throat.

The IPA symbol for the voiced th sound looks like this /ð/.

The IPA symbol for the voiceless th sound looks like this /θ/.

While both of these sounds cause problems for non native speakers of American English, the /ð/seems to be the most problematic.

The /ð/ is the sound you hear at the beginning of frequently used words such as the, this, that, those. You also hear this sound in the middle of many common words such as: mother, father, brother and rather.

To make the /ð/ sound place your tongue slightly between your teeth. Your tongue and teeth should be touching. Since this is a voiced sound you should feel your vocal chords vibrate when you make the sound. That vibration will extend all the way to your tongue.

Most people find that the /ð/ is not comfortable sound to make and it takes a lot of practice to get it right!

To make the/θ/ sound place your tongue slightly between your teeth. Your tongue and teeth should be touching lightly. When the air flows out of your mouth it should feel gentle.

The /θ/ is the sound you hear in words such as: thanks, Thursday, birthday and month.

To see a detailed articulation model for these sounds click below and choose Consonants–>Fricatives

American English Pronunciation: The Voiced & Voiceless Th Sounds

To make the sound place your tongue slightly between your teeth. Vibrate your vocal chords as you push the air through your throat.

While there are not that many words that have the voiced th sound, the words that do have this sound are frequently used. Here are a few examples:

the, there, their, this, that, these, those, brother, mother, father, together

Read more about voiced and voiceless sounds in American English.