外教教你学英语音标 辅音[b]

/b/ is a voiced consonant sound.

The /p/ sound is made in the same place, but without voice.

/b/ is a plosive and that means that there is a lot of energy behind the sound.

The /b/ sound is produced by bringing your lips tightly together and releasing a voice.

Like this /b/.

Two common challenges with this sound are either a lack of muscularity, so you lose the energy of the /b/...

...or a devoicing of the sound so that it sounds like a /p/ rather than a /b/.

This usually happens at the end of a word and it changes the meaning of the word.

Listen to the differences when I pronounce a few word pairs.

Cap, cab.

Rip, rib.

Pup, pub.

Alright. Now, let's practice.

One of my favorite ways to energize the /b/ sound is by doing a boxing exercise, and this also helps with the /p/ sound.

So you can imagine you are wearing boxing gloves.

And imagine the action of your lips is almost like a boxing action, very explosive.

So, here we go.

/p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/.

That's your voiceless.

/b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /b/.

That's your voice to /b/ sound.

Now let's try them together.

/p/, /p/, /p/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /b/, /b/, /b/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /b/, /b/, /b/.

Feel the action in your lips as you do that boxing exercise.

Now, here are a few sentences comparing /b/ and /p/.

I sat in your lab.

I sat in your lap.

What a beautiful robe.

What a beautiful rope.

The cab is yellow.

The cap is yellow.

Put this into play as you practice on EnglishCentral and good luck!