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  • The P and B consonants. These two sounds are paired together because they take the same

  • mouth position. P is unvoiced, pp, meaning only air passes through your mouth. And B

  • is voiced, bb, meaning, uh, uh, bb, you're making a sound with your vocal cords. To make

  • this sound, the lips will stay together while the teeth part a little bit, pp, bb. These

  • are stop consonants. In stop consonants, there are two parts. There is a stop of the airflow,

  • and a release. So the stop of the airflow happens, pp, as the lips remain closed, and

  • the release when they part and the air comes through. Let's look at the nature of a stop

  • consonant in the sample word nap. Na--, the lips are together, cutting off the airflow,

  • nap, pp, and they part, the air is released. Stop consonants at the ends of words or syllables

  • are sometimes not released. In other words, there's just the first part, the stop of air

  • flow. Let's take for example the sentence I'm going up later. I'm going up later. So

  • the lips came together to make the P -- I'm going up later -- but when they opened and

  • the sound continued, it simply went into the L consonant sound, which was next, without

  • the release. I'm going up, I'm going up, I'm going up later. Here is the sound from the

  • front, where the lips are together but the teeth are slightly parted. That is why it

  • doesn't look relaxed. And here from the side. Again, you can see this tension in the chin

  • as the teeth are slightly parted even though the lips are closed. Here, parts of the mouth

  • are drawn in. The soft palate is raised in this sound, and the tongue itself raises just

  • a little bit, but the tip of the tongue is still touching the bottom front teeth. Sample

  • words: pad, bad, pot, bought. Sample sentence: Pick a big print for the bedspread. Now you

  • will see this sample sentence up close and in slow motion both straight on and from an

  • angle, so you can really study how the mouth moves when making this sound. Pick, the lips

  • press together as the jaw drops slightly. A big, again, the lips press together as the

  • jaw drops. Print, again the P sound. Tongue goes up to make the T. Lip comes up to make

  • the F in 'for'. The, lips together, bb, bedspread, and here again to make the P in spread. Jaw

  • drops to make the 'eh' as in 'bed' vowel sound, and the tip of the tongue up to make the D.

  • And here from an angle. The lips press together even as the jaw drops and the teeth part.

  • Pick, the 'ih' as in 'sit' sound. Pick a big, again the lips come together for the B, big.

  • And again for the P, print. Tongue up for the T. For the. Lips together for the B in

  • bed-, and again for the p in -spread. The 'eh' as in 'bed' and the tongue up to make

  • that D. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

The P and B consonants. These two sounds are paired together because they take the same

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