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In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to learn how to pronounce the
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P and B consonants.
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These two sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position.
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P is unvoiced, pp, meaning only air passes through the mouth.
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And B is voiced, bb, meaning, you make a sound with the vocal cords, bb.
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The lips stay together while the teeth part a little.
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The tongue position doesn't matter for these consonants,
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so the tongue can start to get into position for the next sound.
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For example, if the next sound is the R consonant, the tongue can move back and up for the R
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while the lips close for the B, bring.
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Let's see the sounds up close and in slow motion.
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The lips press together, and then release.
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These are stop consonants.
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In stop consonants, there are two parts.
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There is a stop of the airflow, and a release.
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The stop of the airflow happens as the lips close
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Hap-pen.
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The release is when the lips part and the air comes through, -pen, hap-pen, happen.
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Sometimes native speakers don't release stop consonants when they come at the end
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of a sentence, or when the next word begins with a consonant.
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For example, the common phrase 'What's up?'.
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My lips closed in the P position, but I didn't release the air.
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What's up?
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Another example: nap time!
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Nap---time!
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My lips came together for the P, but they didn't release the air.
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I stopped the air with my lips, then released it with the next sound, the T consonant.
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Nap time.
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Let's look at some words up close and in slow motion.
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The word 'best'.
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The lips press together, and then release into the EH as in BED vowel.
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The word 'spot'.
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The lips press together, and then release into the AH as in FATHER vowel.
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The word 'rip'.
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The lips press together, and then release.
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The P and B consonants: best, spot, rip.
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Example words. Repeat with me:
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Bring
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Baby
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Job
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Peace
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Price
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Up
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This video is one of 36 in a new series, The Sounds of American English.
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Videos in this set will be released here on YouTube twice a month,
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first and third Thursdays, in 2016 and 2017.
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But the whole set can be all yours right now.
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The real value of these videos is watching them as a set, as a whole,
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to give your mind the time to take it all in and get the bigger picture.
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Most of the materials you'll find elsewhere just teach the sounds on their own in isolation.
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It's a mistake to learn them this way.
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We learn the sounds to speak words and sentences, not just sounds.
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Move closer to fluency in spoken English. Buy the video set today!
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Visit rachelsenglish.com/sounds
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Available as a DVD or digital download.