Voiceless vs Voiced Consonants in English

Many English consonants come in pairs. They use the same mouth position, but one is voiceless and the other is voiced. P and B, K and G, and T and D are three of the most important pairs. In this video, you will practice them at the end of words, where learners often make mistakes. Listen to 'cap' and 'cab', 'back' and 'bag', 'seat' and 'seed', 'bet' and 'bed', and 'pick' and 'pig'. For the voiceless sounds P, K and T, you only use air. For the voiced sounds B, G and D, your vocal cords vibrate. Here is a secret native speakers use without thinking: the vowel before a voiced consonant is slightly longer. So 'seed' has a longer vowel than 'seat', and 'bag' has a longer vowel than 'back'. This length difference is often the main clue listeners use to tell the words apart. Many languages do not have voiced sounds at the end of words, so learners often say 'bet' when they mean 'bed'. Watch the video, put your hand on your throat, and repeat each pair, stretching the vowel slightly for the voiced sounds.