Lesson One: The Basics of the Consonant /p/

The very first consonant that we will look at is /p/. If you look at the IPA chart, it is the first symbol listed, and is under the column "Bilabial", and in the row "Plosive".

Remember, that the letter 'p' is not the same as the IPA symbol /p/.

Lets look a little closer at those two different descriptions "Bilabial" and "Plosive".

Bilabial

The words Bilabial has two different parts: "bi-" and "labial".

"Bi-" is a common prefix that means "two". It is also found in the words bicycle (two wheels), bilingual (two languages), and biannual (two years), as well as many other words.

"Labial" means lips.

So, what do you get when you put "bi-" and "labial" together? Two lips. A bilabial sound is a sound made by pushing both lips together.

If you say the word 'part', you will notice that to say it you have to push your lips together. Look at the following words:

     - part
     - make
     - beat

All of these words start with a bilabial sound.

Plosive

/p/ is also a plosive. A plosive is a sound that uses a little puff of air. If you hold your hand close to your mouth and say 'part', you will feel a little little puff of air at the beginning of the word. Think of the word plosive as being 'explosive', like a little bomb.  

Summary

So, the symbol /p/ represents a bilabial plosive, made by pushing both lips together and then letting out a small puff of air. Next, we will talk about what it means that /p/ is voiceless, and how /p/ is used in English.

The English /p/ 

Many languages have the sound /p/. However, if you want to learn to pronounce the letter /p/ in English, you need to learn how the English /p/ is different than the /p/ in other languages.

Voice Onset Time (VOT)

Now we are going to learn about voice onset time (VOT). This might sound complicated, but take a deep breath, let it out, and listen carefully. VOT is a very important principle that is necessary to learn about if you want to perfect your English pronounciation.

Recall the two different types of sounds: 'voiced' (your throat vibrates) and 'voiceless' (your throat doesn't vibrate).

Now think of the word 'how'. You can say the word 'how' very slowly, like 'hhhhhhhhhhow'. If you feel your throat while you say it slowly, you will notice that the vibrations do not start until you get to the 'ow' part of 'how'. If you just say the 'hhhhh' part, your throat will never vibrate.

Now say the word 'part'. If you say it very slowly, you will notice that at some point right after the /p/, your throat will start vibrating. However, if you say it correctly (listen to me say it), when you first open your mouth your throat is not vibrating. Here is how it works:

     1. You push your lips together.
     2. You open your mouth, and let out a puff of air.
     3. You breath out for a very small length of time.
     4. You start vibrating your throat.

Keep saying part (or listening to me say it) until you can feel all of these individual steps.

As you can see, there is a length of time between when you open your mouth (step 2) and you start vibrating your throat (step 4). This gap is called the Voice Onset Time (VOT). Whew, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Now, you are probably wondering why this is important? It is important because the VOT of Plosives are different in every language. If you do not use the correct VOT, your /p/ might sound like a /b/, or even a /m/ or /n/. It is very important to use the correct VOT for each letter.

How do you learn the right VOT? Practice, practice, practice. This Lesson will have a worksheet you can use to work on it, and I recommend you listen to the audio file and follow along on a regular basis, until you are certain that you have it right.

Conclusion

The symbol /p/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive, which means it is made by pushing the lips together, opening them with a puff of air, and not vibrating your throat while you do it.

Practice 

Listen carefully to me say the following words, and try to say them along with me:

     1. part             part            part            part
     2. peel             peel            peel             peel
     3. panda          panda        panda         panda
     4. police           police        police         police

Please view the attached worksheet to practice more! Practice, practice, practice!

Digging Deeper into the IPA Chart

Before we begin learning letters, we need to have a better understanding of the IPA chart.

First, the symbols on the IPA chart are not letters. The problem with letters is that they can represent a lot of different sounds. For example, look at the letter 'e' following words:

     - pen
     - enough
     - bide

The letter 'e' has a different sound in both the first one and two, and in the third word, 'bide', the 'e' is completely silent!

So when we learn about the sounds of English, I will not talk about "letters". We will instead talk about 'symbols'. Here are the same words written in IPA symbols:

     - /pen/
     - /ɪˈnʌf/
     - /baɪd/

As you can see, the 'e' in the first word is represented by the symbol /e/, by the symbol 'ɪ' in the second word, and isn't even shown in the third word. 

If you are confused, don't worry! Just remember that letters of a word are different than IPA symbols.

How to Read the IPA Chart - Consonants

If you look at the IPA chart, you will see a table on top that represents all of the consonants of English. On the top, you will see a row that says "Bilabial, Labiodental, Dental" etc. Each of these words describe a different part of the mouth. 

On the left side of the chart there is a column that says "Plosive, Nasal, Trill" etc. Each of these words describes how the sound is said. Think of the different
between the first sounds in the words "how" and "bear". Your mouth is doing very different things to make those sounds.

We will talk about these lists in greater detail later; what is important to remember is that IPA symbols each represent only one sound, and the position on the chart shows where in the mouth it is made, and how it is made.

There is just one last thing to talk about before we can start discussing the individual symbols.

Voiced vs. Voiceless

Look at the chart and find the box that represents the "Bilabial Plosives".

If you look closely, you will see that two different symbols: /p/ and /b/. So what is the difference between these symbols?

The difference is that /p/ is a so-called "voiceless" sound, and /b/ is a "voiced" sound. 

What does that mean?

To understand the difference, put you hand lightly on your throat. Now start talking. When you are talking, you can feel your throat vibrating. When you stop talking, the vibration stops.

If you speak slowly, you will notice that some sounds do not vibrate your throat when you say them. For example, say the word 'how'. You will notice that the /h/ in the word does not vibrate you throat. That sound is a voiceless sound.

Here are some words that start with voiceless sounds:

     - how
     - teach
     - fish
     - create

Here are some words that start with a voiced sounds:

     - ouch
     - ditch
     - veteran
     - great

Conclusion

Here are the important points to remember:

     1. IPA symbols are not letters. IPA symbols represent one sound, while letters often represent a lot of different sounds.

     2. The location on the IPA chart shows where a sound is produced (the top row), and how it is produced (the left column).

     3. If there are two symbols in one box on the chart, the first symbol is a voiceless sound, and the second is a voiced sound. Voiceless sounds do not vibrate your throat, while voiced sounds do.