How to pronounce consonants in English

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First of all, do you know what a consonant is? According to the DRAE it is the ‘speech sound whose articulation is characterized by the presence of an obstacle in the vocal tract that obstructs or hinders the airflow’, or, to simplify it, they are those letters in the alphabet that are not vowels. In English consonants are divided into two groups, voiceless and voiced.

At ABA English we care a lot about helping you achieve a good English pronunciation and for that we have made the best tools available to you. With our  speaking exercises you will have hundreds of opportunities to practice the pronunciation of all the consonant combinations you can find in English words.

THE ENGLISH PHONETICS OF CONSONANTS

Knowing the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) allows you to know how to pronounce not only the consonants, but words in general. Within this alphabet are the symbols that represent English phonetics, which in many cases are not the same as those of Spanish. Understanding these phonemes will also give you the ability to notice if a consonant changes its pronunciation due to the different sounds that make up the word it is in.
How to pronounce consonants in English

THE PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH

As we have already seen, consonants are divided into voiceless and voiced. It is only a question of knowing whether your vocal cords vibrate when pronouncing them. To check this, place a hand on your throat and pronounce the consonant in question, if you feel vibration, it is a voiced consonant, if not, it is voiceless.

Let’s see some examples. The letters p and b are pronounced with the mouth in the same position, however, one is voiceless and one is voiced. Try pronouncing them with your hand on your throat. Do you notice that the ‘p’ does not vibrate? Here are two words for you to practice:  pope (Pope) /pəʊp/ and bib (bib) /bɪb/.

The same happens with the letters k and g, which are pronounced closer to the throat. If you do the same exercise, you will see that the ‘k’ does not make your throat vibrate no matter how hard you try. Practice this pair with  king (king) /kɪŋ/ and goose (goose) /ɡuːs/.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH

If you want to master the pronunciation of consonants we suggest that you  learn the IPA phonemes , in this way you can practice new words, new sounds, and learn more vocabulary.

A good exercise to improve pronunciation is to imitate native speakers, if you don’t know any, you can try actors from English series and movies.

Then, try to get to know the  English phonetic symbols one or two at a time and start practicing them with different words to be able to master all the sounds that consonants can make. 

How to pronounce consonants in English

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