Voiced and Voiceless Sounds in English

Our speech is not possible without speech sounds. We learn to improve our English pronunciation but we do not pay much attention to learn about speech sounds. Let’s learn more about English speech sounds. We have 44 speech sounds in English and they have been kept in the two categories: voiced sounds and unvoiced sounds. All the vowel sounds are voiced sounds. All the cosonant sounds in English are either voiced or voiceless which are also known as unvoiced sounds.

Voiced Sounds:

Voiced sounds are produced when your vocal cords vibrate. We pronounce voiced sounds with a vibration in our vocal cords. As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal cords. If you feel a vibration, the sound is voiced. These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in the word “then”), V, W, Y, and Z.

Voiceless or Unvoiced Sounds:

When we pronounce voiceless sounds, our vocal cords do not vibrate. We make these sounds WITHOUT any vibrations in our throat and we make them simply by “pushing” air through the mouth. For example, /p/, /t/, /f/, /s/.

All the voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds come in a pair according to their manner of articulation. They take the same mouth position, and the same tongue position.

Voiced Sounds with Examples

/ b / bat
/ v / van
/ d / dog
/ z / zoo
/ g / go
/ ð / they
/ ʒ / vision
/ dʒ / joy

Voiceless Sounds with Examples

/ p / pin
/ f / fan
/ t / toy
/ s / son
/ k / kite
/ θ / thumb
/ ʃ / shop
/ ʈʃ / choose

To test a sound is voiced or unvoiced, put your fingers on your throat. Now, make a voiced sound such as /b/, /d/, or /z/. You will feel your throat vibrates. On the other hand when you pronounce voiceless sound, you will not feel any kind of vibration in your vocal cords.