We looked at voiced consonants last week, so now it’s the turn of unvoiced consonants. That is letters such as F, T and K. I’ll explain why they are unvoiced rather than voiced by using the same method as the voiced consonants.

Unvoiced consonants

Think of the consonant sounds /f/ /t/ and /k/. While you say those, gently put your hand flat against your larynx and notice that, while there’s a sound being made, the sound comes from well above the level of the larynx. All the sounds come from the mouth area.

When we looked at voiced consonants (/v/ /g/ and /d/) we could very distinctly feel the vibration behind our adam’s apple area.

This works when we use the sound of each consonant, rather than just saying the letter name itself.

Fuh for /f/ – unvoiced
Vuh for /v/ – voiced

Pairing consonants

The pair eff and vee (the names of the letters we use in English) make the sounds /f/ and /v/. Using your hand again, you’ll notice no vibration of /f/ but quite a bit of vibration on /v/.

Another pair is /k/ and /g/. Remember not to add a vowel on to those sounds and use your hand again. Our final example is /t/ and /d/.

The first is unvoiced, the second voiced.

Do you see / feel / hear the difference?

Check out my video on this subject to find out more: https://www.singinhinn.co.uk/songsheet/