Voiced and Voiceless sounds in English
There are voiced and voiceless consonant sounds. A wordless sound is one that is produced solely by air, without the use of a voice. Placing your palm softly on your throat will allow you to determine whether or not a sound is uttered. If you can vibrate when you pronounce a sound, it is voiced. Because it can be the only distinction between two very dissimilar words' pronunciations, voicing is significant.
Here is a list of voiced and voiceless sounds in English:
Voiced sounds:
- /b/ (as in "big")
- /d/ (as in "dog")
- /g/ (as in "go")
- /v/(as in "very")
- /th/ (as in "them")
- /z/ (as in "zebra")
- /zh/ (as in "pleasure")
- /l/ (as in "leg")
- /m/ (as in "man")
- /n/ (as in "nose")
- /ng/ (as in "sing")
- /r/(as in "red")
- /w/ (as in "we")
- /y/ (as in "yes")
Voiceless sounds:
- /p/ (as in "pat")
- /t/ (as in "top")
- /k/ (as in "kite" or "cat")
- /f/ (as in "fine")
- /th/ (as in "thing")
- /s/ (as in "sit")
- /sh/ (as in "ship")
- /ch/ (as in "chat")
- /h/ (as in "hat")
- x (as in "box")
It's worth noting that some sounds in English, such as /h/ and /r/, can be pronounced as either voiced or voiceless depending on their context and the speaker's dialect.