This is an All Ears English podcast episode 364.
Tarle speech and language shows you three mistakes you're making with your English consonants.
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With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
Today, we have a guest on All Ears English.
Jennifer Tarl is back on the show for the second time.
She's a certified speech pathologist with over 19 years of experience in speech-related training and pathologies.
Jennifer is a self-published author of accent workbooks, audio CDs, DVDs, and iBooks.
She recently launched a new website with more free minute of speech videos and tips on how to improve your speaking clarity at Tarle speechcom.
Now let's get on with the show.
In today's episode, you'll find out how to finally make consonant sounds correctly in English with Jennifer Tarl from Tarl Speech and Language.
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Hey, Jennifer.
Welcome to All Ears English.
Welcome back.
Thanks for joining us again here.
And thanks for having me, Lindsay.
It's great to be back.
Yeah, I know that a lot of our listeners loved your first episode when you came on and we talked about vowel sounds.
Isn't that right?
That was the topic of your last guest episode.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So that was a really important episode.
And I know that our listeners here at All Leaders English, don't get to hear about pronunciation very often.
So we're always excited to have you on the show.
And today, Jennifer, you're back to talk to us about consonants.
Yes.
So what are we going to learn today about consonants?
What can we learn about how to improve these and pronounce them correctly?
Yes, we're going to focus on three main things.
One, probably one of the biggest mistakes that I see is that people like to touch consonants.
The tip of the tongue to their teeth, which changes a lot of sounds in English.
Number two most of my clients do not use something called voicing at the end of a word which really impacts your vowels and sometimes the meaning of the word.
And number three, really learning how to distinguish words, sounds that are very similar for your language.
So we're going to go through a few of those as well.
Okay, awesome.
So let's just clarify for our listeners, what is a consonant?
Just in case we're not totally sure.
We talked about vowels, right?
What is a consonant sound?
So, whereas vowels your tongue doesn't really touch any specific place in your mouth, consonants have a very specific place that they're made in your mouth and a manner in which they're produced.
So for instance, we have sounds that are made with your lips.
We have sounds that are made with the tip of your tongue.
And then we have sounds that are made with the back of your tongue.
So those different places change the sound.
And then there's something called the manner in which they're made.
Maybe the air stops, puh, kuh, or the air continues, shh.
So those are the big differences between consonants and vowels.
They're very specific with consonants.
Yeah, very important.
And are there specific cultures that struggle more with consonants than others, specific native languages that stand out in your mind?
No, everybody who's a new language learner kind of struggles with the same thing, so...
All right, great.
So we're going to cover that today.
So let's go into that number one.
So talking about not touching your teeth with your tongue.
Can you go into a little more detail about that?
Absolutely.
So there are four big mistakes that I see with my clients.
The sounds that we should not, so again, we should not touch your teeth for these sounds are...
The T-H sound, the S sound, the S-H sound, and the Z sound.
So what happens is that maybe you don't have these sounds in your native language.
So when you're speaking English, you use whichever sound is closest.
And a lot of times that then turns into people touching their teeth with their tongue, which then makes the air not continue, but the air then stops, so the sound becomes very, very different.
Oh, I see.
Okay.
So what are some words where we could find these?
Let's make this more practical.
Where do we find these sounds in certain words?
Yeah.
Let's start off with everyone's favorite sound, the TH sound.
So stick your tongue out of your mouth.
Yes, completely out of your mouth.
And do not touch your top or bottom teeth.
And you're going to keep the air moving.
So everyone go ahead and try it at home.
So if you do not do this and you touch your teeth, I'm going to hear this, tin instead of fin.
So you can see the big difference, tin and fin.
Yeah, that is a big difference.
Yeah.
You also might hear the difference between that really, that harsher TH sound, that voice TH sound.
And I might hear the word den instead of then.
So den and then, ten and then.
So you can see, just by not touching your teeth and keeping that air moving, you can produce the correct sound.
That's number one.
Okay, good.
So the advice is to not touch your teeth with your tongue there when we make that TH sound.
I like that.
And it would be very easy to be misunderstood.
Again, these are all really important, but especially with this one.
It could be very easy to be misunderstood here if we do this incorrectly.
So we want to make sure we do this right.
Exactly.
Good.
Okay, how about the next one?
You said the SP sound.
Yeah, it was a big one.
Another one is the s sound.
So again um, the s sound is made with the tip of your tongue behind your top teeth, so it's that very hissing sound.
People will touch their teeth and then it sounds like.
So i hear someone say tammy instead of sammy.
Okay,
Interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So that's number two.
So again, don't touch your tongue for that one.
And then for the SH sound, this is another one that I hear.
Instead of saying the word ship, I hear people say tip or chip, which we're going to get into a little bit, at the end of the word, at the end of the interview.
So those are the two mistakes that I hear there.
So instead of ship or your tongue is not touching your teeth, I hear tip or chip.
Okay, so again, don't touch your teeth with your tongue when you pronounce the S or the SH sound.
Okay, good, good, good.
And the last one was the Z sound.
I mean, what words do we find this in?
This is a little less common, right?
A little bit less common, but this is definitely one to know.
So what I hear is, instead of people saying zoo, which the air is really moving on that one, I hear people say do?
And in some instances, I also hear J sound.
So a good example for that would be instead of hearing the word, then I might hear the word Jen, my name, my nickname.
And so that's important is to keep the air moving for that Z sound.
Okay, got it, got it.
All right, good.
Okay, that's important.
Thank you for that first tip.
And then you had a second tip in terms of how to finally start pronouncing these consonants correctly.
What can we do?
What was that second tip that you had, Jennifer?
The second one is using voicing.
So we're going to have a little follow-along lesson here.
So everyone put your hand on your throat.
I'm going to have you say two sounds.
Start by saying buh, buh, buh, buh, buh.
Go ahead, Lindsay.
Okay.
Buh, buh, buh.
So what's the sound that I'm making here?
That's a P sound.
Buh.
Okay.
Okay.
Buh.
Now let's do that again and do the B sound.
Buh, buh, buh.
Buh, buh, buh.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
The difference is, if you did it correctly, it was that on the pop sound, that softer sound, your voice is not moving, so your throat is not vibrating.
And on the B sound...
Your voice is vibrating, so you have something called voicing on that consonant.
So those two sounds.
If you look at yourself in the mirror, they're made exactly the same way with your lips.
Your lips are opening and closing.
The only difference is that voicing.
So it's a very subtle difference.
But here's the good news.
Most people...
Only struggle with this at the end of a word.
Oh, interesting.
OK, I didn't know that.
So at the end of the word, they struggle with it, not at the beginning.
Why would that be, Jennifer?
You know, I don't really have a good answer for that.
I do think a lot of it is because one thing that I surmise is that a lot of languages have a syllable pattern.
That is consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel.
And so you don't really ever use those sounds at the, consonant sounds at the end of the word.
So it's easier to use those sort of voiceless sounds when you're not used to using those consonant sounds at the end of a syllable.
So that's one reason.
Also because a lot of languages just don't use these sounds at the end of a word, even if they do use consonant sounds at the end of a word.
Thank you so much.
John Castro from Colombia and...
D4N from Dominican Republic.
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Thanks, guys.
Okay.
Okay.
And so the advice here is to actually be sure to use the voicing at the end of words, right?
Okay.
So for which letter or which sound specifically are we talking about?
Okay.
I have five sounds for you.
Okay.
Let's start with the S versus the Z sound.
So the S sound is very quiet.
Okay.
And the Z sound is a little harder and has that voicing.
So a word combination with that slight difference.
Again, the only difference in this word is that voicing would be hiss, the sound that a snake makes in English, and his
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's tricky, too, isn't it?
Because his, of course, is spelled with an S. But it's confusing because we have the Z sound.
That's another thing about English that can be quite confusing.
Exactly, exactly.
The spelling is very confusing.
I do have a bunch of, for anyone who's interested, a bunch of very short blog posts on how to read English.
Certain sounds in English
The S is a big one because that's very confusing for a lot of people.
Yes, absolutely.
So we'll talk about how to how to find that stuff at the end of the episode.
That sounds really helpful.
Absolutely.
I like that.
So his and his.
Okay.
And so which one is voiced then?
His.
Right.
Okay.
Okay, great.
Great.
I can feel my voice move.
I can feel the...
My throat moving there.
His.
Okay, good.
How about the next one?
The next one would be K as in back versus G in bag.
Oh, okay.
And for this one?
Bag.
Back.
Bag.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So there's the voicing difference there.
The next one, hat.
Had.
Okay, so hat.
So that one's not voiced, right?
Correct.
Okay, and had.
Right, I can feel the D sound.
I can feel it moving in my throat.
Right, feel it moving in your throat.
And I think that was an interesting point too, that you can feel a little bit moving in your mouth, because it'll make your tongue sort of vibrate a little bit.
Yeah, that is something that some of my clients do do mention.
So that's that's good to keep in mind.
OK, the next one is P versus B, like a hat or cab as in taxi, cab and cab.
So cap and cab.
So that B, it sounds like that's the voicing, the voiced sound, right?
You got it.
You got it.
Quick learner there.
Excellent.
Okay, great.
And then there was one more.
The last one is C-H, edge, versus J, edge.
Etch and edge.
Etch and edge.
I can really feel my voice moving with the j sound.
Edge.
Okay.
So how can our listeners Jennifer, how can we make sure that we're?
I mean, how can we know?
Do we walk around with our hand on our throat?
Is that...
It's funny to say that, but I do recommend that, when you're first starting, practice is really making sure that your voice is on, because this is going to give you a lot for your buck.
Only improving this will have a big influence on your vowel sounds.
So if you struggle to make your vowel sounds short versus long, like we talked about in the last episode, this will help you make your vowel sounds longer without even thinking about it.
Our brain is so smart and wants to make pronunciation easier for us.
All vowels are voiced, so keeping that voicing on at the end of the word is going to make that vowel longer.
Longer, which will make everything sound clearer.
Ooh, okay, nice.
So you do recommend that, yeah.
Because I've had students ask me that before, too.
Like, should I go around touching my throat when I'm having conversations?
Maybe at home, right?
Maybe at home.
And also, I know it's boring, but I do love drills.
And just practicing over and over and over a list of words with these sounds at the end, until you really get it down.
And then you can go ahead and start using this skill in conversation.
So you don't have to walk around touching your throat.
Okay.
This is great.
This is really helpful.
I like that.
Thank you for that, Jennifer.
That's great.
And then there was one more way to improve consonants that you suggested.
What was that third way, Jennifer?
The third one is that I see there are three mistakes that consistently my clients make, and they're for three separate sets of sounds.
And they're very, very similar in many languages.
Or I'm sorry, in English.
They sound very similar.
And so a lot of my clients really struggle with these.
So I have three different ones.
We have SH versus CH versus CH.
So CHU versus CHU.
Yeah, big one.
They both sound so similar.
And sometimes the spelling really confuses us because I live in Chicago.
Right.
Oh, that's confusing.
Chicago.
So spelling is sometimes confusing.
There is only one slight little difference in that pronunciation for the FH sound.
It does not touch your tongue.
And then for the CH sound.
This is a little tricky.
The sound starts by you touching your teeth with the tip of your tongue, and then it quickly pulls back into the middle of your mouth.
Right.
Okay.
So there's a very tiny difference there that we really need to start to recognize.
Right.
It's very subtle.
So that's the SH versus the CH.
And so a lot of my Spanish speaking clients really struggle with this.
So this is a really good one to focus on for them.
The next one is W versus CH.
A lot of my Indian clients really struggle with this one.
I also have some European clients that struggle with this from many different languages.
And I think a lot of this comes back to spelling.
In many languages... the letters are shifted and are reversed for these.
And so that confuses a lot of my clients.
So for the W sound, wa as in went.
You're going to just round your lips into a pucker like you're blowing someone a kiss.
Went.
Wint.
Wuh.
Wuh.
Okay.
Your tongue does not touch any part of your teeth and your lips are just rounded and slightly open.
Wint.
Right.
Versus the V sound where we gently bite our bottom lip.
Vint.
Vint.
Right.
So went versus vent.
So that's one to really kind of focus on.
OK.
Yeah, that's that's tough for a lot of Indian students and professionals.
Yeah.
I've heard that mistake a lot.
Wow.
Very, very tough.
And the last one would be similar, and this is going to be V the sound that we just talked about invent, versus the B sound, invent.
And I hear this from many, many clients, from Japanese speakers, from Spanish speakers, from Romanian.
I think I had a Romanian client once that didn't get the sound difference.
And so you really want to make sure that, for the V, your lips are slightly open and you're gently biting your bottom lip, versus the B, where you're squeezing your lips together and then exploding them open.
Okay.
Wow.
Yeah, that's hard.
I mean, I think I remember when I was learning Spanish they don't distinguish between the two sounds.
I might be wrong with that, but I'm pretty sure I learned that either they're very similar or they interchange the two sounds.
So that's tricky when we come to learn English and they're very different sounds and they're being used differently in our native language.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And I love that point that you just made that I feel like everyone thinks that we're these perfect speakers.
And even we struggle when there are sounds in different languages.
So of course, it is definitely difficult for us as well.
We all have accents when we speak another language because certain sounds are very similar or sound similar to us.
So absolutely.
And I'm so glad that you're focusing on pronunciation here, because it really is the place where, you know, all of our self-consciousness can come up.
I think our listeners really struggle with this in the sense that we can learn vocabulary all day.
But when we go out and we phase a native speaker, we're in front of a native speaker and the native speaker says what?
What?
I didn't understand. then we all of a sudden feel quite self-conscious.
And that's hard.
So, you know, we want to really help our listeners to reduce that feeling as much as possible.
Exactly, exactly.
And on those lines, I mean, I think you really need to ask Native American English speakers to correct your pronunciation.
Nobody wants to be rude and people just won't correct what you're saying wrong.
And so it's good to give us permission to go ahead and tell you if you're saying something correctly, because we don't want to embarrass you, but we are more than happy to help.
But you kind of have to give someone permission to do that.
Yeah, that's a good point.
That's great.
So, Jennifer, I know you have a lot going on over at your website.
You're launching a new version of your website.
I heard and you have a new version of your videos available.
Can you tell us a little bit about that and how we can find you online to learn more about this stuff?
Sure.
So please go to www.tarle.com.
A-R-L-E speech.
That's all one word dot com.
I'm pretty excited.
My website is going to be launching soon.
I have about 60 new minute of speech videos, which are really short instructional videos on how to pronounce commonly mispronounced words.
I will also be rolling out a new line of products, which I'm very excited about.
I've been getting great feedback from clients that I'm using them with.
It's written instructions on how to pronounce each sound.
And then with that, there are word lists, sentences.
And with those, there are audio and video files each.
So you can see me pronouncing each of these words and listen to me pronouncing them, so that you can really learn them and really hear the difference, as well as just practicing them on your own.
Oh, I like that.
And I really like the idea that now you're offering these sounds individually.
So if our listeners know exactly which sound they're struggling with, if they were able to pick out a few sounds from today's episode or from our episode last month about vowel sounds, then they know exactly what they need help on or create their own customized course.
Is that right?
That is exactly correct.
And also I've heard from people that they feel less overwhelmed because it's only one thing to focus on at a time.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's also very helpful.
That sounds perfect for our listeners at this level, too.
Our listeners are at the intermediate to advanced level and we don't need a complete pronunciation course.
We just need little bits and pieces here and there to fix our main problem.
So, guys, we want to encourage you to go on over to visit Jennifer's website.
One more time, Jennifer, how do we find you online?
Could you let us know your website one more time?
Sure, it's www.
Tarle speech.com.
Great.
Okay.
Well, I want to say thank you so much for coming on today for the second time.
We really enjoy having you on the show.
We're getting to know you here and I hope you could come on again in a couple of months to let us know some more lessons on pronunciation.
This is a really important topic, and we really appreciate it.
Well, thank you so much, Lindsay.
And if your listeners have any topics that they're interested in, please let us know and I would love to come back on if you have time.
That sounds great.
Thanks so much, Jennifer.
Have a great day.
Take care.
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