手把手教你学口语05

Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on the difference between voiced and voiced pairs of consonants¹.

This difference is important, as it is the basis for learning other aspects of spoken English. First, let’s explain this difference. Let’s compare some consonants, for example, t, d, p, b, k, g, s, z. These sounds differ only in that the first is voiceless and the second is voiced. Put your hand in front of your mouth and say” “t”, then say “d”. Try it again with “s”, “z”. Did you notice that “t”, “s” have more breath or air coming out of your mouth than “d”, "z”. Now put your hand around the front of your throat. Try it again. Say “t”, “d”, “s”, “z”. Did you notice that “t”, “s” have no vibration², whereas “d”, "z”, there’s a vibration?

The sounds with a lot of breath but no vibration are called voiceless, because the vocal³ cords are not vibrating. The sounds with little breath but a lot of vibration are called voiced, because the vocal cords are vibrating. Tomorrow we will discuss how vowels⁵ followed by voiceless consonants are shorter than vowels followed by voiced consonants.

Let’s just look at one example today. “bet”, “bed”. Did you notice how the vowel⁴ sound “e” is shorter before “t” and longer before “d”? Tune⁶ in tomorrow for more examples of this feature of English. That has been today’s tip on learning English.

1 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 vibration   

n.颤动，振动；摆动

参考例句：

• There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
• The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。

3 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

4 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

5 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

6 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。