How to Pronounce the /p/ Sound 

How to Pronounce the /p/ Sound

In this lesson, we are going to learn about how we can produce the /p/ sound with the proper articulatory organs.

What Type of Sound Is /p/?

/p/ is a consonant sound in the English language.

How to Produce /p/?

ThumbnailPhoto

As you can see in picture (a), in order to produce it, the lips come together. Note that we stop the air from coming out, and also, the uvula blocks the nasal passage so as not to let the air out of the nose. As you can see, in picture (b), the teeth are slightly parted. Then, the lips are separated and the air is released. The /p/ sound is produced from the mouth. Note that the air must come out with force so you can hold a piece of paper in front of your mouth to see whether you are doing it correctly or not. The paper must move greatly when the air is released. As you can see in picture (b), the circle in the throat is not red in this sound which means that we do not vibrate our vocal cords. So, it is voiceless.
In picture (c ), we can see that the tongue makes no contact with any part of the mouth. It simply remains in its place because it does not participate in the production of this sound.

Which Letters are Pronounced as /p/?

The sound /p/ is represented by the following letters:

ThumbnailPhoto

p:

Example

point /pɔɪnt/

picture /pɪk·tʃər/

stop /stɑːp/

pace /peɪs/

pp:

Example

apple /ˈæpəl/

happy /ˈhæpi/

Example

shepherd /ˈʃɛpɚd/

/p/ Sound in the Most Common World Languages

As you can see in the table below, most languages have the /p/ sound. Only Arabic does not have it. So, most people can easily produce this sound when learning English. Look:

Existence

Example

Mandarin

怕 (pà)

Spanish

peso

Hindi

पल

Bengali

পানি

Portuguese

pai

Russian

плод

Japanese

ポスト

Vietnamese

nhíp

Turkish

kap

French

pomme

German

Pack

Italian

papà

Persian

پول

Standard Arabic

x

-

Korean

Indonesian

pola

Filipino

pato

Hungarian

pápa

Dutch

plicht

Polish

pas

Romanian

pas

Swedish

apa

Czech

pes

Greek

πόδι

Ukrainian

павук

Urdu

پل

Listening

Below, there is an audio file that helps you learn the proper pronunciation of the /p/ sound:

0:00.00
0:00.00

Comments

(0)
Loading Recaptcha...
LanGeek
Download LanGeek app