sounds use your vocal cords, so your throat vibrates, as in , , and . sounds use only air, as in , , and . Many English come in pairs that differ only in voice, so the difference changes words such as bag and back.
What voice means
When you speak, the vocal cords in your throat can vibrate or stay still. If they vibrate, the sound is . If they stay still and only air passes, the sound is .
Try a simple test. Put your fingers on your throat and say 'zzzz'. You feel a buzz. Now say 'ssss'. There is no buzz. In both cases your tongue and mouth are in the same place. Only the voice is different. You can also put your hands over your ears: you hear the buzz inside your head for but not for .
The pairs
Most English that use a stream of air or a sudden release come in pairs. The mouth movement is the same inside each pair. The sound comes first below.
- and : pan and ban.
- and : tie and die.
- and : cap and gap.
- and : fan and van.
- and : sip and zip.
- and : teeth and teethe.
- and : the first sound in she and the middle sound in vision.
- and : cheap and jeep, batch and badge.
Other sounds are voiced too
All are . So are the sounds , and , and , , and (the first sound in yes). The sound is . This means that when you say a whole sentence, your voice is on almost all the time and goes off only for the voiceless .
Why this changes meaning
A voice difference can turn one word into another. Pan becomes ban, tie becomes die, and back becomes bag. At the end of a word, the voice difference is also shown by the length of the before it. The vowel is longer before a : the vowel in bad is longer than in bat, and the vowel in seed is longer than in seat. English listeners use this length to decide which word they heard.
At the start of a word, , and also carry a small puff of air, called . Hold a thin piece of tissue in front of your mouth and say pin and bin. The tissue moves more for pin.
Voice in word endings: -s and -ed
The endings -s and -ed are said in three ways, and voice decides which. After a sound the ending is voiceless. After a sound it is voiced. This is natural, because a quick change in voice is hard to do.
The -s ending is after voiceless sounds (cats, books, laughs), after voiced sounds (dogs, bags, loves, days), and /ɪz/ after , , , , and (buses, watches, judges, garages). The -ed ending is after voiceless sounds (worked, helped, laughed), after voiced sounds (played, lived, stayed), and /ɪd/ after and (wanted, needed).
Common mistakes
Some learners make sounds at the end of a word, so that bag sounds like back, or leave sounds like leaf. Others do the reverse at the start and say 'pig' for 'big'. A third mistake is using the wrong ending, such as saying 'worked' as /wɜːkɪd/.
To practise, say the pairs slowly, with fingers on your throat. Then use them in short sentences, and record them. Check that the voiced words feel buzzy and the voiceless ones feel airy.
How to make the sound
- Put two fingers on your throat. Say 'sss': no buzz. Say 'zzz': buzz.
- For and , close your lips. For release a puff of air; for keep your voice on and open the lips softly.
- Say the pairs in a row: p-b, t-d, k-g, f-v, s-z. Feel the buzz come and go.
- Check the before a final : make it longer before the one.
Who finds this hard?
- Arabic speakers: Standard Arabic has no , so pan and ban, or cap and cab, may sound the same. It also has no , so many speakers say in words like van.
- Spanish speakers: Spanish has no , so many Spanish speakers say in its place, and easy and peas may sound like "eesy" and "pees". sounds at the end of a word, as in bag and leave, also need extra care.
- Korean speakers: Korean separates its stop sounds by breathiness and tension rather than by voice, so the English voiced and pairs, such as pie and buy, need careful listening practice.
IELTS tip
In the Speaking test, wrong voicing can turn a word into another, such as bag into back or leave into leaf. The -s and -ed endings also show voice. Choose five verbs in the past tense from your own topics, such as worked, played, wanted, helped and lived, and read them aloud to check the ending each time.
Frequently asked questions
What are voiced and voiceless sounds?
sounds use the vocal cords, so the throat vibrates, as in and . sounds use only air, as in and .
How can I tell if a sound is voiced?
Put your fingers on your throat. If you feel a buzz, the sound is voiced. You can also cover your ears and listen for the buzz in your head.
Are all vowels voiced?
Yes. All English are voiced. Some are voiced and some are voiceless, and many come in pairs.
Why does the -ed ending sound different in different verbs?
It follows the voice of the sound before it. After a voiceless sound it is , after a voiced sound it is , and after or it is /ɪd/.
Sources
- Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Cruttenden, A. (2014). Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). Routledge.