Lesson 11 / 22
/p/ — /b/
Listen to each sound, compare mouth positions, and practise from words to sentences.
The reference chart uses British IPA. English RankUp uses American audio and speech recognition, so some vowels have different symbols and pronunciations.
1 / 2
/p/
pen /pɛn/
Mouth and tongue position
Press the lips together then release with a strong puff of air; no vocal cord vibration.
Word practice
pen
Sentence practice
Pass me the pen.
Mouth-position video (British) — BBC Learning English
2 / 2
/b/
bad /bæd/
Mouth and tongue position
Same lip position as /p/ but the vocal cords vibrate and the release is softer.
Word practice
bad
Sentence practice
That is a bad idea.
Mouth-position video (British) — BBC Learning English
Speech recognition is unavailable in this browser. You can still listen and repeat.
The microphone recognizes words and sentences, not individual IPA sounds. Use its result only to check what the recognizer heard.