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  • 28/06/2025
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00:00This is the sound. Stick around to find out how it's pronounced in British English.
00:14Hi everybody and welcome back to Lean English. I'm Ed and I'm here to help you achieve your pronunciation goals.
00:22Before we start, remember to like this video if you find it useful
00:27and subscribe for more British English pronunciation lessons in the future.
00:32Now let's look at the sound in a bit more detail.
00:39Do you remember the sound which we looked at a couple of weeks ago?
00:44The sound is produced in a similar way. So first produce the sound.
00:52Now, do it again but this time whisper it.
00:57P.
00:59P.
01:01Well done. You just produced the P sound.
01:05This sound is produced by building up air pressure behind the lips and releasing it explosively.
01:12But in contrast to the B sound, we don't use our voice.
01:17This gives the sound its technical name, the voiceless bilabial plosive.
01:25Obviously, in real conversation we don't produce the B sound first.
01:31But you can use this trick to find the correct mouth position.
01:35So, try and remember the mouth position and produce the sound again.
01:42P.
01:43P.
01:44Some students have difficulty differentiating between voiced and unvoiced sounds.
01:53You can check voicing by placing your hand on your throat when you produce the sound.
01:59If your throat vibrates, you're using your voice.
02:03So, make sure you don't feel any vibrations when you produce this sound.
02:08P.
02:09P.
02:10Now, look at these words.
02:14Can you identify the P sound?
02:18Listen and see if you can hear it.
02:22The P sound is easy to identify in writing because it's always spelt with the single
02:51or double letter P.
02:53However, the letter P doesn't always produce the P sound.
02:59When the letter P appears before the letter H in words such as photo, it produces the TH sound.
03:09Other examples include phone, trophy, graph.
03:18P.
03:19There are also some words like psychic which contain the silent letter P.
03:25The letter P is often silent when it appears before the letters S and N, usually at the beginning
03:33of words such as psychedelic, pneumonia.
03:41It may also be silent when it appears before the letters B and T in words such as raspberry,
03:52receipt.
03:54And it may be silent at the end of French loan words such as coup.
04:02Let's go back to the previous examples.
04:05What do you notice about the P sound in pizza and sleep?
04:12Does it sound different?
04:16When an unvoiced plosive appears at the beginning of a stressed syllable, it's aspirated.
04:23This means there's an extra puff of air and a slight delay before the following vowel sound
04:29in words such as pass, pour, push.
04:38If the P sound is followed by an approximant, this aspiration effectively de-voices the approximant
04:48in words such as plan, press, pure.
04:54In contrast, when the P sound appears at the end of a word, there's no aspiration and the
05:06air is simply stopped in words such as keep, shop, map.
05:17Now, let's practice.
05:20Listen and repeat after me.
05:23A pot of pickled peppers.
05:29Her nephew played happily.
05:35A piece of purple paper.
05:42Please pay the price.
05:48Put the cup in the cupboard.
05:54Well, that's the end of the lesson, but now it's your turn.
05:58Can you think of any more words that contain the silent letter P?
06:03Let me know in the comments below.
06:05And remember to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video.
06:10Thanks for watching.
06:11Goodbye.