Making consonant sounds
The difference between consonants and vowels is that consonants are made when there is much more obstruction to the air as it is passing through your mouth, whereas your mouth generally remains open when pronouncing vowels. Consonant pronunciation can generally be broken down into the following categories:
- Stops: This is when you completely block the flow of air from your throat by closing your mouth at some point during the pronunciation of the sound (p, t, k, b, d, and g).
- Nasals: In a nasal sound, you close your mouth just as you would with a stop, but the back of your velum lowers, which allows air to flow up through your nose and out of your nostrils (m, n, ŋ).
- Fricatives: In this sound, you only close your mouth part way so air is forced through a narrow passage and makes a hissing sound (F, θ, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h).
- Affricates: A combination of stop and fricative sounds that are made in a similar way (tS, dZ).
- Approximants: This sound is like a fricative except that it involves less obstruction. Sometimes, you will make these sounds by touching the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge, lowering it as you release the air (l, r, j, w)
There are also voiced consonants, which refer to consonant sounds that are accompanied by vibrations in your throat as the air passes through.
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