To make the /f/ sound, your moth should be nearly closed with your top teeth lightly touching your bottom lip while you blow air out of your mouth. The /f/ sound is unvoiced (the vocal cords are not used).
The /p/ sound is also unvoiced. The upper and lower lips are closed before pursing out as air bursts out.
Exercise 1: Contrasting the sounds
- Listen to the word pairs, focusing on the two different sounds.
- Then repeat, again focusing on saying the different sounds for /f/ and /p/.
| /f/ | /p/ | |
|---|---|---|
| fin | pin | |
| fig | pig | |
| defend | depend | |
| differ | dipper | |
| for | poor | |
| half | harp | |
| fashion | passion | |
| cliff | clip | |
| wife | wipe | |
| fast | past | |
| fork | pork |
.
Exercise 2: Listening and distinguishing the sounds.
This will help you learn to distinguish the two sounds.
- Listen to the recording.
- Choose the word you hear.
- You can listen as many times as you want.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
Exercise 3: Listen to the sentences and choose the correct answer.
This activity will test and train your ability to distinguish the two sounds.
- Click the play button to listen. You can listen as many times as you want.
- Choose the sentence you heard.
- Click the blue > arrow on the bottom right to move to the next question.
Tongue twister
- Repeat the following tongue twister.
- Focus on the two different sounds /p/ as in pig and /f/ as in fig.
- Repeat again, trying to say the tongue twister faster and faster.
It’s hard to feed fancy figs to pink pigs if the pink pigs don’t like fancy figs.
