Pronunciation Of The Letter “B”
he Letter “B” is the second Letter in The English Alphabet — and is also the first Consonant in The English Alphabet. In the video below — you will learn how to pronounce The Letter “B”, Properly.
Introduction To The Video
irst of all — it might be obvious, just by looking at the image of the video — that the teacher is British. And, it is well-known that there are a lot of differences between so-called “British-English” (what the Brits, probably just call, “English”), and so-called “American-English”. This is especially true with Pronunciation.
owever — when it comes to the Pronunciation of the Consonants in English — (whether it be with in “British-English”, “American-English”, or what we use throughout GiveMeSomeEnglish!!! — The Common Tongue) — the Pronunciation is virtually the same. There are only slight differences on rare occasions — and those have to do with Common Usage, rather than any “Rules of Pronunciation“.
Notice! — My added notes and comments about the video are listed below, with times corresponding to the places in the video which I am referring to.
efore getting into the time-stamped notes, I want to point-out, that in the image for the video (the “video thumbnail”) — they use the terms “Hard B” & “Soft B”. These are not proper Grammatical Terms. They are only the way that the teacher in the video describes the difference between The Letter “B” at the beginning of a Word (“Hard”) — and The Letter “B” that is elsewhere in the Word (“Soft”).
n The Common Tongue — we make no distinction between these two (by giving them separate names) — because they do not really have different Pronunciations — just different levels of Stress in the Word. Also — the Pronunciation of the Word based on Word-Stress comes naturally. It is not something that you have to do, consciously. Especially when you become immersed in the Language (surrounded by other English speakers). You will automatically start Pronouncing the Words & Letters in the same way. 😉
Video Notes…
0:00-8:13
0:00-8:13 — Un-like with previous Pronunciation Videos that I have used — everything here is Great! The teacher, “James” does an excellent job of explaining the sound and how it is made. He also does a great job with the examples he uses, and how he demonstrates them.
8:14-8:40
8:14-8:40 — Here, James uses the example of the word “Tube”. But — the way that the word “Tube” is pronounced in British-English is different than the way we pronounce it in The Common Tongue.
In British-English — As he shows — there is a small Consonant Letter “y” sound in-front-of The Letter “u” — which he shows with the Phonetic Spelling, “tjube”. However — what he neglected to mention is that The Letter “T” is pronounced almost like The “Ch” Combination, when it comes before The Letter “u” in MOST words. This is even more-so in British-English than in The Common Tongue.
So the phonetic spelling should have been: tʃjub — chyoob
In The Common Tongue (the Pronunciation of-which is based on Neutral American-English) — We do not pronounce it the same. Although — when The Letter “T” is in-front-of The Letter “u” — we often pronounce it with the sound of The “Ch” Combination. But not when The “TU” Combination is at the beginning of the Word; Usually only when it is elsewhere in the Word.
So the phonetic spelling of “Tube” in The Common Tongue is: tub — too[b]
Additionally — the final “b” in the word “Tube” (at least in The Common Tongue) is usually “Stopped”. But he does not cover “Stopped” Consonants in this video.
12:08
12:08 — In this part, James gives an example for you to practice your Pronunciation.
Betty Botter had some butter. “But”, she said, “This butter’s bitter”. If I bake this bitter butter it would make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter, that would make my batter better!
However — There are three Grammatical mistakes of Punctuation in the second Sentence above.
1st — The first Comma in the second Sentence should be a period to make that Clause an entire Sentence.
Then — Because there is now a Period after the word “bitter” — then the word “but”, that follows it, needs to be Capitalized: “But”
2nd — There should be a Comma after the word “But”
3rd — Because the pause after the word “butter” is more dramatic, and even represents a change in the rhythm of the Sentence — the final Comma should be a Dash. —
So Then It Would Be Written:
Betty Botter had some butter. “But”, she said, “This butter’s bitter”. If I bake this bitter butter it would make my batter bitter. But, a bit of better butter — that would make my batter better!
13:07
13:39
13:39 — The answer to his Question: “How many Silent “B”s are in the example?” — is…
4 Silent “B”s: “bomb“, “dumb“, “climbed”, tomb“
However — once again — there are some mistakes with Punctuation in the example…
“Ben built a big bomb but he was dumb so when he climbed over the tomb it blew up!”
1st — There should be a period after the word “bomb” — because it is a complete thought.
Then — Because of the beginning of a new Sentence — the word “but” should be Capitalized.
2nd — There should be a Comma after the word “But”.
3rd — There should be a period after the word “dumb” — because that, also, it a complete thought.
Then — Because of the beginning of a new Sentence — the word “So” should be Capitalized.
4th — There should be a Comma after the word “So”.
5th — There should be a Dash after the word “tomb”.
Most people would use a Comma instead of a Dash. But, because it is not separating a single Preposition or Conjunction at the beginning of the Sentence — but is, instead, separating an entire Clause — which gives the reason for the action of the Sentence — then, we use a Dash.
This is a one of the Rules in The Grammar Of The Common Tongue — and is used to make reading MUCH more comprehensible. In Traditional Grammar — Commas are FAR over-used and often have multiple functions with-in a single Sentence. This often causes un-necessary con-fusion — and even the breaking of Grammatical Completeness. Dashes — on-the-other-hand — are far UNDER-used, and are the cure to this malady.
So In The Corrected Common Tongue Form, It Would Be Written:
“Ben built a big bomb. But, he was dumb. So, when he climbed over the tomb — it blew up!”
And That’s That!
Have An Excellent Day!
😉
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