Consonant Sound / f / as in 'fun' – American English Pronunciation

Most likely you have the /f/ consonant in your native language and you don't consider this sound to be difficult to pronounce. The question is do you pronounce the /f/ like an American? As always, there are some things to watch out for.
Similar sounds in other languages are close enough to the American /f/, but they're not quite the same.
Needless to say, English spelling can be confusing -10% of words with this sound don't even have the letter 'f'.
In this video, you'll learn how to make the /f/ sound correctly and find out how to avoid typical pronunciation mistakes. You'll be able to practice making this sound with several pronunciation exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.

Quick Links:
• Consonant sound /f/, as in "fun:" 00:00
• Fricative consonants overview: 00:47
• Fricative consonants definition: 01:36
• How to pronounce the /f/ sound: 02:51
• Typical mistakes: 03:48
• Pronunciation exercise 1: 06:12
• Pronunciation exercise 2: 08:29
• Pronunciation exercise 3: 10:11
• Spelling for the /f/ sound: 12:03
• Question from subscribers: 12:37

Related Videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #FricativeSounds
► Consonant Sound /f/ as in "fun" - this video
► Consonant Sound /ʒ/ as in "vision" - work in progress

► Vowel Length Rule:

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, JAPANESE, СHINESE, VIETNAMESE, KOREAN, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we're going to talk about the American consonant sound /f/, as in the word "fun."
You can also hear this sound in words like "fine," "phone," "coffee" or "laugh."
We’ll be using a special phonetic symbol - surprise! - /f/ - for this sound.

Let's begin with some phonology. Don't worry, it won't be too complicated. If you've followed us this far, there's been worse. :)
The /f/ belongs to a category of consonant sounds called the fricatives.
This is the largest group of consonants in American English: it consists of nine different sounds!
All these sounds are made by partially blocking the air moving through your mouth which creates an audible friction.
Speaking about the /f/ consonant, this sound is made by partially blocking the air with your lower lip and your upper teeth.

Many non-native English speakers are familiar with the /f/ sound and consider it to be easy to pronounce.
Indeed, it's not the hardest consonant to make, but there are some things to watch out for.
• First, this sound is not always represented by the letter 'f' and this can sometimes be a problem.
• Second, similar sounds exist in many languages and some non-native speakers use their native /f/ consonant when they speak English.
• Third, and most importantly, Americans pronounce their /f/ with lots of friction.
Let's find out how they do it.

To make the /f/ sound correctly, focus on the position of your lips and teeth.
First, lightly bite your lower lip.
Make sure you do it gently and leave a tiny gap between your lip and your teeth.
Now, release a stream of air through that gap, creating lots of friction.
The air should flow over your lip.
Remember, the /f/ is a continuous sound, so you should be able to stretch it out, like this: /f-f-f-f-f/.
Now, let's try saying it: /f/, /f/, /f/.

[Pronunciation exercise 1]
• find
• first
• friend
• phone
• five
• free
• front
• food
• fly
• fish
• floor
• firm
• frame
• flag
• float
• flame
• flew
• frog
• phrase
• foam
[Pronunciation exercise 2]
• afraid
• after
• breakfast
• coffee
• comfort
• defend
• different
• draft
• effort
• gift
• inform
• left
• lift
• loft
• offer
• office
• draft
• sofa
• soft
• telephone
[Pronunciation exercise 3]
• brief
• chief
• cliff
• cough
• enough
• golf
• graph
• knife
• leaf
• life
• puff
• rough
• safe
• scarf
• self
• shelf
• staff
• stiff
• tough
• wolf

[quemseria]

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[edwinsmithbanguera]

This really helps, if we repeat after each example and try to do it. We’ll see the difference, I’m native Spanish speaker and after I tried my mouth was hurting me. Thank you very much and this is the best channel I’ve ever seen to master my pronunciation.

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[danlee]

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[j.v.]

I have seen most of the videos of this channel. This channel is great and very didactic. I wish you published more new videos. For example one dedicated to silent letters in English. Thank You so much from Spain.

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[nishiki]

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[randomdude]

That's quite interesting that you said in the video that the /f/ is not the most difficult sound to make, so it kind of made me wonder, what are the most difficult consonants to make?

What would be your version of say "top 5 most difficult consonants to make"?

[amiraabdulaziz]

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[j.j.hagelsieb]

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[nefpzrj]

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[봄봄-cw]

i'm korean and i am studing english with s**** app these days
i figured out why my 'f' sounds like 's'.
thanks for your teaching.