How to pronounce a P sound

In English, words that begin with a /p/ sound almost always have some airflow.  This type of sound is called an “aspirated” sound.   That means that there is a noticeable amount of air that comes from your mouth when you say the word.   Here are some examples of words like that:

pain        pour       pin       pun      pool

You can see if you are doing it correctly if you take a Kleenex and separate it into the 2 or 3 layers that compose the Kleenex.  Take one layer of the Kleenex, put it in front of your mouth, and pronounce the words above.  If the Kleenex moves, you are pronouncing the /p/ sound more or less correctly.

Alternately, you can take the palm of your hand and hold it in front of your mouth.  Pronounce the above words.  If you feel air on your palm, you are pronouncing the /p/ sound more or less correctly.    Please watch the video below for examples of this.

If you can’t see the airflow on your Kleenex or feel it on your hand, you are not doing it correctly.  In this case, just blow air on the Kleenex or on your palm, as you would blow out on a candle.  Now you can see or feel the airflow.  Do the same thing for the /p/ sound, but don’t use as much as you would for blowing out a candle.

Actually, an aspirated /p/ doesn’t have to be at the beginning of a word.  It just has to be at the beginning of a stressed syllable, as in “a.ppear”.

Everything that I just said above is also true for the /t/ sound and the /k/ sound in English.  These sounds are also aspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.  In most cases, aspirated /t/ and /k/ will also appear at the beginning of a word.