P is voiceless. B is voiced. That is the whole difference. Your lips do the same work for both. Your voice is off for /p/ and on for /b/.
If you searched p is voiced or voiceless, start there. Then feel it in your throat.
Is P voiced or voiceless?
P is voiceless. Put two fingers on your throat and say a long /p/. No buzz. The vocal folds stay open. Air pops through the lips and that is all.
Say it in a word: cup, tap, pie, speak. The /p/ should stay quiet in the throat.
Is B voiced or voiceless?
B is voiced. Same lips. Same pop. This time the throat buzzes. Say a long /b/ and you should feel it under your fingers.
Say it in a word: cub, tab, buy, about. Keep that buzz through the /b/, especially at the end of the word.
Same mouth, different voice
Close your lips. Build a little air. Open with a pop. That mouth shape is /p/ and /b/. The only switch is the voice.
This is what we call a pair. English has more of them. For the full list of pairs, go to the voiced and voiceless sounds examples page. For the throat test on /b d g/ vs /p t k/, start with part 1.
Why this mix-up happens
The lips look identical in a mirror. If you learned English from spelling, p and b also look like cousins. Your mouth does the easy part. The voice is the part that drops when you are tired or at the end of a word.
So the question is not “how do I shape P?” You already shape it. The question is “is my voice on or off?”
How to practice P and B
Touch your throat. Say pie, then buy. First word: no buzz. Second word: buzz. If both buzz, you are voicing P. If neither buzzes, you are turning B into P.
Then move the sound to the end, where it is harder:
- cup / cub
- tap / tab
- rope / robe
- cap / cab
Hold the last sound. Cub needs the buzz until the word is finished. If it dies early, listeners hear cup.
One line: “I put the cub in the cab, not the cup.” Slow. Throat on for B. Throat off for P.
If you want daily practice with a coach, start here: https://pronunciationpro.com/trial/.
