Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Consonants can also be divided into voiced sounds and voiceless sounds.

Voiceless sound

Make the sound s. Place your hand on your throat. The voice box does not vibrate. For this reason, s is voiceless.

Voiced sound

Make the sound z. Keep your hand on your throat. The voice box vibrates. For this reason, z is voiced.

More examples

The sound t is voiceless. The sound d is voiced. Both t and d are stop sounds.