How to make 'v' and 'f' sounds in American English

Learn how to pronounce and make 'v' and 'f' sounds in American English. This video language lesson from Rachel's English provides a basic guide for pronunciations for ESL students. Say "v" and "f".

The V and F sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position. F, ff, is unvoiced, meaning you pass only air, and V, vv, is voiced, you make sound with your vocal cords. The mouth position is: the bottom lip, the inside of it comes up to touch the bottom part of the front teeth. In order to make room for that, the top lip needs to come up, but just enough to make room. Some people make the sound like this. That is not correct. The lower lip should not be tense. Ff, vv, ff, vv. Word pairs: fear, veer ... fiddle, video ... fan, van ... photo, vote ... fault, vault.