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In Chapter 2, we noted that voicing is one of the possible types of PHONATION. Voicing can be used in combination with articulation to distinguish consonants from one another. With the exception of /h/, English plosives, fricatives, and affricates occur in pairs that differ in how phonation is used. It is easiest to hear (and feel) the difference between VOICELESS and VOICED consonants by comparing fricatives like voiceless /f/ and /s/ with their voiced counterparts, /v/ and /z/. Holding your fingers on your throat will allow you to feel the buzz of voicing that occurs throughout the productions of voiced fricatives. You should also be able to feel the difference in voicing between the affricates /tʃ/ (voiceless) and /dʒ/ (voiced). In plosive consonants, however, the voicing distinction is a bit trickier to demonstrate in English. On the one hand, you can readily observe that the /t/ sound of tot is voiceless. Verify this by producing a /t/ in isolation, taking care not to produce a vowel afterward. If you then try to do the same for /d/, you will probably find that you can't avoid producing a very short (voiced) vowel after you release the stop. In fact, English speakers do not generally produce voicing during the closure phase of a voiced plosive. Instead, the difference between English voiced and voiceless plosives is usually signaled by the time gap before the vowel that follows, which is very short in the case of /d/ and longer for /t/. Finally, notice that all approximants in English are voiced.