The pronunciations of letter "P" in "explain, explore, explode" and in "expensive, expand"

Question

The letter "P" can make the "b" sound (the same sound in "bag"),when it is after sound "S" in the same syllable. eg. explore (iks-bloor), expensive(iks-ben-siv)

The letter "P" can also make the "P" sound (the same sound in "park"), when it is followed by consonants and after "s" sound in one syllable. eg. explore (iks-ploor), explain(iks-play-n)

When letter "P" is followed by vowels and after "s" sound in one syllable, it can only make the "b" sound (the same sound in "bag"). eg. expensive (iks-ben-siv), expand (iks-band)

Is that right？

Also Why does spell sound like “|sbel|” while in dictionary it is “|spel|”? — Void, Jun 28 '21 at 18:31
The letter "P" can make the "b" sound (the same sound in "bag") - to a native speaker, it is not the same sound. Similar, yes, but not the same. As others have said, they probably sound the same to you because your native language does not distinguish between them (much like how I, as a native English speaker, have trouble hearing the difference between the Korean ㅈ and ㅉ, but native speakers apparently don't.) — stangdon, Jun 28 '21 at 19:02

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '21 at 17:42

I suspect you are from China, or another language for which the aspirated and unaspirated "p" are distinct. However in English these sounds are not distinct, and native speakers (other than a few people who have studied it) will not understand what you mean by "p makes a b sound".

For me, a native speaker, there is no difference in the sound. I know that some "p" sounds are aspirated and some are not. I can hold up my hand to my face and feel the air, so I know that I aspirate some and not others. But I'm not aware of the difference in sound. The aspirated [p^h] and unaspiated [p] in English are "Allophones". In Mandarin /p/ and /b/ are allophones. In Japanese [r] and [l] are allophones.

So these four sounds [p] [b] [p^h] and [b^h] are heard differently by Chinese and English speakers.

There is not much help in saying that "The p in explore is a b". While it might be the same allophone as a b in Mandarin, it isn't the same allophone in English.

The pronunciations of letter "P" in "explain, explore, explode" and in "expensive, expand"

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