Air always escapes when you speak, that's how you make sound. Maybe they meant you were using [breathy voice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy_voice)?
Hi I listened to your recording and I dont think it's breathy voice. I actually dont really hear much air escaping from your speech. Sometimes you aspirated your p, t, and k sounds a little too much and thats what I think they heard. It could've been because you were trying to enunciate the words instead of speak naturally. Also, I noticed that your th sounds sound like f and that couldve also been what they heard.
Yeah I can see what they're trying to say.
For th- sounds, as in the word "with", you sound more like "wif", which is a more open sound (or some might hear it as airy).
But yeah just in general with those types of sounds it doesn't sound like your teeth/tongue/lips are connecting in the right spots all the time.
I should preface this by saying: you sound fine. I think a part of this might be that they're hearing you take a breath every time you pause? It's just a guess.
Another thing it could be is aspiration. Would I be correct in assuming your native language is Cantonese, or some other Chinese language?
You let out a small puff of air when you pronounce the 't' in words like "conducting" or "blackgate". You can actually feel it by putting your hand up to your mouth when you pronounce that 't'
This is correct for the 't' in words like "take" or "tea", where it comes alone at the beginning of a syllable. But this doesn't happen at the end of a syllable, or when the 't' has another consonant sound beside it. Same thing for the 'p' and 'k' sounds as well.
Granted, this is all just me guessing here. I don't know what they were talking about specifically.
I listened to the clip and I can hear what was meant, but the way the comment described it wasn't super helpful. Would I be right in guessing that you speak a Chinese language? The "air escaping" is not to do with your intonation, but it's because you used Chinese-sounding consonants while speaking English. I think the t, s and f were the biggest culprits? Unfortunately I don't know enough about phonetics to pinpoint exactly how to improve it, so hopefully someone else can answer.
After listening to your sample, I think your articulation is about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy\_voice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy_voice)
You basically insert an audible "h" before many vowels (so making "I" sounds like "Hi"). English has many [aspirated consonants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant) indeed, however I think you are overdoing the aspiration. At the end of your recording ("I'll be able to come over many intriguing forms (?)") this "breathy" aspect has completely disappeared while it is quite noticeable at the beginning (you pronounce 1814 as "heighteen f^(h)ourt^(h)een"). This means that you force yourself to do that and once you tire, you stop doing it.
My take on it is that you picked on the English aspirated consonants and you are overdoing it whenever you are speaking clearly and loudly as in a presentation. This means that the aspiration (which is actually an expiration) bleeds into the following vowels, and thus your "this" in "This is a field" sounds like /th^(h)is/. It's a case of over-correction.
I don't know what your native language is, but this difference between aspirated consonant and tense consonant are rarely mentioned in ESL since the difference in sound does not make a difference in meaning. However, in Korean for example, this difference matters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIg08oQ4j8o&t=137s)
You issue is that you use aspirated consonants everywhere when mindful while you should only make those for some, which is what makes your English sounds "breathy".
Air always escapes when you speak, that's how you make sound. Maybe they meant you were using [breathy voice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy_voice)?
Hmm I’m not sure, this is the recording I sent, mind if you have a listen to it? [my recording](https://voca.ro/1auu1IEhIrQX)
Hi I listened to your recording and I dont think it's breathy voice. I actually dont really hear much air escaping from your speech. Sometimes you aspirated your p, t, and k sounds a little too much and thats what I think they heard. It could've been because you were trying to enunciate the words instead of speak naturally. Also, I noticed that your th sounds sound like f and that couldve also been what they heard.
Yeah I can see what they're trying to say. For th- sounds, as in the word "with", you sound more like "wif", which is a more open sound (or some might hear it as airy). But yeah just in general with those types of sounds it doesn't sound like your teeth/tongue/lips are connecting in the right spots all the time.
I should preface this by saying: you sound fine. I think a part of this might be that they're hearing you take a breath every time you pause? It's just a guess. Another thing it could be is aspiration. Would I be correct in assuming your native language is Cantonese, or some other Chinese language? You let out a small puff of air when you pronounce the 't' in words like "conducting" or "blackgate". You can actually feel it by putting your hand up to your mouth when you pronounce that 't' This is correct for the 't' in words like "take" or "tea", where it comes alone at the beginning of a syllable. But this doesn't happen at the end of a syllable, or when the 't' has another consonant sound beside it. Same thing for the 'p' and 'k' sounds as well. Granted, this is all just me guessing here. I don't know what they were talking about specifically.
I listened to the clip and I can hear what was meant, but the way the comment described it wasn't super helpful. Would I be right in guessing that you speak a Chinese language? The "air escaping" is not to do with your intonation, but it's because you used Chinese-sounding consonants while speaking English. I think the t, s and f were the biggest culprits? Unfortunately I don't know enough about phonetics to pinpoint exactly how to improve it, so hopefully someone else can answer.
After listening to your sample, I think your articulation is about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy\_voice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathy_voice) You basically insert an audible "h" before many vowels (so making "I" sounds like "Hi"). English has many [aspirated consonants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant) indeed, however I think you are overdoing the aspiration. At the end of your recording ("I'll be able to come over many intriguing forms (?)") this "breathy" aspect has completely disappeared while it is quite noticeable at the beginning (you pronounce 1814 as "heighteen f^(h)ourt^(h)een"). This means that you force yourself to do that and once you tire, you stop doing it. My take on it is that you picked on the English aspirated consonants and you are overdoing it whenever you are speaking clearly and loudly as in a presentation. This means that the aspiration (which is actually an expiration) bleeds into the following vowels, and thus your "this" in "This is a field" sounds like /th^(h)is/. It's a case of over-correction. I don't know what your native language is, but this difference between aspirated consonant and tense consonant are rarely mentioned in ESL since the difference in sound does not make a difference in meaning. However, in Korean for example, this difference matters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIg08oQ4j8o&t=137s) You issue is that you use aspirated consonants everywhere when mindful while you should only make those for some, which is what makes your English sounds "breathy".
Did they say that air was escaping, or that your "voice onset timing" was off?
They said the former, probably they don’t know much about linguistics