English Phonetics/Plosives

Aspirated Plosives
English makes distinctions with the normal and aspirated consonant. The aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies at the release of of some obstruents. In International Phonetic Alphabet the aspirated phonemes are indicated by a small superscript ‹h›, as with [kʰ] for a aspirated [k].

In the English language, the consonants [b], [d], [g], [p], [t], [k] became aspirated at the beginning of the words. The aspirated phonemes are distinguished from their standard versions due to the addition of a h which represents the IPA's small superscript ‹ʰ›.