# The Mouth Position of The "F" Sound
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 25, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237 "2007-12-25T23:20:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/1 "2007-12-25T23:20:08Z")
As in “fart” or “fuck”. Does it have a name?
Thanks
Q
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/2 "2007-12-25T23:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=Quasimodem]
As in “fart” or “fuck”. Does it have a name?
Thanks
Q
[/QUOTE]
It’s a voiceless labiodental fricative. “Voiceless” means that your vocal cords do not vibrate. “Labiodental” means that it’s formed by placing your teeth against your lips. “Fricative” means that it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel.
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/3 "2007-12-25T23:49:39Z")
Three minutes to get “voiceless labiodental fricative.”
God, I love the Dope.
---
### Author:  [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/4 "2007-12-26T04:09:17Z")
well yeah, a basic course in linguistics will teach you most of that stuff. It’s usually described by a latinate saying of the name of the parts involved and whether or not it’s voiced and a few other things. Without looking I knew it was labiodental fricative. Plosive is like “B” and “P” (both bilabial).
I used to know the symbols but forgot most of them
---
### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/5 "2007-12-26T07:19:01Z")
[Here you go!](http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html)
The IPA symbol for the voiceless dentolabial fricative is [f], voiced bilabial stop is \*\*, and voiceless bilabial stop is [p].
---
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/6 "2007-12-26T10:47:22Z")
Incidentally, the f sound in Japanese is a bilabial fricative. In hiragana the series with h consists of ha, he, hi, ho, fu. But if you say hu you will see that you are halfway to a bilabial fu. My Japanese friend told that when he is speaking English he will say, for example, Fukuoka with a labio-dental f, but when speaking in his native Japanese he will produce a sound that is almost Hukuoka but the lips closer together to make a fricative.
---
### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/7 "2007-12-26T13:13:41Z")
Speaking of farts, has anyone applied these princibles to the various sounds made there. too? I suppose they’d all be considered plosives, but since their range of sounds differ, there’s probably different mechanical classifications for how they’re formed.
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/8 "2007-12-26T13:44:41Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove]
Speaking of farts, has anyone applied these princibles to the various sounds made there. too? I suppose they’d all be considered plosives, but since their range of sounds differ, there’s probably different mechanical classifications for how they’re formed.
[/QUOTE]
Plosives and definitely fricatives. Place of articulation would be limited to sphincteral or gluteal, or a combination of the two. No voicing possible. All sounds would be egressive rather than ingressive. Trills abound.
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mouth-position-of-the-f-sound/431237/9 "2007-12-26T13:49:46Z")
[QUOTE=Hari Seldon]
Incidentally, the f sound in Japanese is a bilabial fricative. In hiragana the series with h consists of ha, he, hi, ho, fu. But if you say hu you will see that you are halfway to a bilabial fu. My Japanese friend told that when he is speaking English he will say, for example, Fukuoka with a labio-dental f, but when speaking in his native Japanese he will produce a sound that is almost Hukuoka but the lips closer together to make a fricative.
[/QUOTE]
Yep. Just like blowing out a candle, except without rounded lips.