The weird part is… the voice you hear when you speak isn't exactly the same voice other people hear.

When you speak, sound reaches your ears in two ways: through the air and through vibrations travelling through the bones in your head. Those bone vibrations make your own voice sound deeper and fuller to you.

That's why hearing a recording of yourself can feel so strange.

But your voice can also genuinely change depending on what's happening inside your body.

When you're tired, your voice may sound lower, weaker or rougher. When you have a cold, a blocked nose and changes in your throat can make your voice sound completely different.

Your vocal folds are a huge part of the process. They're inside your voice box, and when air from your lungs passes through them, they vibrate and create sound.

Then your throat, mouth, tongue and other parts of your vocal tract shape those vibrations into the voice people recognise as yours.

And your voice isn't necessarily going to sound exactly the same throughout your life.

Age, hormones, illness, emotions and even how much you've been using your voice can affect it.

That's why someone can spend two hours shouting during a football match and suddenly sound like they swallowed sandpaper. 😭😂

Basically:

Lungs → provide the air

Vocal folds → create the vibration

Mouth and throat → shape the sound

And somehow, all of that becomes:

“Bro, send me the notes.” 😂

Quick fact: Your voice is created by vibrations of the vocal folds, while the rest of your vocal tract shapes those vibrations into the sounds you recognise as speech.