Tricky consonant pairs, part two. You know that some consonant sounds in English are tricky. It's easy to get them confused with other sounds but we can improve our ability to pronounce these tricky sounds. First, be aware of the sounds that are causing problems and try to understand the differences between similar sounds. Next, listen carefully to tricky sounds so we can tell if we're saying them correctly. Finally, keep practicing those sounds so that our pronunciation is easier for listeners to understand. Let's practice some more consonant sounds that are tricky for many learners. We'll look at these sounds. /r/ as in rock and /l/ as in lock. /v/ as in vest and /w/ as in west. /y/ as in yam, and /d3/ as in jam. /n/ as in not and /l/ as in lot. First, lets practice these sounds. /r/ as in right and /l/ as in light. What is the difference between these two sounds? There are actually two ways to pronounce the /r/ sound. And they can both sound the same. Use the one that's easiest for you. Here's the first way, your tongue curls up a bit but it doesn't touch the top of your mouth. Your lips are rounded a bit. The air come out smoothly, /r/. Here's the second way, the front of your tongue stays down, and the back of your tongue bunches up. Your tongue doesn't touch the top of your mouth. Your lips are a bit rounded, the air comes out smoothly, /r/. When you say /l/, the tip of your tongue touches the top of your mouth just behind your top teeth, but the sides of your tongue stays open. The air comes out around the sides of your tongue very smoothly, /I/. Pay attention to the position of your tongue when you say these two sounds. When you say /r/ your tongue shouldn't touch the top of your mouth. When you say /I/, the tip of your tongue touches, but the sides are open. If you're not sure if your saying /r/ or /l/, try this. Say one of the sounds, stop, and breathe in air strongly. When you say /r/, the tip of your tongue should feel cold air because your tongue is opened a bit. It's not touching the top of your mouth. When you say /l/, the sides of your tongue should feel cold air because that's where the air comes through, the open space beside your tongue. Now, let's practice, rock, right, berry, tire, lock, light, belly, tile. I'd rather live in a suburb than a rural area. Please remember that you can't eat in the library. Now let's practice these sounds, /w/ as in west and /v/ as in vest. When you say /w/ your lips are rounded but they don't touch. Then your lips are open and the air comes out gently. The sound is voiced. When you say /v/ your top teeth touch your bottom lip, then the air comes out gently. This sound is also voiced. Pay attention to the position of your lips, and teeth. Your lips are rounded when you say /w/, but they don't touch. When you say /v/, your top teeth touch your bottom lip. If you sometimes have trouble saying /w/ and say /v/ instead, so that west sounds like vest, try putting a drinking straw in your mouth and pressing your lips around it. That will help you get your lips into a rounded position for a /w/. If you sometimes have trouble saying /v/ and say /w/ instead so that vest sounds like west, try putting your finger on your top lip so it can't come down too far. Your lips should stay still during this sound. It feels like you're gently biting your lower lip. Now let's practice. West, wine, worse, wiser, vest, vine, verse, visor. Vivian is a very adventurous woman. This wet walkway is very dangerous! Next, let's practice these sounds. /y/ as in yam, and /dz/ as in jam. When you say /y/, your tongue comes very close to the top of your mouth, like it does when you say the vowel E and C, but it doesn't touch. Then the air comes out gently. This sound is voiced. When you say /dz/, your tongue touches the top of your mouth. Then your tongue pops open with a bit of a hissing sound. Your lips are a little bit rounded and the sound is voiced. Pay attention to the movement of your tongue when you say these sounds. When you say /y/ your tongue doesn't touch the top of your mouth. When you say /dz/ your tongue touches the top of your mouth firmly then pops open. If /y/ is a difficult sound, try this. First say the vowel e, then the vowel that comes after it. Gradually speed up so that the /y/ becomes faster. Your tongue shouldn't touch the top of your mouth. Es, es, es, yes. If /dz/ is difficult, make sure your tongue touches the top of your mouth then pops open. Now let's practice some words and sentences. Yam, yet, Yale, yellow, jam, jet, jail, jello. Last year Jack joined a judo club. No! I got jam on my yellow jacket. Finally, let's practice these sounds, /n/ as in not and /l/ as in lot. When you say /n/, your tongue touches the top of your mouth, just behind your top teeth. And the air comes out of your nose. This sound is voiced. As we heard earlier, when you say /l/ the tip of your tongue touches the top of your mouth, but the sides of your tongue stay open. The air comes out around the sides of your tongue very smoothly. For both of these sounds your tongue is touching just behind your front teeth. The difference is that when you say /n/, the air comes up out of your nose, when you say /l/, the air comes out of your mouth around the sides of your tongue. If you confuse /n/ and /l/, try this. When you say one of these sounds hold a mirror under your nose, when you say /n/ the mirror will fog up, when you say /l/, it wont. Now let's practice, not, night, connect, main, lot, light, collect, mail. Let's have sandwiches and noodles for lunch. We can learn a lot from the books in the library. In this lesson we've practiced several pairs of confusing sounds. To master these and other difficult sounds, be aware of the sounds that are causing problems, listen carefully to these tricky sounds. And keep practicing those sounds, so that your pronunciation is easier for listeners to understand.
