Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 166th episode.

Today I'm going to talk about that odd little sound at the end of the word sing, the NG sound.

Mm.

The NG sound is one of the three nasal sounds of English.

Nasal sounds are those strange sounds that are created when air passes out through our nose instead of our mouth.

Here's a very quick little experiment to show what this means.

Create the M sound with me.

M.

Now, pinch your nose shut while creating this sound.

You can't do it.

You can't create a nasal sound while your nose is held shut.

That's because, during nasal sounds, the lips or tongue completely block the air from leaving

the mouth.

Then, if the air also can't leave through your

nose, it can't leave at all, and no sound will occur. English has three nasal sounds, the M sound,

the N sound, and the NG sound. Listen to the difference between these three sounds. M-sound,

mm. N-sound, n-sound, n-g-sound, N-G-sound, mm. For this episode, let's focus on the NG sound.

The NG sound gets its name because it is often spelled NG, as in the words sing, young, and doing.

The trouble that ESL students have with the NG sound usually occurs in relation to the G sound, G.

Be careful here because the G sound, G, is not actually a part of the NG sound.

Listen to the NG sound again.

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