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

My name is Mandy, and this is our 2002nd podcast.

One of my students recently asked me how different the tongue positions are for the N sound and L sound. She said they look

quite similar in the illustrations online and in the book, and she's right. They do look a lot

alike, especially in side profile drawings. But a very small vocal track difference between

these sounds makes them sound hugely

different to the ears of native English speakers.

One big difference between these sounds is that the N sound is a nasal sound and the L sound

is not.

Wait, what's a nasal sound? Well, it's pretty simple. A nasal sound is a sound

that comes out our nose. As odd as that sounds, it's easy to demonstrate nasal sounds

with the M sound. Put your lips together and say the M sound.

Mm.

Now hold your nose shut while you try to say the M sound.

You can't do it because the air has no way of leaving your vocal tract when both your nose is blocked and your lips are closed.

The N sound is the same concept, only it's not quite as easy to demonstrate.

With the N sound, the tongue blocks the air from leaving the mouth instead of the lips. Make an N sound. N-sand feel the tip of your tongue press against your tooth ridge. That's the bump right behind your top front teeth, while the sides of your tongue also press into your front side teeth.

Pressing your tongue into your teeth and tooth ridge like this blocks the air from leaving your mouth.

Then, if we think about the most basic form of the L sound, the tip of the tongue is in a similar place in the mouth as it is for the N sound.

But the area right behind the tip of the tongue is not touching our side teeth.

Instead, there's a gap for air to go through.

This allows the air to leave out our mouth instead of our nose.

...