Consonant Sound / ŋ / (NG) as in 'thing'- American English Pronunciation

Learn how to pronounce the consonant sound /ŋ/ used in words like "going," "long," or "bring."
Improve your American accent with four phonetic exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.

Quick links:
• Consonant sound /ŋ/, as in "thing:" 00:00
• How to recognize the /ŋ/ in words: 01:00
• The consonant sound /ŋ/ cheat sheet: 02:25
• How to make the consonant sound /ŋ/: 02:43
• Typical mistakes in pronunciation of the /ŋ/: 03:38
• Pronunciation exercise 1: 05:48
• Pronunciation exercise 2: 07:49
• Pronunciation exercise 3: 09:03
• Pronunciation exercise 4: 10:16

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #ConsonantSounds #NasalSounds

[ThIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we're going to talk about the American consonant sound /ŋ/, as in the word "thing." You can also hear this sound in words like "sing," "long," "bank" or "uncle."
We'll be using a special phonetic symbol - /ŋ/ - for this sound.

Many non-native English speakers don't realize they have difficulty with the /ŋ/ sound. However, this sound is often distorted, which noticeably affects their American pronunciation.
The good news is that once you know how the /ŋ/ sound is spelled and how to pronounce it correctly, you will sound more like an American.
Let's start with learning how to recognize the /ŋ/ in written words.
1.The /ŋ/ is most commonly represented by the combination of letters '-ng' at the end of words.
So, when you see a word that ends with the 'ng' combination, you should always pronounce the sound /ŋ/. For example: "going," "long," "king."
As you may have already noticed, the final 'g' is not pronounced, as it belongs to the /ŋ/ sound.
2. Sometimes you may find the combination 'ng' in the middle of a word. For example: "English," "finger," "jungle."
Now take a look:
In these words the letter 'n' is still pronounced as /ŋ/, but you should also pronounce the letter 'g' as it's part of the next syllable.
3. And finally, there's one last case. Listen to these words: "think," "thank" or "zinc."
The letter 'n' is pronounced as /ŋ/ as it occurs before the letter 'k' or the letter 'c.'
If it still feels complicated, here's a quick summary:
• If you see a word that ends with 'ng,' you have the /ŋ/ sound
• If you see the letter 'n' before the letters 'g,' 'k' or 'c,' pronounce the 'n' as /ŋ/.
And now, let's find out how to make the /ŋ/ sound.

To make the /ŋ/ sound correctly, it's important to pass the air through your nose.
Let's take a closer look at how to do that:
Pull the back of your tongue toward your throat.
Next: stop the air in your mouth with the back of your tongue and direct into your nose.
If you make this sound correctly, you should be able to stretch out this sound, like this: /ŋ-ŋ-ŋ-ŋ-ŋ/
Now, let's try saying it: /ŋ/, /ŋ/, /ŋ/

Here are a few typical mistakes people make when pronouncing the /ŋ/ sound:
1. The most common mistake is when people pronounce the /ŋ/ as the /n/ and /g/ sounds.
As a result, the /ŋ/ is distorted and sounds like /ng/. Remember, even though the /ŋ/ is represented by the two letters 'ng', it's still a single sound. The letter 'g' is never pronounced in the 'ng' combination at the end of words. Listen: "sing" /siŋ/ but not "sing" /sing/ or /siŋg/
2. This is similar to the previous problem when the /ŋ/ is pronounced as two sounds.
Some people don't pronounce the final 'g' when making the /ŋ/, and that's great, except for the fact that they pronounce the voiceless sound /k/ instead. As a result, the /ŋ/ sounds more like /nk/.
This way the word "sing" will sound more like "sink." Which, by the way, is a totally different word.
Compare: "sing" - "sink."
3. Finally, some people distort the /ŋ/ by placing the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge or against the back of their upper front teeth. As a result, the /ŋ/ sounds more like the /n/ sound.

[Pronunciation exercise 1]
• being
• bring
• doing
• dying
• going
• king
• lying
• ring
• sing
• sling
• sting
• swing
• thing
• wing
• wring
[Pronunciation exercise 2]
• along
• among
• bang
• belong
• gang
• hang
• hung
• long
• slang
• song
• strong
• sung
• swung
• wrong
• young
[Pronunciation exercise 3]
• bank
• crank
• donkey
• drank
• drink
• drunk
• ink
• junk
• length
• monkey
• pink
• thank
• think
• uncle
• zinc
[Pronunciation exercise 4]
• anger
• angle
• angry
• bungle
• congress
• English
• finger
• hunger
• hungry
• jungle
• language
• mingle
• shingle
• single
• triangle
You're done!

[josea.pineda]

Dear people behind this work, I have just finished all your videos and I must tell you that thanks to your work, many people like me will be able to beat the fear that learning a language, not only English, produces within us due to our lack of confidence in our pronunciation. Learning the phonetic alphabet has been really easy with your work and I will be forever grateful for it.

Keep your great work.

[snake]

i thought the g in sing was supposed to be pronounced, my life isn't the same anymore.

[torinzhou]

GOAT tutorial. After 5 minutes of following along, I can pronounce this ŋ sound whenever I want effortlessly and I can totally feel and control the tongue movement. Thanks for the great work. 🎉

[QueenGail]

Wow, English is my native language, only to find out I'm not even speaking correctly. No wonder those who come here from other countries have such a hard time, I'll try to do better. ❤

[jhonhernandez]

Thank you so much for these videos. I am using them in my phonetics class at the university and the students are so happy with them because they have improved their pronunciation a great deal.

[wendyreyes]

My God! This is the best channel I ever found. Thank you, this is so useful.

[islamseddik-nwcz]

you folks behind this videos it really helps so much particularly the part about practicing and repeat, im listening, repeating, and finally recording my pronunciation to compare it with that in video to see if my pronunciation is good or bad

[hamzaalmahdi]

Beside many words, I've always felt unnatural pronouncing the word "singing" with 2 Gs. Thanks a lot for this amazing video and for all the other great ones you make

[mariavega]

Thanks a lot for making this channel! It's changing my life because I am learning all the sounds and I didn't even know that they existed! Pronunciation is key to me because I work as an instructional aide ! Thanks a lot! I love this channel! God bless you all!

[jarurotetippayachai]

Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese also support this “ng” sound like “mang-nga” (Japanese comic), while it seems no English vocabulary which contains “NG” sound in the first two letters.

However, I just see some words like “Google Ngram Viewers”.

[mirianmparedesp]

Excellent video, I will use it to learn the phonetic alphabet, pronunciation and improve my English study. Thank you.

[ramzy-]

great video for / ŋ / (NG) sound i hope more videos. Thank you.

[andrewknyazkov]

I have finished watching all the videos. Oh gosh. It was too difficult, but it'd be more difficult if I didn't find the best channel ever.
Thank you! You guys are really amazing!

[LenaRivo]

This is sooo incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for making this video!

[tradoan]

I can correct my pronunciation thanks to your videos. Thank you so much.

[_base]

Yo its 2018 and I'm Canadian.. hiiii wassup I'm 15 and can't pronounce ng right!! great.

[chicocostaneves]

Wow!!! It was really helpful for those like me who speak English as a second language. Even though there's the ŋ sound in Portuguese, I had never noticed there are words like "singer" where the G isn't pronounced. Thanks a lot and keep up the amazing work.

[clementepadilla]

Thank you for the great video!!! I tought this sound was use only at the end of words.

[elisanzfonse]

Thank you for share your videos with us! I really appreciate it. 🧠

[cuentafeikab]

really, i've learnt more here than at my school haha xD thanks!!