Thin or Thing? Sin or Sing? American English Pronunciation

Learn the difference between the / n / and / ŋ / consonant sounds.
Practice pronunciation of the / n / and / ŋ / with minimal pairs exercises using words like "ran" and "rang," "ton" and "tongue," or "lawn" and "long."
Improve your American accent with essential pronunciation exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.

Quick Links:
• Intro: 00:00
• How to recognize the /n/ and /ŋ/, cheat sheet: 00:58
• Key distinction b/w the /n/ and /ŋ/: 02:58
• Quiz: can you hear the difference b/w the /n/ and the /ŋ/: 01:34
• Pronunciation exercise: 04:06

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #MinimalPairs

[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'll compare two consonant sounds: /n/ and /ŋ/,
as in the words "thin" and "thing."

In our previous videos, we learned how to make them. Remember the videos for the /n/ sound, as in the word "nice" and the /ŋ/ sound, as in the word "thing"?
This time we'll focus on the differences between these two sounds.

Many non-native English speakers have difficulty differentiating between the /n/ and the /ŋ/ sounds.
Yes, these two can be quite confusing.
Here's how you can recognize these sounds in written words.
• If you see a word that ends with 'ng,' you have the /ŋ/ sound
• If you see the letters 'ng' in the middle of a word, pronounce the 'n' as /ŋ/.
• If you see the letter 'n' before the letters 'k' or 'c,' pronounce the 'n' as /ŋ/.
• In all other cases, pronounce the letter 'n' as the /n/ sound.
That was about spelling.

Now let's check how well you can differentiate between the /n/ and the /ŋ/ when you hear them.
Here's a quick test.
[QUIZ]
You'll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced. For example, "thing."
Can you guess what word you heard?
Let's try a few more word pairs.

How did you do? Don't worry if you didn't get all the words right. You'll improve after doing some pronunciation exercises in a just minute.

The /n/ and the /ŋ/ are both nasal consonants, which means that you should pass the air through your nose when you pronounce them.
Here's the key distinction between the /n/ and the /ŋ/:
Look at the position of the tongue.
• For the /n/ sound, the tip of the tongue is placed on the alveolar ridge behind your upper front teeth.
• For the /ŋ/ sound the tongue is pulled far back to the throat.
Listen and compare: "thin" - "thing."
Let's pronounce these sounds one after the other:
/n/ - /ŋ/, /n/ - /ŋ/, /n/ - /ŋ/

[Pronunciation exercise]
Now that you've reviewed how to make these consonants, let's practice pronouncing these sounds in some words. This is the most important part of your training, so try to go through as many words as possible.
You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. After that you'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. Repeat each word after the speaker, the first word will have the /n/ consonant sound, and the second will have the /ŋ/ consonant sound.
Let's begin!

• ban - bang
• band - banged
• banned - banged
• clan - clang
• done - dung
• fan - fang
• gone - gong
• kin - king
• lawn - long
• pan - pang
• pin - ping
• ran - rang
• sin - sing
• son - sung
• stun - stung
• sun - sung
• tan - tang
• thin - thing
• tin - ting
• ton - tongue
• win - wing
• wind - winged

You're done! Congratulations!

To check how much you've improved, you can do the word pairs test again. Click this link to go back and compare the results.

Did you like this exercise? Let us know in the comments what other sounds you would like to practice. We like your suggestions!

Thanks for watching! Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the Sounds American channel!

[chengxiaoxia]

the best channel for the pronunciation! My teacher asked me to improve my pronunciation and I did it with your help. The delicate illustrations of lips, tongue, throat work together and do the magic. Great work. Thanks again.

[lucasteganox]

I seen a lot of comments saying that some people can't tell the difference.
I replied to someone but i'll put it like an individual comment as well, i hope it helps.

Something that helps me to recognize it is that the n sound vibrates more in the front of the mouth and the ŋ sound vibrates more in the back of the mouth due of the contact point of the tongue.
It's hard to explain but even without seenig the speaker when i hear the n sound i automatically imagine waves coming from near of the upper front teeth.
And when i hear the ŋ sound i imagine waves coming from above whre the tongue starts, in the back of the mouth.

Hear the difference it's easier when you feel the difference in how it feels to pronounce it.
And at the same time difference it from the n sound.

If you don't feel the difference something that could help you it's to use your thumb to act as your tongue:
* get your thumb up
* put it in your mouth pointing to your uvula(seriously)
* now make it point to a chick(sidewards)
* put it like 2 cm away from your upper teeth, push a bit and then start to make the air flow from your nose
* keep it a few seconds and then start to move your thumb to the back of your mouth while you keep the air flowing for your tongue, eventually you'll feel your mouth vibrating differently, more deeply.

It's easier to feel and control your thumb than your tongue.
Also we use our hands every day(unless you're unable to), you probably are more capable to spot changes in vibrations than you're in sounds, that's because you understand n and ŋ as the same, so if you take them as the same you wont hear a difference.
But if you're able to spot a difference in touch(vibrations) then you'll start to take them as different things and also start to hear the difference, at the end of the day sounds are just vibrations and different vibrations makes different sounds.

[ursuladomingos]

I have no words to say... how much this channel helped me. I improved even more my skills. love you guys

[carlitospraising]

I'm so happy for this great work, as a Brazilian guy, talking Portuguese it's difficult a lot to comprehend sounds with so little difference, but after the pronunciation exercises it's becoming more easier, repeat and repeat and repeat... Thanks.

[neyarshilgne]

Wow, this is perfect ! It is very helpful.

[chenzadaya]

As a Chinese speaker, this is really confusing. I still don’t get it after the training. But I’ll keep practicing. Thanks for your hard work!

[daisybui]

my daily routine is every day going to your channel and practice about 15 minutes. Now my pronunciation is terrible but It will better. Practice makes perfect. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to your new video. I want to give your channel thousands thumbs up but sorry youtube doesn't allow ( they must change). Love you

[quoctuanzzz]

/ŋ/ seems to change the vowel in word . Eg: 'wing' seems to be pronounced like 'weeng'
That's my opinion :)

[mauradelgado]

Thank you much. I've been practicing these "n & that symbol ". Never got it. I asked how to pronounce them to native people. But. Nobody gave me a good answer. Until now. This is what i was looking for. And I already downloaded the app. Too. Thanks so much for your help.

[allouthersites]

Melhor vídeo até agora sobre esse assunto. Parabéns.

[alexinflux]

Great channel! Best explanation of this I've found so far

[mostafadardery]

The best chanel Ever... ❤️
The types of t pronunciation

[mariaecheverri]

This is perfect! I did the exercises this is very helpful. you are the best!!

[JuanGarcia-gcgx]

Hi there The best lessons in order to Speak like a native all your videos guys are helping me a lot. You're awesome. Have a good one.

[mfpaint-js]

This is mind-blowing, I'm not a native speaker, but I still managed to differentiate and pronounce everything correctly, what surprised me was how I picked it all up when subconsciously watching and listening to people speak. How the hell does the brain realize where to put your tongue. I guess, it was just trial and error, since I've been fond of copying sounds my whole life. It's really about the long and frustrating sessions of trying to pick the sound when you have no idea how they did it in the movie or whatever.

[mzhunior]

Thank you for all your work and help with the sounds. Please add practice phrases & sentences to your videos -- not only words.

[tejbirpunia]

I really wanna learn American English more. I am speaking it into daily life but wanna learn more from you sir

[damongeo]

This lesson is excellent; I really appreciate that you are delving into the definitions of the two sounds (2:58); I was really seeking for a simple and good explanation on why the /n/ sound is called the voiced alveolar nasal and the /ŋ/ one the voiced velar nasal and this is the best so far.
In words like "banged" and "winged" I can trace the /g/ (voiced velar stop) in the transition between the /ŋ/ and /d/ (voiced alveolar stop) sounds; am I hallucinating ?

[estherruiz]

Thank you so much. This is best channel tha I have ever seen since I'm learning English

[ramzy-]

Thank you for / ŋ / sound. amazing video.