Dark L vs Light L | English Pronunciation Masterclass

Today we're looking at the difference between the light L and the dark L. Alright, it's

not the evil L, it's just the dark L. Honestly!

Welcome back to another lesson. If you haven't met me before, my name is Tom and I teach

fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next level and achieve

your life goals. Today we're looking at L and how it can be pronounced in two different

ways.

Let's start with the light L. Now we find the light L before a vowel sound and also

usually found at the beginning of words for example 'look'. Now how do we make this sound?

Well, the tongue is the most important thing. So place the tip of your tongue on the alveolar

ridge, that is the top of your mouth. Now I place mine just behind my top teeth. There,

ok? So I place the tip of my tongue just behind my top teeth and I blow air out like that.

Now it's a voiced sound so you should feel a vibration in your throat. And then to release

the sound you release your tongue. So 'look' 'listen'. Examples of words with the light

L 'long' 'lemon' 'learn' 'language' 'unless' 'follow'. The dark L is usually found at the

end of words certainly before a consonant or as the final sound of a word. For example

'help'. Now to make this sound our tongue is really important again. Now what we do

here it's not touching anything and I bring it back, so to create the sound I withdraw

the tongue into my mouth like this. So for example 'help' Ok, it sounds strange when

I slow it down. So my tongue is coming towards the back of my mouth and that's creating the

sound 'help'. So the movement of my tongue there is really important, it's coming backwards

and then finishing kind of pointing upwards. It's not touching anything, ok? That's really

important, it's not touching the alveolar ridge or my teeth, it's just in my mouth,

moves backwards and then upwards to finish the sound. So back and then up. So 'fall'.

It's important to note that not all British accents use the dark L. Most notably a cockney

accent doesn't really use the dark L. There are various other sounds that might be used

instead of it so for example instead of saying 'school' it'll be 'school'. Or 'full' will

be 'full'. So it kind of disappears. I always think of it as having the same mouth shape

as a /w/. School, I end my mouth in the same shape as a /w/ sound but I'm not saying /w/

I'm just making that shape. So 'school' 'pool' 'full'. So the dark L will change and adapt

depending on what vowel sounds there are in a cockney accent. But anyway, let's get back

to looking at a dark L and a light L and comparing the two sounds together. Now what's important

to notice is the change of the L sound. So for example take a word like 'tall'. I'm using

the dark L sound there 'tall' because it's at the end of the word but if I make it a

superlative 'tallest' suddenly I've added -est e is a vowel so the L sound of tall has

now gone from a dark L to a light L. So it's not tallest it's 'tallest'. So I am now using

the light L sound. So be aware that even if it's the same word 'tall' to 'tallest', more

or less the same word, there is a change of sound depending on you know, what's around

the main word. So we are using the vowel sound there of -est so it becomes 'tallest'. It's

also important to look at words together. So for example 'email address'. Email we said

was a dark L sound 'email' but if the next word begins with a vowel sound that L turns

from a dark L to a light L. So it's now 'email address'. So it's not 'email address' it's

'email address'. So i"m using the light L to blend those two words together. So yeah

it's not just about looking at the word individually, you have to look at the other words around

it to help you to understand whether i's a dark L or a light L.

Another example might be 'fall over'. 'I fell over yesterday'. So we have fell with the

dark L but now we've got over which begins with a vowel, it's now 'fell over' so I'm

using the light L to blend those two words together. Alright let's do a little practice

sentence to use both the light L and the dark L. Listen to me first and then repeat afterwards.

Ok, here we go. 'I love language lessons said the tall girl at school.' Alright, so let's

have a look at what Ls we are using there. So I love, the light L. Language, light L

again. Lessons, again the light L. Said the tall, dark L. Girl, dark L. At school, dark

L again. So you've got three light Ls, three dark Ls. I love language lessons said the

tall girl at school.' Ok, your turn to practise.

Ok, alright let's do it one more time together 'I love language lessons said the tall girl

at school.' Practise guys, that's the only way you are going to improve is if you practise.

Do it in a voice recorder, do it into the mirror, do it wherever you need to but practise

practise practise.

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Thank you so much for watching as always, this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer saying goodbye.