English pronunciation lesson - Consonant Clusters BL CL FL GL PL SL

I’m Doctor Don here to give you some more tips and exercises to use to improve your

English pronunciation skills.

Remember that pronunciation is a physical skill using the muscles of your mouth and

tongue.

When speaking a foreign language you need to practice making unusual sounds to get better

at it – like practicing shooting a basketball or swinging a golf club.

You need to get your body used to making the same movements to make the sounds you want

to make.

I’m going to do a series of pronunciation videos on INITIAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS – which

means a group of consonants that appear at the beginning of a word.

These are common in English and can be difficult sometimes for non-native speakers.

I’m going to do a series of 5 videos introducing you to all the major initial consonant clusters

and show you how to make the sounds and give you some exercises to practice making them

yourself.

So, watch these videos, practice, and you will get better.

In English the initial consonant clusters involve a consonant sound like B or K or G

plus the L, R, or S sounds.

In this video I’m going to look at the clusters that use the L sound.

BL to make this sound put your lips together to make B and go into the L. Say the word

“bull.”

Then shorten it until you’re only saying the BL part.

At the end of that word your tongue should be where it needs to be to make this cluster

sound.

BLACK, BLIP, BLOW, BLUE (say slowly then quickly) Try repeating those words slowly and then

quickly.

(do it this way)

CL to make this sound open your mouth to make a hard K sound then put your tongue forward

quickly to get to the L sound.

Say the word “cull” then shorten to just the CL part.

CLEAR, CLAW, CLUSTER, CLUE.

FL to make this sound, put your bottom lip under your teeth to make the F sound then

bring your tongue forward to make the L sound.

Say the word “full” then shorten to just the

FL part.

FLOW, FLAW, FLIP, FLU

GL to make this sound, put your mouth open to make the G sound then bring your tongue

up quickly to make the L sound.

Say the word “gull” then shorten to just the GL part.

GLAD, GLIB, GLOW, GLUE.

PL to make this sound put your lips together to make the P sound and bring your tongue

up into the L sound.

Say the word “pull” then shorten to just the PL part.

PLAN, PLOW, PLINK, PLUNK

SL to make this sound open your lips but keep your teeth together to make the S sound and

bring your tongue up into the L sound.

Say the syllable “sull” then shorten to just the SL part.

SLAP, SLOW, SLING, SLEEP.

Here’s a challenge for you, say these 6 sentences quickly

Bleed black blood, clip clangers cleanly, flip flowers flat, gladden glowers glibly,

plan plumbers plainly, sling sleep slowly

Now you try

Practice those clusters and I’ll be back later to show you the second set.