Practice Your English Pronunciation Final /k/ vs /g/ Sounds | Course #25

And in today's video,

we are going to focus

on two very important English final consonant sounds.

The sound ‘k’ and the sound ‘g’.

/k/ and /g/.

They can be confusing because they sound quite similar,

but they are different

and they are very important sounds in the English language.

So I want you to be able to pronounce them correctly.

Let's get started with two example words.

The first example word is the word ‘back’ with a ‘k’ sound.

‘back’

It's different from the word, ‘bag’, with a ‘g’ sound.

‘bag’

So ‘back’,

‘bag’.

Can you hear the difference?

If you can't hear the difference, practice with me.

By the end of this video,

you will hear the difference

and you will pronounce these two sounds correctly.

So, let's get started.

Before we get into the final consonant sounds

/k/ and /g/ in English,

please, guys, check the I.P.A. spelling - it's very useful.

You can also watch me and how I move my mouth.

And please repeat after me whenever I ask you to.

You can make these sounds.

Let's do it together.

Let's now focus on pronouncing this final /k/ sound in English.

So it's voiceless.

You're not going to use your voice - no vibration in your throat.

Your tongue is up there and you're going to push out some air.

And you're going to push out a little bit more air because it's final, okay.

So, it’s /k/.

Please repeat after me.

/k/

Let's practice with the word ‘back’.

Please repeat after me.

‘back’

Good.

And now moving on to the final /g/ sound.

Same position - your tongue is up there

but you're not going to push out some air.

This time you're going to use your voice

and feel the vibration in your throat

so you produce a sound.

It's /g/.

Please repeat after me.

/g/

Let's practice with the word ‘bag’.

Please repeat after me.

‘bag’

Good.

Let's now practice with minimal pairs.

These words are almost the same but the sounds are different.

They're extremely good

if you really want to hear the different sounds.

Let's first focus on our sounds.

Please watch my mouth and repeat after me.

First, the /k/ sound.

/k/

And now the /g/ sound.

/g/

Now, let's do both.

Please repeat after me.

/k/

/g/

/k/

/g/

/k/

/g/

And now, let's use our words.

Please repeat after me.

‘back’

‘bag’

‘back’

‘bag’

‘back’

‘bag’

Great job.

Okay, guys.

It's now time to go through a list of minimal pairs together.

Please watch how I move my mouth and repeat after me.

back

bag

block

blog

buck

bug

clock

clog

chuck

chug

crack

crag

dock

dog

duck

dug

flock

flog

frock

frog

hack

hag

jack

jag

jock

jog

knack

nag

lack

lag

leak

league

lock

log

luck

lug

muck

mug

pick

pig

pluck

plug

puck

pug

rack

rag

ruck

rug

sack

sag

shack

shag

slack

slag

smock

smog

snack

snag

snuck

snug

stack

stag

tack

tag

tuck

tug

whack

wag

wick

wig

That's great, guys.

Okay, guys.

It's now time to practice with some sentences

that contain these consonant sounds.

My first sentence is:

‘Many jocks like to jog.’

Please repeat after me.

‘Many jocks like to jog.’

Our second sentence:

‘I like to snag a snack before lunch.’

Please repeat after me.

‘I like to snag a snack before lunch.’

And finally:

‘The frog jumped on her frock.’

Please repeat after me.

‘The frog jumped on her frock.’

Excellent.

Let's move on.

Let's now move on to listening practice.

I'm now going to show you two words.

I will say one of the two words,

and I want you to listen very carefully

and to tell me if this word is,

‘a)’ or ‘b)’

Let's get started.

Let's start.

We have two words.

Word ‘a’, word’ ‘b’.

Which one do I say?

Listen to me.

‘block’

One more time.

‘block’

Is it word ‘a’ or word ‘b’?

It's word ‘a’, ‘block’.

Word ‘b’ is ‘blog’.

Listen to me.

‘plug’

Word ‘a’ or word ‘b’?

It's word ‘b’, ‘plug’.

Word ‘a’ is ‘pluck’.

‘knack’

Answer ‘a’ is correct, ‘knack’.

Answer ‘b’ would be ‘nag’.

‘bug’

It's word ‘b’, ‘bug’.

Word ‘a’ is ‘buck’.

‘jog’

‘b’ is correct, ‘jog’.

‘a’ is ‘jock’.

‘pig’

Word ‘b’ is correct, ‘pig’.

Word ‘a’ is ‘pick’.

Listen to me.

‘whack’

Answer ‘a’ is the correct answer, ‘whack’.

‘b’ is ‘wag’.

‘slack’

The word is ‘a’, ‘slack’.

‘b’ is ‘slag’.

‘wig’

Answer ‘b’ is correct guys, ‘wig’.

Answer ‘a’ would be ‘wick’.

Finally. Listen to me.

‘smock’

It's answer ‘a’, ‘smock’.

‘smog’ would be answer ‘b’.

Great job, students.

You now have a good understanding

of these two final consonant sounds in English.

The /k/ and the /g/ sound. Keep practicing.

Practice makes perfect.

It takes a lot of practice to master these sounds

but you can do it.

You can pronounce them correctly

and you will also train your ear

to hear the different sounds.

I have other pronunciation videos.

Make sure you watch them

if you want to improve your English skills.

See you next time.