Practice Your English Pronunciation final /m/ vs /n/ Sounds | Course #26

In this video, I'm going to focus on two final consonant sounds.

The ‘m’ sound and the ‘n’ sound.

They can be confusing because they sound quite similar

but they are different.

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

Let's take two example words.

My first example word is the word ‘sum’.

Can you hear the final ‘m’ sound? ‘sum’

It's different from the word ‘sun’ with an ‘n’ sound.

‘sun’

‘sum’

‘sun’

Can you hear the difference?

Well 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 learn about the final consonant sounds ‘m’, /m/ and ‘n’ /n/ in English,

remember to check the I.P.A. spelling, guys.

You can also watch how I move my mouth and obviously always repeat after me in this video.

You can make these sounds.

Let's do it together.

Let's first learn how to make this /m/ sound in English.

It's voiced.

You're going to use your voice feel the vibration in your throat.

And actually it's very simple.

Your mouth is very still.

You're not going to do anything.

Your lips touch each other.

Your tongue doesn't move at all.

Your mouth is absolutely still.

And you're just going to produce a sound. So, /m/.

That's it. Please repeat after me, guys.

/m/

Let's practice with the word ‘sum’.

Please repeat after me.

‘sum’

Good.

Now moving on to the /n/ sound.

Which is also a nasal sound.

These are two nasal sounds so you're going to use your nose a little bit more.

So for the /n/sound, it’s going to be quite different,

you're going to open your mouth,

your tongue is against your top teeth,

and you're going to produce a sound with your voice because it's a voiced sound.

So, /n/.

Please repeat.

/n/

Let's practice with the word ‘sun’.

Please repeat after me.

‘sun’

Good.

Let's now practice using minimal pairs.

The words are practically the same but the sounds are different.

They're very good if you want to focus on the different sounds.

But first let's practice the sounds.

Please watch my mouth, repeat after me.

/m/

And now the /n/ sound.

/n/

Now, let's do it together. Please repeat after me.

/m/

/n/

/m/

/n/

/m/

/n/

And now let's use the words.

Please repeat after me.

‘sum’

‘sun’

‘sum’

‘sun’

‘sum’

‘sun’

Excellent.

Okay, students. Let's now review a list of minimal pairs together.

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

am

an

beam

been

blame

blain

boom

boon

cam

can

came

cane

clam

clan

comb

cone

deem

dean

dim

din

dime

dine

dorm

dawn

fame

feign

foam

phone

game

gain

gleam

glean

gnome

known

gram

gran

grim

grin

gum

gun

home

hone

meme

mean

same

sane

seam

scene

seem

seen

sim

sin

skim

skin

spam

span

sum

sun

team

teen

teem

teen

term

turn

time

tine

tomb

toon

Great, guys.

Okay, guys.

It's now time to practice with a few sentences containing these consonant sounds.

My first sentence is:

‘There are many teens on the team.’

Please repeat after me.

‘There are many teens on the team.’

Second sentence:

‘There's gum on the gun.’

Please repeat after me.

‘There's gum on the gun.’

And finally:

‘He came without his cane.’

Please repeat after me.

‘He came without his cane.’

Very nice. 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 with our first two words.

Word ‘a’, word ‘b’.

Which one do I say?

Listen to me.

‘dean’

One more time.

‘dean’

Word ‘a’ or word ‘b’?

It's word ‘b’ guys, ‘dean’.

Word ‘a’ is pronounced ‘deem’.

What about this one?

‘team’

It's the word ‘a’, ‘team’.

‘b’ is ‘teen’

Now listen to me.

‘blain’

The answer is ‘b’ guys, ‘blain’.

The word ‘a’ is ‘blame’.

‘tine’

It's ‘b’, ‘tine’.

‘a’ is ‘time’

Listen very carefully.

‘tomb’

It's the word ‘a’, ‘tomb’.

Word ‘b’ is ‘toon’.

‘gram’

‘a’ is the correct answer guys, ‘gram’.

‘b’ is ‘gran’.

‘boon’

‘b’ is correct ‘boon’.

‘a’ is ‘boom’.

‘grim’

The right answer is ‘a’, ‘grim’.

‘b’ is ‘grin’.

‘cone’

It's ‘b’ guys, ‘cone’.

‘a’ is pronounced ‘comb’

‘skim’

That's right guys, ‘a’, ‘skim’.

‘b’ is ‘skin’.

Great job, guys.

You now have a better understanding of these two final consonant sounds.

The /m/ sound and the /n/ sound.

Keep practicing.

It takes a lot of practice to master these sounds but you can do it.

You'll be able to pronounce them correctly and you will also train your ear to hear the different sounds.

I have other pronunciation videos.

Please make sure you watch them.

You will improve your English skills.

See you next time.