Pronounce L in American English
The consonant sound of l /I/ can be difficult to learn, especially if you don’t have it in your native language, or if you have something similar but not the same. Let’s talk about how to pronounce l, and give you lots of words to practice with.
How to Pronounce L
To make the l sound, open your mouth slightly and relax your lips. Your teeth are almost touching, but they are still open a little bit. Now lift just the tip of your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth (the alveolar ridge). Next, using your vocal cords, push air through your mouth. You should feel your tongue pushing a little bit against the alveolar ridge. This creates some tension that helps make the English l sound.
You may feel a tiny bit of air coming out of your mouth, but more importantly, you should be able to hold your hand to your neck and feel your vocal cords vibrate.
It may help to first make the short open u /ʌ/ sound (click this link to review that sound). As you are making the short u sound, lift the tip of your tongue to push a little bit against the alveolar ridge. This should help you turn the short u sound into the l sound.
To properly make the l sound, there should be just a little tension in your tongue. It may help if you think of pushing the tip of your tongue up, instead of just resting it gently on the alveolar ridge. If you don’t have this tension, you will still produce a softer l sound /ɭ /, but we do not have this soft l sound in English.
Now practice these words with the l sound. The first five are from the fifth chapter of John:
long, allow, lot, love, live, like, umbrella, last, lamb
Practice these words with L
The Dark L Sound
The words we have practiced so far have the l sound at the beginning of a word or followed by a vowel. The l sound is produced in the middle of your mouth, as the air passes around your tongue.
There is another way to pronounce l in English. When l is at the end of a word, or when it follows a vowel, as in the word equal, it should have a fuller, richer sound. We can change the sound of l by releasing the tension at the tip of the tongue and adding it in the back. The tip of your tongue should still touch the alveolar ridge, but it isn’t pushing against it.
Next, lower the back of your tongue as far as you can and pronounce l. The sound is now being made in the back of your mouth. This is called a dark l sound. The sound is actually added to the vowel before the l, then the l sound is completed by pushing the tongue against the alveolar ridge. Listen to the difference between these two sounds. Can you hear it as I say the words long (light l) and all (dark l)?
Long (light l) and All (dark l)
If you can’t hear the difference, don’t worry! The difference is very small, and most native speakers have no idea that there are two l sounds. The IPA symbol for dark l is /ɫ/, but many dictionaries don’t use this symbol.
Here are some words containing dark l. Think about lowering the back of your tongue as you say them with me:
pool, equal, call, fall, gold, full, cold, salt, all
Practice these words with dark L
Practice with YouTube
There are many YouTube videos that can help you learn to pronounce l. They are all a little different, and some may help you more than others. Here are a few to try. See if you can find one that helps you the most as you learn this important English sound.
Accent’s Way with Hadar – The L in American English
Sounds American – Consonant Sound /l/
What Should I Practice Next?
In the next video, we’ll work on the sound that causes the most trouble for English learners – the sound of the English r. Don’t worry! We’ll go through the pronunciation in a very easy way and give you lots of words to practice with. Click the button to go there now.
