Pronounce K and G in American English
In this video, we’re going to learn how to pronounce k and g, our second set of stop consonants. If you haven’t watched the first video about p and b, or if you haven’t read the post about stop consonants, please do that before you watch this video.
How to Pronounce K and G
K and g are similar to p and b, but we stop the air in the back of our mouth instead of by closing our lips. Raise your tongue to touch the back of your mouth, completely closing your throat. Your lips and teeth will be open slightly. Then to release the air, just lower your tongue.
Try it with me. You won’t be able to see my tongue, but just close your eyes and feel how your tongue lifts and lowers.
Play the video again and pronounce these words with me from John chapter 10. The word gatekeeper contains both sounds.
k – gatekeeper, came, spoke, care, scatters, become, because, take, flock, works
g – gatekeeper, goes, again, go, good, give, given, God
The Letter C Can Also Make the K Sound
You can see from these examples that the letter c can also make the k sound. The letter q also makes the k sound. We’ll talk about this more in the spelling section. (coming soon)
Two Sounds of G
Today we studied the hard sound of g. The IPA symbol for this sound is /g/. The letter g also has a “soft” sound, as in the word giraffe. When a word contains this soft g sound, the IPA symbol for the sound of j /dʒ/ is used. Click here to learn more about the j sound.
What Should I Practice Next?
Now that we’ve studied the six stop consonants, let’s take a look at our next set of consonants. M, n, and ng are called the nasal consonants. Click the button to go there now.
