Dark L vs Light L | English Pronunciation Masterclass

today we're looking at the difference between the light L and the dark L all right it's not the evil it's just the dark L honestly welcome back to another lesson if you haven't met me before my name is Tom and I teach fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next level and achieve your life goals today we're looking at L and how it can be pronounced in two different ways let's start with the light L now we find the light L before a vowel sound and also usually found at the beginning of words for example look look now how do we make this sound well the tongue is the most important thing so place the tip of your tongue on the alveolar Ridge that is the top of your mouth now I place mine just behind my top teeth there okay so I placed the tip of my tongue just behind my totty and I blow air out like that now it's a voiced sound so you should feel a vibration in your throat and then to release the sound you release your tongue so look look listen listen examples of words with the light L long long lemon lemon learn learn language language unless unless follow follow the dark L is usually found at the end of words certainly before consonants or as the final sound of a word for example help help now to make this sound our tongue is really important again now what we do here is not touching anything and I bring it back so to create the sound I withdraw the tongue into my mouth like this oh oh so for example hell hell okay sound strange when I slow it down hell so my talent is coming towards the back of my mouth and that's creating the sound hell so the move and right on net is really important it's coming backwards and then finishing kind of pointing upwards it's not touching anything okay that's really important it's not touching the alveolar Ridge all my teeth it's just in my mouth moves backwards and then upwards to finish the sound so back up so full it's important to note that not all British accents used the dark help most notably cockney accent doesn't really use the dark L there are various other sounds that might be using this in it so for example it's the same school it'll be to school school or full would be full full so it kind of disappears I always think if it is having the same mouth shape as war school I end my mouth in the same shape as or what sound but I'm not saying what I'm just making that shape so school pool full so the dark young will change and adapt depending on what vowel sounds there are in a cockney accent anyway let's get back to looking a dark hill and a light elm comparing the two sounds together now what's important to notice is the change of the L sound so frozen I will take a word like tall tall I'm using the dark L sound they're tall because it's at the end of the word but if I make it super native tallest tallest suddenly I've added EST e is a vowel so the L sound of tall has now gone from a dark L to a light L so it's not tallest its tallest tallest tallest so I'm now using the light L sound so be aware that even if it's the same word tall the tallest the same way there is a change of sound depending on you know what's around the main word so we're using the vowel sound there est so becomes tallest it's also important to look at words together so for example email address email address email we said was a dark L sound email email but if the next word begins with a vowel sound that L turns from a dark L to a light L so there's now email address email address email address so it's not email address it's email address so I'm using the light L to blend those two words together so yes it's not just about looking at their word individually you have to look at the other words around it to help you to understand whether it's a dark L or a light L another example might be fall over fall over I fell over yesterday I fell over yesterday so we have felt fell with the dark L but now we've got over which begins with a vowel it's now fell over fell over so I'm using the light L to blend those two words together all right let's do a little practice sentence to use both the light and the dark he'll listen to me first and then repeats afterwards okay here we go I love language lessons said the tool girl at school I love language lessons said the tall girl at school I love language lessons said the tool girl at school all right so let's have a look at what else were using there so I love the light L the language lights out again lessons again did the light L said the tall dark L girl dark L at school school dark out again so you've got three light hours three dark colors I love language lessons said the tool girl at school okay your turn to practice okay all right let's do it one more time together I love language lessons said the tall girl at school practice guys that's the only way you can improve is if you practice do it in a voice recorder do it into the mirror do it wherever you need to but practice practice practice guys if you've enjoyed this lesson and you want more English resources then please check out my patreon page over at patreon I offer extra English resources so it could be live English lessons it could be Skype lessons with me so please feel free to go over there check it out see what English resources are available and which level of support you would feel most comfortable with I'd love you to check it out that would be fantastic guys if you've enjoyed that video please give it a big thumbs up make sure you subscribe and you hit that notification bell so you don't miss a single video thank you so much for watching as always this is Tom the chief dreamer saying goodbye

Channel: Eat Sleep Dream English

Views: 66,424

Keywords: English pronunciation, british english pronunciation, pronunciation, pronounce, how to say, how to pronounce, dark l light l, how to pronounce L in english, sound more british, british pronunciation, lesson, english lesson, english class, language, british accent, english accent, accent training, pronunciation lesson, british english, improve your english, how to speak english

Id: zf5laPOZuos

Length: 7min 28sec (448 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2017