How To Pronounce the L Sound in American English Part 2 | The Dark L Sound

hi guys and welcome to the clear English corner I'm Keenan your personal American English pronunciation coach in this lesson we're talking about the dark L sound this is the L that comes at the end of words and the end of syllables by the end of this lesson you'll know all about how to articulate this sound and we'll practice the sound together in words and phrases here on the clear English corner we're talking about all things American English pronunciation related so if this is an area where you're looking for practice and help be sure to subscribe and tap the bell so that you'll receive a notification any time a new lesson is published okay so the dark L sound the way a Native American English speaker articulates L at the end of words and the end of syllables is entirely different than how we articulate that sound at the beginning of words and syllables for the light L sound you're taking the front of your tongue and pressing it gently against the back of your top teeth and then releasing it's a quick press and release for the dark L sound a native speaker isn't using the tip of their tongue at all the motion of the tongue is all in the back of the tongue for this sound a native speaker actually retracts the tongue the back of the tongue or the root of the tongue towards the throat like this all all the sound is actually really different from the light L where the tongue is quickly pressing and releasing against the back top teeth so left light L dark L ol o the lips cheeks and jaw are completely relaxed for the dark L sound and the movement is happening entirely with the tongue retracting towards the back of the throat oh-oh now if this is an unfamiliar movement for you retracting the tongue there's a couple things that you can play around with in order to help achieve this sound so one thing you can try is to work from the gag reflex so the gag reflex is what happens when you eat something that you really don't like the taste of or you smell something that's really offensive to your nose and you go you gag the motion your tongue makes when your gag reflex happens is the same as how it retracts to make the dark L sound so in both cases the tongue pulls back towards the throat so you can kind of play around with the gag reflex to feel that feel what it feels like for the tongue to retract back towards the throat let me clarify I'm not saying you have to go eat a lot of nasty things or smell a lot of disgusting smells to get the gag reflex going you can just fake it another thing that you can try is to think of your uvula that's actually one of my favorite word's uvula the uvula is that little dangly thing in the back of your throat so you can think about trying to aim the back of your tongue towards your uvula it gives you something to aim towards so you're pulling the tongue back towards the little dangly thing in the back of your throat all all so let's try this sound in some words try apple apple and an apple I ate an apple try people people a lot of people else else or else try this or else almost almost almost there we're almost there okay good if you're having trouble getting the tongue retracted or pulling that tongue back towards the throat there is an alternate placement that you can try to achieve a very similar sound to the dark L and the placement for this is the same as the light L you can actually press the front of your tongue against your back top teeth oh oh you can even let the tongue tip come out a bit under the top teeth like you're making a th sound Oh Oh either one of those can work now the difference between articulating this sound using this placement and the light L is that you want to be sure that you're holding the sound here's what I mean you want to make sure you're not pressing and releasing so for example the word people you want to hold that L sound hold your tongue pressed against your back top teeth so instead of people people or you're pressing and releasing hold the sound people-people okay here's another example the word deal hold that L sound you don't want it to sound like deal deal no hold the L deal deal the deal what's the deal good let's try another one rule rule now you don't want it to sound like rule rule we're holding that tongue in the behind our top front teeth to get that dark L sound rule the rule what's the rule good let's try one more hole hole again not whole whole whole day the whole day awesome another thing you want to remember for the dark L sound is you want to be sure that there's not an extra vowel sound sneaking in there in front of the OL let's go back to the word people a lot of non-native speakers will pronounce this word Pipo Pipo and what's happening is there's a short e sound sneaking in right before the dark l peep-bo the way to get rid of this extra e sound is to think of smushing the sounds together so you want to smush the sound right before the L right into the all sound so P will keep all the sounds are right next to each other with nothing sneaking in between you're going to go straight from that final P at the end of the first syllable peep straight into the hole which is a syllable all on its own peep hole peep hole alright let's try another one the word table a lot of times will be pronounced as table Tabo with that short e sound sneaking in there we want to pull that sound out and think of smashing the book and the OL right together bull bowl table table set the table okay another example the word final final not final we want to take the moon sound and go straight into the ol final final we're going straight from the end to the L and we're holding that dark L sound also final that's final this also works when there's a vowel sound that comes right before the dark L so for example the word fail fail not fail we want to take that X ound out and go straight from the a - all ale ale fail fail can't fail you can't fail another example while while again we're going from the I sound the AI diphthong vowel to the old Isle Isle while while Waialae while I wait awesome practice so there you have it that's the scoop on the dark L sound how to pronounce L at the end of words and the end of syllables if you're ready for some more practice with this sound I have a list of the top 100 dark L words in American English that you can grab by clicking here or I have a link for you in the video description alright I hope you found the lesson helpful if you did please be sure to give a thumbs up and share the lesson with your friends or family that you think might find the information interesting or helpful as always thank you so much for tuning in and I'll see you next time

Channel: Clear English Corner with Keenyn Rhodes

Views: 210,011

Keywords: l sound, the l sound, pronounce the l sound, pronounce the l sound in american english, the dark l, dark l, dark l sound, pronunciation of l, american english, american english accent, american english pronunciation, pronunciation american english, american english learning, american accent, american accent training, american pronunciation, accent reduction, accent modification, how to speak american accent, clear english, clear english corner, keenyn

Id: FUWVldKrTDs

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018