Name: Consonant Sound / l / as in “let”- American English Pronunciation
Uploaded: 2017-03-16T18:00:28.000Z
Duration: 7 min 15 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is the “Sounds American” channel.

In this video we’re going to talk about the American consonant sound /l/,

You can also hear this sound in words like “low,”

We’ll be using a special phonetic symbol - /l/ - for this sound.

Many non-native English speakers have the /l/ sound in their native language,

but there may be subtle differences in how it’s pronounced.

These people typically are not aware that they have difficulty making the /l/ sound.

Other people don’t have the /l/ sound in their native language

and they’re very aware that they can’t pronounce the /l/ correctly.

They may sometimes confuse the /l/ with the /r/ or replace it with more familiar sounds.

Since you’re watching this video you may likely fall into one of the categories :).

So, let’s find out how to make this sound.

Next, pay attention to the position of your tongue.

This is key to making a correct /l/ sound.

Touch the alveolar ridge behind your upper front teeth with the tip of your tongue.

If you don’t know what the alveolar ridge is,

If you make this sound correctly, you should be able to stretch out this sound,

Now, let’s practice the /l/ sound in some words.

You’ll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation.

You’ll have a few seconds to pronounce the word.

Make sure you repeat the words after the speaker,

- that’s the only way to learn to pronounce the /l/ sound correctly.

Let’s pause here for a second and check how you’re making the /l/ sound.

The tip of your tongue should be touching the alveolar ridge

and the back of your tongue should be lowered.

Did you know that there are two variations

and we covered its pronunciation in this video.

This will be a topic of one of our future videos

Stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe!