
As helpful as it is to
know what you should do in order to speak English well, it is also important to
be aware of the common mistakes made by native, British speakers. Throughout
the UK, there are a range of different dialects and regional accents. In areas
such as Essex and London, many people confuse ‘l’ and ‘w’ in words such as
still, middle and well, so don’t be surprised if you hear someone saying ‘I’m
very wew, thank you’ when they mean ‘Very well’. This may sound unlikely to
you, but it is becoming more and more prevalent. I have also worked with
clients from the West country and Birmingham who make the same mistake.
Sometimes this mistake
is just a habit that has been picked up, and other times it is due to a
lack of strength in the tongue. If this is the case, there is a great exercise
for strengthening the tongue. All you need to do is take a soft sweet, or
something similar and hold it up against the middle of the palate with the tip
of the tongue for as long as you can. Ideally, this should be repeated three
times per day until you are able to make the movement without any difficulty.
So, now that you know
what not to do when it comes to the pronunciation of the consonant sound ‘l’,
here is what you should be doing :
In the photograph, below, i demonstrate the mouth positioning for 'l':
This sound differs slightly depending on where in the word it is positioned. It is a voiced sound, which means that air passes over the vocal chords creating a sound.
There is one IPA symbol for this sound, ‘l’, even though it varies slightly depending on whether it is positioned before or after the vowel (or diphthong): let vs tell, for instance. When the ‘l’ sound comes before the vowel, it is fairly straight forward: To produce this sound, maintain a neutral mouth positioning (the lips rest gently apart), place the tip of your tongue on the palate just before the front teeth, without actually touching the front teeth, create a little pressure as you begin the vowel that follows and then release to continue with your word. At this point, the middle of the tongue should be slightly raised. If you slow down the sound, you will notice there is a little extra sound that is not represented by an ipa symbol, it is similar to the vowel sound ʊ, as in the word ‘could’.
This extra sound is more apparent when the vowel or diphthong comes before the ‘l’, as in words such as ‘meal’. Even without slowing down my speech, that is to say, in normal speech, this extra sound is very much apparent and if you do not pronounce it, the word won’t sound the same. If you’re still a little confused, please do watch my video on this subject. This is an extract from my Digital course in British accent coaching.
This sound differs
slightly depending on where in the word it is positioned. It is a voiced sound,
which means that air passes over the vocal chords creating a sound.
There is one IPA
symbol for this sound, ‘l’, even though it varies slightly depending on whether
it is positioned before or after the vowel (or diphthong): let vs tell, for
instance. When the ‘l’ sound comes before the vowel, it is fairly straight
forward: To produce this sound, maintain a neutral mouth positioning (the lips
rest gently apart), place the tip of your tongue on the palate just before the
front teeth, without actually touching the front teeth, create a little
pressure as you begin the vowel that follows and then release to continue with
your word. At this point, the middle of the tongue should be slightly raised.
If you slow down the sound, you will notice there is a little extra sound that
is not represented by an ipa symbol, it is similar to the vowel sound ʊ, as in
the word ‘could’.
This extra sound is
more apparent when the vowel or diphthong comes before the ‘l’, as in words
such as ‘meal’. Even without slowing down my speech, that is to say, in normal
speech, this extra sound is very much apparent and if you do not pronounce it,
the word won’t sound the same. If you’re still a little confused, please do
watch my video on this subject. This is an extract from my Digital course in British accent coaching.
l from Francesca Gordon-Smith on Vimeo.
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