If you want more information on the photos in this video, which have parts of the mouth drawn in, see this video on the parts of the mouth.

How to make this sound:

Video Text:

The L consonant sound. I know this sound can be especially difficult for people studying English. Probably because it's actually really two sounds although it only has one symbol in the international phonetic alphabet. The two sounds are differentiated by where this sound comes in a word. If the L comes before a vowel or diphthong within a syllable, like in the word lap or fly, then it is an L or 'light L'. If it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable, like in the word real, then it is a 'dark L' and it is preceded by a vowel like sound that is not written in IPA.

First, let's talk about the position for the L or light L sound. To make this sound, the tip of the tongue, right there on the very end, raises and touches the roof of the mouth, lll, right where the teeth touch the roof of the mouth. Lll. And you make sound with your vocal cords while holding your tongue there. Now, you may notice, other people, when they speak, sometimes the tongue will come through the teeth. "I love that!" And then it looks like the TH sound. In this case, rather than the tongue tip stretching up, it stretches forward. Either one of these is a fine way to pronounce this sound. Let's, love. So that is the L or light L.

The dark L, as I said, comes after a vowel or diphthong in s syllable. Let's take for example the word real. In IPA it is written with the r consonant sound [], the 'ee' as in 'she' [] vowel sound, and the L consonant sound. But if I say it slowly, you will notice a fourth sound. Real. And that is this 'uh' sound that comes just before the L. It's these two sounds together that make the dark L. Uh-l. And this uh sound comes as the tongue is moving into position for the L. Now in this dark L sound, the tongue tip comes to the roof of the mouth. Not through the teeth. Real. And the uh sound happens as the tongue moves into that position. Real.

This is a photo of four different mouth positions for the L sound. As you can see in the first two, the tongue actually comes through the teeth. Number 1 is the L on the word last, and number 2 on the word flew. In number 3 you can see that the tongue is not coming through the teeth. This is on the word flight. In this word, the tip of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth, and the teeth are closed before it opens into the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong []. And in number 4 you see the position of the L in the word fall. Here the L comes at the end of the syllable, so it is a dark L. So it has this vowel-like sound that comes before it and you see this mouth shape, where the lips come in a little bit at the corners, making the uh sound as part of the dark L.

Here we see a photo of the mouth at rest on the left compared with the light L sound on the right. Here some of the parts of the mouth are drawn in. You can see that the soft palate is raised on this sound. As you know from these forward-facing photos, the tongue can sometimes come through the teeth, but not always. Here, this would show where the tongue does not come through the teeth, but rather, where it touches the roof of the mouth just where it meets the teeth. The tongue tip stretches up for this. But in some of those forward-facing photos, you saw the tongue come through the teeth. For that the tongue reaches forward and touches just below the top front tooth, showing some of the tongue. Here are both of those tongue positions.

Here we see a different comparison. Rather than comparing the mouth at rest, this photo compares both parts of the dark L sound. On the left, you see the vowel-like sound that comes before the L, and on the right you see the L. In the vowel-like sound, the mouth fattens up towards the middle and fattens slightly as the lips round a bit. In the second part of the dark L sound the tongue moves forward. In fact, this vowel-like sound happens as the tongue is moving forward into the final position of the dark L.

One other note about this sound. The L, or light L position, where the tongue presses here or here, feels very forward in the face. But in the dark L where the tongue is moving into position, because some of the action happens further back, the sound tends to feel more here in the face. Ll, light L, uhll, dark L.

Sample words for the L or light L: lap, fly, relief. And for the dark L: fill, tool, cuddle. Sample sentence: Last fall we got a good deal on last minute flights when we flew to California. Now you will see this sentence in slow motion up close, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the lips and tongue move when making this sound.

The first word, last, begins with an L. It comes through the teeth. Fall, the second word, has a dark L. The bottom lip comes up to make the F sound. The 'aw' as in 'law' [] and the dark L. Note the shape of the lips. And there the tongue goes up to the roof of the mouth to finish the L sound. We got, tongue comes up to make the T. A good deal, this has the dark L. You see the tongue come up there. On last minute flights. You see the tongue was up at the teeth and then came down for the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong. When we flew. Now here you can't really see the tongue because the next sound is the 'oo' as in 'boo' [] and the lips are too tight to see. California. I bring the tongue through the teeth to make this L. The bottom lip comes up for the F, -ornia. The tongue comes up to make the N and pulls down.

And now from an angle. Last fall. Lip comes up to make the F. The 'aw' as in 'law' and the dark L, watch the tongue come up here to finish the dark L sound. We got, tongue taps up there to make the T, a good deal, another dark L, you can see the tongue come up here to make the end part of the L. On last minute flights, you can see the tongue come down quickly from having been behind the teeth. When we flew, again, there's an L in this word but you can't see it because the lips are so tight on the 'oo' as in 'boo'. To Cal-, tongue makes the L, California. Tongue comes up, this time it's making the N in California.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: []

See Wikipedia's page for more technical information, as well as a list of languages in which this sound occurs.

Miss the old sound video? See it here.