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 N consonant sound. This sound is made by raising your tongue and letting the front part of the top of the tongue, nn, press against the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth, nn, while you make a sound with your vocal cords. Nn, nn, the rest of the mouth remains relaxed.

Here is the N consonant sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest. You can see that the lips are parted and the jaw is slightly dropped for this sound. Here, parts of the mouth are drawn in. The tongue raises in the front and touches the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth. So actually the tip of the tongue is touching the front teeth. This is one of the few sounds in American English where the soft palate remains down. This allows air to pass over the soft palate, and causes it to feel somewhat in the nose. It is a nasal consonant along with M and NG [].

Sample words: nice, can, dinner. Sample sentence: Now I don't know when I can come. Now you will see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the tongue moves to make this sound.

Now, jaw drops and the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth for the N. Down for the 'ow' as in 'now' diphthong []. I, with the 'ai' as in 'buy' diphthong []. Don't, the lips are rounded here, so you can't really see the tongue goes up behind the teeth and back down. Know when, lips make the tight circle. Tongue up for the N. I can come with the 'uh' as in 'butter' vowel sound [] and the lips together for the M consonant sound. And now from the angle. Jaw drops while the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth. Now, 'ow' as in 'now' diphthong. I don't, tongue up to the roof of the mouth for the N, and again for the N in know. When, lips make the tight circle for the W and the tongue up to the roof of the mouth for the N. I can, tongue raises in the back for the K sound. Come, with the 'uh' as in 'butter' and the lips close for the M consonant sound.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: []

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

Miss the old sound video? See it here.