These two consonants are paired together because they take the same mouth position. Learn the correct mouth position for these sounds to pronounce them clearly and accurately.
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The G and K consonant sounds. These two sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position. K is unvoiced, kk, meaning, only air passes through your mouth. And G is voiced, gg, gg, meaning, you’re making a sound with your vocal cords. These consonants are stop consonants, which means there are two parts to the sound. First, a stop of the airflow, and second, a release. To stop the airflow, the back part of the tongue reaches up and touches the soft palate, cutting off the air, gg. The second part: the tongue pull away and the air is released, gg, kk.
The lip position of these consonants is influenced by the sound that comes next. For example, the word gas. The sound that comes after the G is the ‘aa’ as in ‘bat’ vowel, gas, and you can see the corners of the lips are pulling back. The top lip is pulling up, exposing the top teeth, gas, gas, even before the G is made. Another example, grape, grape, you can see the lips taking the rounded position of the R, grape, even before the G sound is started.
Here we see the g/k consonant sounds on the right compared with the mouth at rest. Here parts of the mouth are drawn in. The soft palate is raised on this sound, and the tongue stretches in the back all the way up towards it, touching the raised soft palate. The tip of the tongue remains down and forward, lightly touching the bottom front teeth. Sample words: cap/gap, curl/girl, kill/gill. Sample sentence: Chris carried the gray crate to the gate. 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 mouth moves when making this sound.
Chris with the C-R so the lips are taking the position of the R as the back of the tongue is raised. Chris, teeth together and up towards the front for the S. Carried, there you see the front part of the tongue coming down as the back is raised. Tongue tip up for the D. Tongue tip through the teeth for the TH, the. Gray, again, the lips are taking the position of the R as the back of the tongue is raised. And here again, crate, tongue is back touching the soft palate and the lips are rounded for the R. Tongue tip up for the T. To the, tongue tip quickly through the teeth for the TH in the. Gate, you see the front part of the tongue as it is coming back down from it being raised in the back for the G consonant sound in gate.
Chris, again, you see the tongue moving back, but the lips are coming forward for the R position. Chris. Tongue forward again for the S and the teeth together. Carried, lips form the R position. Tongue tip up for the D. And through the teeth for the TH. The gray, again the tongue is moving back to raise at the back while the lips form the R. Crate, watch the tongue move back as the lips close over it. Crate. Tongue up and teeth together to make the T. To the, tongue tip through the teeth for the, gate. Now here the back of the tongue is raised, touching the soft palate, and then the tongue tip comes forward to make the T sound. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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