Make the sound
(►) 1 Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate, as if you're going to make a /g/ dvd        sound, as in 'go'.
2 Check that your tongue tip is relaxed in the bottom of your mouth.
3 Breathe out through your nose.
4 This sound is always voiced.
When do I use this sound?
Spelling	Examples	Frequency
	song, singer, walking	often
nk or nc spellings	think, banker, uncle	often
/Ok/		
ng in the middle of a word, not followed by a suffix	hunger, language, engage, finger	often
/ng/		
ng in comparative or superlative words	stronger, longest	often
/ng/		
Now try it!
Say each of these words and sentences aloud. Then compare your pronunciation with the
model on tracks 23-25. A    long. singer waiting finger think banker
?6      Section B: The sounds of English
Work on your Accent SING
B    1 I think it's wrong to be sitting and waiting for something exciting.
2 The phone is ringing, but it's the bank calling.
3 Walking all the way to the meeting will take a long time.
C    1 Sitting and thinking of swimming and singing.
Am I doing something wrong?
1 2 4 5 6
X   Pronouncing a /g/ sound after the /rj/ in words like'bang'and'wrong'. The g spelling is part of this /rj/ sound; rather than a separate sound to be added to the end of the word.
v    Stop breathing out before you drop the back of your tongue down.
This sound is a sustainable sound, and has no defining end point. Practise by holding onto the sound for longer than is normal, until you get used to ending it in this way.
X   Using the same sound in the words 'sun' and 'sung'.
f  Check that the front of your tongue is relaxed, and not rising up to touch the alveolar ridge.
X   Not actually raising the tongue back to make the closure and so sending the vowel
sound through the nose.This will sound like a nasal vowel, rather than a consonant /rj/.
if  Be sure that you can feel the back of your tongue touching your soft palate.
Sometimes, the g in an ng spelling is pronounced as a separate sound, making the sounds /rjg/. Look at the table below:
i /ng/	2 /rj/	3 /rjg/
hunger, finger, linger, language,	longing, longed,	longer, longest, stronger,
anger, engage, dangle	hangman, hanger	strongest
1 If ng spelling is in the middle of a word (other than a word with a suffix, like -ed, -ing, -er) then the / rjg/ pronunciation is used.
2 When a suffix, or additional word, is added to the root word, / rj / is the usual pronunciation.
3 However, if you are using the comparative or superlative suffixes, -est and -er, the /rjg/ pronunciation is used again.
You should always pronounce the /k/ sound in words with nk combinations, •    e.g.'think', 'thank you'.
2jo ~£yh
27