K & G (Stop Consonant Sounds #2) | American English Pronunciation and Ear Training Course

[@o_felipe_reis]

Great video Josh! ;-)

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Thanks ☺

[@o_felipe_reis]

@@NativeEnglishHacks my pleasure

[@williamrodriguez8031]

I found a word where the soft g sound is at the start of it: "Granade" with the stress in the second syllable: gra'NEID.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Yep, because it's at the start of an unstressed syllable. You'll commonly find the weak/soft one in the middle, but it doesn't actually matter where it is. The strength of the stop consonant generally depends on the stress. This makes perfect sense due to the nature of how stop sounds are physically created and pushed out. More stress = more force of breath = stronger sound; less stress = less force of breath = weaker sound

[@haiyen1439]

Dear Coach signal and pregnant. Although they have the same /gn/ in one word but I feel signal => with unreleased /g/ pregnant => with true / Is that right? and why? Thanks a lot

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

No. If enunciated enough, both are likely to be released as weak G sounds; if less enunciated, both are likely to be held. It doesn't matter at all which one is used.

[@haiyen1439]

@@NativeEnglishHacks Thanks a lot my coach

[@haiyen1439]

@@NativeEnglishHacks Is it applied to "angry" "hungry" that means we can pronounce soft /g/ or unreleased /g/ right? Thanks a lot

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

There is no G in NG. When you leave the NG sound, a little G can be produced and is acceptable, but it's not supposed to be there. NG words work completely differently than GN words. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIDcpXqEac2kmpI

[@vietanho4092]

Can you make a video of how to pronounce"EX" in "example","experience",etc... In this case, Will you use Glottal Stop "K" or "G" ?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Great question. I can definitely address that at the live stream if you can come, but I think I'll also grab some of your guys' questions and put them all into one video. To answer your question for now, these are not glottal stops. The full pronunciation of "ex" uses the third vowel sound on the chart (EH) and will be either ehks or ehgz, depending on the word. However, the vowel often reduces to either the second vowel sound (IH), or a schwa (UH). So any of those three vowel sounds are perfectly fine. The hard part is knowing if it should use the "ks" or the "gz", and for that, you should train your ears (of course! 😉)

[@miguelsuarezlume.5806]

Is it possible to make glottal stops in the middle of a word like "outside"

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Absolutely! Though it might also be possible to drop the T completely (as long as you'renot enunciating/emphasizing), like in this word

[@Samuraiwithswords]

When we are linking k or any stop comsonant into a vowel sound like " thin kabout it " does k will be aspirated?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

No. It will never be aspirated

[@Samuraiwithswords]

@@NativeEnglishHacks so we never aspirate stop consonants when we link it is that correct? Just making sure😙

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

At the very least we're never supposed to. Sometimes strange things can happen, but if nothing else, it's wouldn't be normal to aspirate them

[@user-lf2zh3mo5l]

Are the s, p and k in these clusters: sks, sps, sts, aspirated?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Are they at the start of a stressed syllable? That's what triggers the aspiration in normal and fast speech. So no, they're not aspirated. However, English hates 3 consonant sounds in a row, so what we usually do in cases like this is drop the middle sound. Because that leaves us with two S sounds in a row, you need to make a very, very slight change in your breath or position and then immediately make another S sound so we can hear both of them. The exception here is the P. In addition to the small chnage I just mentioned, we also add a little bit of lip movement going about half way into a P but not closing it. Keep in mind all of this is for normal speed and fast speed speech. If you're speaking more clearly and/or slowly for a special reason like emphasis, then it's perfectly fine and normal to use a weak version of whatever sound is in the middle.

[@user-lf2zh3mo5l]

@@NativeEnglishHacks how to link these sks, sps, sts clusters?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZqTc2aJqr6Kbtk starting at 4 minutes of that video

[@user-lf2zh3mo5l]

@@NativeEnglishHacks how do you pronounce the 'gs' and 'bs' ending consonant clusters?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

@@user-lf2zh3mo5l These are just normal sound transitions, nothing special. Keep in mind that spelling doesn't always match sound, but we'll assume the "gs" uses the K/G position with the back of the tongue. Release the G lightly (it's a weak G) and immediately put the front of your tongue into the S/Z position (this will usually be Z sound because of the voiced G). For "bs", again, the s is usually a Z sound. Here, go into the B position with your lips, but also make this a weak B. Your tongue should already be in the Z position or close to it before you release the B

[@iiAbdullah635]

Do you hear a common mistake that non-native speakers make when they pronounce k/g? I'm talking about something similar to sounding close the correct but not quite there. I remember you mentioning not closing completely before.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

The most common mistake is not using enough air on the strong K. Not fully closing is another one (though we can do this in really fast and lazy speech). As we'll see a little in the posture lesson, there are several things that can easily go wrong with the quality

[@iiAbdullah635]

@EnglishHacks , I did some googling. Apparently, we, Arabic speakers(most of us), don't use the soft palate to produce our k/g. We use the middle part of our tongue to produce our k/g. We might use the back of tongue(partially) in addition to the middle part of tongue. If you google "مخرج حرف ك", you might find a diagram of what I'm talking about . Or I can email you the diagram if you're interested.

[@liangxu530]

When I listen, I cannot differentiate this pair at the end/glottal. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That's normal. You just have to target that specifically, so practice listening to words ending in stop K compared to words ending in stop G. In the future, I'll be making a lesson comparing the stopped version of all the stop sounds and I'll probably also make a minimal pair and extra practice lesson for it ☺

[@haiyen1439]

Dear Coach Please, help to confirm the followings. Is it correct? 1. /kju/, /kjə/, /kw/ in one word or linking to next word  /k/ pronounced as true /k/ with release - Kumquat / ˈkʌmkwɑt/ - Occupation / ˌɑkjəˈpeɪʃən/ - Thank you / θæŋk ju / 2. Consonant after /k/ in one word or linking to next word  /k/ pronounced as unreleased /k/ - Dark hair / dɑrk hɛr/ - Backyard / ˈbæˌkjɑrd/ Thank you very much

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I've received your comment and will be answering in the near future. I want others to have a chance to ask similar questions and I'll make a follow-up video answering everyone 🙂 Just hang tight

[@haiyen1439]

@@NativeEnglishHacks I’m looking forward to your answer. Thanks a lot

[@haiyen1439]

How are you? I’m looking forward to your video for my question. Thanks a lot

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Yes, it seems no one has questions, so I'll make a quick video for this today or tomorrow

[@haiyen1439]

@@NativeEnglishHacks thanks a lot.

[@razelmichellewang643]

Are the" k" and "g" tongue inside the upper teeth or below the upper teeth?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

Great question! There's actually not just one answer here. For me, it seems that the upper sides of the back of my tongue often touch the inside of my back teeth, but the don't absolutely have to. I would recommend having at least some very light contact because it gives you a nice reference point to help make sure you're doing it corrrectly

[@razelmichellewang643]

Thanks

[@GG-fy5hm]

what was the longest time taken by a student to completely master the american accent correctly in your teaching life?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

That's a tough question and not a simple answer. There are many factors, such as how much work they need to do based on their current level of accent, any fossilization that needs to be corrected (which takes a lot longer and isn't always worth the effort), how motivated and consistent they are, etc. Most people I've worked with either reach a point where they feel they're good enough or they don't put in the consistent time and effort to reach the goal and end up quitting. The fastest I've seen is about a year, but that's also because of fossils. They were already an advanced speaker and had to undo some bad habits. If you start training early, the process can go much faster. So how long it takes a particular person depends on many factors. I can't say how long it will take you, but remember that regular feedback is super critical to the process.

[@GG-fy5hm]

@@NativeEnglishHacks thanks for the answer

[@duniaramvanilje3544]

🙏💐🥰👋