English Pronunciation: -ING & -INK word endings
Do you need some help with your English pronunciation? Today we are focusing on words ending in “-ing” and “-ink”. For example, words like “sing”, “ring”, “bring”, “pink”, “sink”, and “blink” are all words that end in either “-ing” or “-ink”. Some of these words have one syllable, and some have two, such as in “singing”. In this lesson, I will pronounce the words for you and explain how to say them. You will get a chance to practise your pronunciation with me. As a bonus, you may also learn some new vocabulary! Whether you are a beginner or you want to brush up on your English pronunciation, this lesson is for you. I think you may be on the brink of learning something new!
NEXT, watch these other pronunciation lessons I've made for you:
1. Pronunciation – How to say words ending with -OW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lc7pucsco4&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=7
2. Pronunciation – TH & THR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIOxYtguhk&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=12
3. Pronunciation – The 2 ways to pronounce 'THE': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zMxYQC0TM&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=15
TRANSCRIPT
Hello. I'm Gill from at engVid, and we have a lesson today on pronunciation of two sounds, which are similar, but different: "ing", which comes at the end of a lot of verbs: "walking", "talking", "cooking", "cleaning", that sort of thing; the present participle. And another one: "ink", which also has a sort of "in" sound in it as well, so they are... They have a similarity, but there's also a difference.
So, I find that with some of my students, they don't quite get the pronunciations right, and some students with "ing" do a sort of hard "g" sound at the end, like: "ing", "ing", but you don't need to do that. You can stop before that hard "g" sound. It looks, from the spelling, as if it's needed, but it's not, so it's just: "ing", "ing", "ing", and it's sort of in the throat, and you don't have to do a "ga", "ga" in... In your mouth, the sound in the mouth with it. So: "ing".
And then with "ink", there's still a "in" sound in it, but it ends with a "k". And I find also some of my students, maybe from Eastern Europe in particular, say "ink" when they're really trying to say "ing", so they might say: "singingk", "lookingk", "cleaningk", and that also is wrong. So, no hard "g" and no "k" for the "ings".
So, I thought what we could do is look at some words that are real words in both... Under both headings. So, we've got: "sing" and "sink", so it helps you to practice the slight difference between them. So, also hopefully there may be some new vocabulary here for you, so you can learn some new words at the same time. So, let's have a look.
Let's go through the "ings" first, so: "sing", and we can also... With some of these, if they're a verb, we can say: "singing", "singing", so both of those sounds; that sound comes twice. "Singing". So, don't make the "ga" or "ka" sound with it. "Thing", "thing". "Ring", so you could have: "ringing", "ringing", and it's just "na", "na", "na" in your throat, like that. "Ringing", "ringing". Okay.
"Ping", "pinging", "pinging". So, "ping"... "Ping" is a funny word. It sort of suggests a sound, like a little ringing sound: "Ping, ping, ping", if something makes that sort of sound. And also it's used in computing, if you ping someone to see how long it takes for a message to arrive. Or some people just say: "I'll ping that across to you", meaning: I will email it across to you. They use "ping" to mean send, as well as the more technical meaning of seeing how long it takes for a message to reach somewhere. Okay. So: "ping" and "pinging".
"Bring", I'm sure you know that word. "Bring", to bring something with you. I... "Will you bring a bottle to the party?" Something like that. "Wing" on a bird, the... The bird flies with the wings. "Wing". Okay. "Ming" has a capital "M" because it's the Ming dynasty in China, so you get very valuable pieces of pottery or porcelain. A vase - you could have a Ming vase, for example; very valuable, very old. So: "Ming". Okay. "King", I'm sure you know the word "king". The king and the queen in countries where they have royalty. "King".
Ah, now this is a funny one. "Bling" is a little bit sort of an informal, slang word. It refers to people who like to wear a lot of jewellery, lots of very noticeable, thick... A thick, gold necklace, lots of rings, big rings on their hands, on their fingers. Just to show how much money they have, they buy lots of jewellery, and it's big and shiny, and that's called "bling". A lot of very noticeable jewellery is... is called "bling", to show off how much money you have to spend on things like that. So, that's quite a funny word. Okay.
So, just to go on to the "ink", so: "sink". So, you still get the "in" sound in it, but you can then put the "k" on. So, you might have: "sinking"; you might actually add "ing" to it. A lot of these, you could add "ing". […]