How to pronounce the “NG” sound in English

By learning about the important “ng” sound in English and practicing it, you will begin to sound more like a native speaker. The “ng” sound in English is one of three nasal consonant sounds. This means that it is pronounced by making sound through the nasal passage. In this video, I will teach you how to pronounce the “ng” sound, and I will explain how it differs from the “in” sound. You will learn the difference in sound between words that end in “-ing” and words that end in “-in”. For example, the words “doing” and “do in” mean completely different things. Watch the video to find out how to pronounce these words properly and sound more like a native English speaker. Next, take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/how-to-....pronounce-ng-in-engl

TRANSCRIPT

I've been working in a coal mine. Every day I've been working in the coal mine; I'm working over time. Work... Hi. James from engVid. Now, did I say: "I was working in a coal mine" or "I work in a coal mine"? Some of you are going to go: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it." and others go: "What?" That's today's lesson. The "ng" sound in English is often confused with "in", but let's go to the board and ask Mr. E.

So, Mr. E, was it...? Is it... Or is it "ing" or... "in"? "ng" or "in"? He doesn't know either. But before I continue, Aris from Mexico was a good student of mine. She made a couple mistakes, and I said: I promise I will make a video to clear this up. So, Aris, I hope it's a good video; you and your cute dimples and glasses.

All right, so is it "ing"...? So, not "ing", but "ng", because we can have "tongue", or "ing", but the sound, here, is... I'll show you how it's made in a second, too, but it's often confused with "in" for a lot of students. So, "ng", "ng", as in: "walking"... Okay? It's often confused with "walk in". "I walk in the rain because I like it, and I'm walking in the rain." Okay? It's very, very similar.

One of the things we want to know to say the difference... Because, to be honest, I'm not going to teach you about "in". I'll do another video with "n", "m", and "ing" or "ing", and we'll... We can compare, there, but today what I want to do is teach you about the "ng" sound, because if I can teach you that, it will help you with the "in" sound. It's my belief that if you get very good at one thing and can really see it, you can see everything that is not it. Okay? So it's the simplified way; instead of teaching you five different things. Just like: This is it, and if it's not that, it's different. And you should be able to pick it right up. Okay?

So, "ng" is one of the three nasal consonants in English. The three of them are-remember I said I'd do a video on it?-"n", "m", and "ng". There's "mm", "nn", and "ung". So, what that means is it vibrates through the nasal... Nose and nasal passage. And you're probably saying: "What? Nasal passage." Well, your nose. It comes from your nose over here. What happens is we move our tongue in a certain way, and the tongue in our head, and when we lift it up it kind of blocks the air so the air goes through your nose a bit. And when you do it, you'll feel like: "mmm", vibrate. "Mmm", vibrate. "Ng", you can touch your nose and you'll feel there's a vibration. That's because the air is going by where your nose is, and it makes that particular or interesting sound. Okay?

So, what's important to know about the "ng" sound is you can find this sound in the middle of words. For example: "anger" and "English". We're learning English. Ah, you knew I had to put it somewhere. Okay? So: "anger" and "English". Or you can find it at the end of the words, like: "thing" and "wrong". There are a lot of words in English that people confuse, like: "think" and "thing". I'm going to teach you today and you won't make that mistake. In fact, I'm going to teach you another lesson how to do that as well. So, this is a really good lesson because it will help you with many things. Okay?

So, as I was saying, people often confuse the "ng" with "in". Okay? An example is they confuse: "sleeping" with "sleep in", and "doing" with "do in". Well, what's the difference? It's not much? Well, they're very different. "Sleeping"-[snores]-the activity you do at night. "To sleep in" means to get up late. So, they're not even the same. They sound similar and they are related, but this is sleeping at night and sleep in. "Doing" is your activity now, and "do in five minutes", "do in time", so I'm talking about maybe a time period. "I can do it in five minutes." Now, what am I doing? Well, no, I can do this for you. I'll do it in five minutes; not now, but a little later. Similar; not the same.

So, I talked about this "ng" and showed you the two of them, but... And I did promise you that we would... I would make it that you could learn the one sound to see the difference. So, why don't I show you how to do it? Ta-da: How to do it. First, drop the jaw. Drop, drop, drop. […]