00:03Keep watching to find out how it's pronounced in British English.
00:14Hi everybody and welcome back to Lean English.
00:17I'm Ed and I'm here to help you achieve your pronunciation goals.
00:22Before we start, remember to like this video if you find it useful and subscribe for more
00:28British English pronunciation lessons in the future.
00:32Now let's look at the g sound in a bit more detail.
00:39Do you remember the n sound which we looked at a couple of weeks ago?
00:44The g sound starts in exactly the same position.
00:49So first produce the n sound.
00:53Now do it again, but this time block the flow of air through your nose as well, so that
00:59the air and sound are released through the mouth instead.
01:04g g
01:09Well done.
01:09You just produced the g sound.
01:13This sound is produced by blocking the flow of air between the tongue and the back of the
01:18mouth, then building up air pressure and releasing it explosively while simultaneously producing
01:26a sound from the back of the throat.
01:29The back of the mouth is called the velum and this gives the sound its technical name,
01:35the voiced vela plosive.
01:39Another way to find the g sound is to produce the k sound first.
01:45The k sound exists in most languages and it's produced in a similar way, except it's unvoiced.
01:54So first produce the k sound.
01:58Now, do it again, but this time produce a sound from the back of your throat at the same time.
02:05g g
02:10Well done.
02:11Obviously, in real conversation we don't produce the n or k sounds first, but you can use these
02:20tricks to find the correct mouth position.
02:24Now, look at these words.
02:27Can you identify the g sound?
02:32Now, listen and see if you can hear it.
02:39Good
02:40Age
02:41Guest
02:42Ghost
02:43Resign
02:44Egg
02:45Exam
02:46No
02:47The g sound is quite easy to identify in writing, because it's usually
03:02It can be spelt with a single or double letter g in words such as good and egg.
03:11It's occasionally spelt with the letters gu and gh in words such as guess and ghost.
03:20And it can be spelt with the letter x in words such as exam.
03:25In this case, it's always followed by the z sound.
03:31Be careful, because the letter g doesn't always produce the g sound.
03:36It may produce a different sound in words such as age, and it may be completely silent in words
03:44such as resign and gnaw.
03:48The letter g is usually silent when it appears before the letter n at the beginning or the end of words such as resign, gnaw, foreign, gnome.
04:11Now, let's practice.
04:14Listen and repeat after me.
04:17A great game of golf
04:20Illegal drug smuggling
04:26A guide to graphics design
04:30A guide to graphics design
04:37The growth of gangs in the ghetto
04:42I struggle to give examples
04:49When a word ends in a consonant sound, and the next word starts with the same consonant, they overlap, and it sounds like just one slightly longer consonant.
05:05You can hear this in phrases such as a big game
05:09A smug girl
05:12This is known as gemination, and it's a way of linking words together in connected speech.
05:21I recommend you watch my previous video on gemination for more information about this process.
05:28Well, that's the end of the lesson, but now it's your turn.
05:33Can you think of any more words that contain the silent letter g?
05:39Let me know in the comments below
05:41And remember to like and subscribe for more videos in the future.
