The G-Sound
We’ll talk about the velar G-sound today, which is the voiced K-sound counterpart. If you haven’t already realized it by now, many English sounds are paired into a voiceless and voiced duo. Still at the velum or soft-palate.
THE SOUND
The G-sound /g/ is produced when air is briefly stopped from leaving the vocal tract when the tip of the tongue presses against the velum while the sides of the tongue press against the upper side teeth. Instead of the tongue tip being used, it’s the tongue body or middle of the tongue.
Exactly like the K-sound, the /g/ sound is made by the tongue pushing firmly to the back of the oral cavity which blocks the flow of air in the mouth, until the tongue is lowered and the breath stream is released.
The sound is voiced so vocal cord vibration begins quickly for /g/.
The 'G sound' /g/ is voiced (the vocal cords vibrate while producing it), and is the counterpart to the voiceless 'K sound' /k/.
THE SOUND IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS.
Here's the sound in different positions of a word.
BEGINNING OF THE WORD - guarantee, groceries good, great, gasoline
MIDDLE OF THE WORD - alligator, delegate, began, magazine, exit, explosion
END OF THE WORD - leg, beg, debug, intrigue
Notice how the G-sound can be made by the X-letter in EX-letter combinations.
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THE SOUND BUT AREN'T
tough, enough - In words ending with GH-letter combinations, the resulting sound is a F-sound. Although the G-letter is used, the F-sound is made. GH-letter combinations at the beginning of a word (like in ‘ghost’) do make a G-sound though.
judge, luggage, allergy - Sometimes, instead of a G-sound, you get a J-sound produced by the G-letter. This happens typically when the G-letter comes before an E, I, or Y. This is sometimes referred to as a soft-G sound.
garage - a ZH-sound is produced instead of a G-sound. The G-sound is a stop consonant. It is a sound that cannot be held for a prolonged period of time but you can extend the last sound of ‘garage’.
WHY IT MAY BE HARD
You Are Shaping to G-sound from the T or D-sound.
Resist the urge to simply try to move your tongue further back in the mouth from the T-sound. It’s a different part of the tongue involved.
To stop, push the front of your tongue towards your lower teeth. Keep it there. Explore using the back of your tongue. Some visuals to engage the back of your tongue including, horking or hacking popcorn husks from your throat, or imaging you have a hairball in your throat.
WHAT TO DO
So let's say you do have trouble with your G-sound. What can you do about it.
Well here are the features of the G-sound.
Place of articulation - The back of the tongue raises to contact the velum
Manner of articulation - Airflow is temporarily blocked by the tongue. This produces a brief blockage of air and build up of pressure before is allowed to burst when the back of the tongue is dropped.
Voiced or voiceless - Voiced (this means the vocal cords do vibrate while producing the G-sound).
TIPS & EXTRA CONSIDERATIONS
Think about whether the word you are trying to produce does in fact make the G-sound. Many times, a J-sound or even a ZH-sound may be produced so it is important to start listening to and perceiving that difference in pronunciation. There are some good tips but it does require you to be aware of this perceptual difference so you can perceive when others and especially when you yourself are speaking.
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
