The L-Sound
Today, we’re going to discuss the L-sound. We’ll be referring to it as the light L /l/ and dark L (ɫ) sounds. The general idea is the sound is a voiced alveolar lateral approximant but the symbol with the tilde through the lower case L-letter reflects a slight difference in mouth shape.
THE SOUND
The L-sound /l/ is a voiced alveolar lateral approximant. It is voiced so your vocal cords are vibrating. The place of articulation is the alveolar ridge so the ridge behind the top teeth is a area of focus. It is an approximant so narrowing occurs but it isn’t turbulent.
The only aspect that is new or different is the lateral aspect. The lateral aspect means that the tongue blocks airflow through the middle of the mouth. Instead, air is pushed around the sides of your mouth around the tongue.
To be more specific, there are in fact 2 different ways to make the L-sound depending on the L-sound’s location in a word. If it comes after a vowel sound at the end of a syllable, it is considered a ‘dark’ L sound. If it comes before a vowel sound at the beginning of a syllable, it is considered ‘light’ L sound.
Verbal cues
For the ‘light’ L, the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge just behind the top teeth briefly. Then the sides of the tongue curl upward to allow easy airflow around the edges of the tongue.
For the ‘dark’ L, the tongue tip does not need to touch the alveolar ridge. The tongue tip can lightly touch the alveolar ridge or hovers in the air slightly narrowing the passageway at the alveolar ridge. In addition, the back of the tongue raises slightly toward the roof of the mouth, but without causing turbulent airflow.
Visual Cues
Especially for the ‘light’ L sound, visual cues to see the underside of the tongue are helpful to know you briefly touched the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge. Your tongue can move away from the alveolar ridge for the next sound afterwards.
Tactile Cues
The best way to feel the lateral airflow is to get your tongue position ready and then breath in and out through the mouth without changing the mouth or tongue position. You should feel cool air along the sides of the tongue, not the middle of the tongue.
If you need help finding the alveolar ridge for your tongue to contact during this sound, particularly with the ‘light’ L sound, run your tongue along your upper teeth. Then, slowly retract your tongue backward into your mouth you find the border of your tooth teeth and the hard roof of you mouth. That is the alveolar ridge.
THE SOUND IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS.
Here's the sound in different positions of a word.
BEGINNING OF THE WORD - last, leave, loud, later, laugh
MIDDLE OF THE WORD - child, follow problem, always, black
END OF THE WORD - people, little, national, control, call
*NOTE - Notice how the L-letter may not necessarily be the last letter of a word despite being the last sound (e.g. people, little, kettle)
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THE SOUND BUT AREN'T
colonel - This word has both Italian and French influence and followed trends of pronunciation in the past (which resulted in the use of an R-sound despite no R-letter). You can read more here but for all intents and purposes, there is no L-sound in the middle of the word. It’s pronounced ‘KERNEL’
walk, calm, folks, half, talk, could, chalk - For these words, notice how the L-letter is silent. Again, there was a rule change in English. A good rule of thumb (although there may be exceptions) is to consider the vowel sound that occurs BEFORE the L-letter. If the vowel is a backed and open vowel, it is more likely that the L-letter is silent. If the vowel is a front or mid vowel, it is less likely to be silent (e.g. ‘milk, silk, film, hulk, bulk).
WHY IT MAY BE HARD
LIGHT L SOUND
When pronouncing the light L in everyday conversations, it can feel like a quick tap with your tongue rather than a prolonged touch. This is okay. Just remember to exert enough pressure, though, when you make the tap otherwise, the L-sound might not come across clearly.
DARK L SOUND
Many languages do not have the variations of the L-sound (’light’ versus ‘dark’). As a result, it can be difficult to produce both versions consistently or accurately - especially the ‘dark’ L sound. Instead, many non-native English speakers will substitute the dark L-sound for the closest sound they have in their native language. This can change the resulting sound to the vowel sound OH. So for words like ‘ball’ or ‘fall’, the resulting pronunciation is ‘baw-oh’ or ‘faw-oh’.
There are 2 potential pronunciation issues here.
The tongue tip is too low and the tongue base is too high. To fix this, focus on ensuring the tongue tip remains high in the mouth close to the alveolar ridge. The tongue base (aka back of the tongue) should be lowered as well.
The lips are being rounded when they shouldn’t. In this case, the lips stay neutral and do not round or protrude. Try to keep your lips from rounding. Try to even spread them a little by smiling.
WHAT TO DO
So let's say you do have trouble with your L-sound. What can you do about it.
Well here are the features of the L-sound. We’ll be separating it into the ‘light’ L and ‘dark’ L sounds.
LIGHT L SOUND
Place of articulation - Brief contact between your tongue tip and the alveolar ridge (the ridge behind your top teeth) is demonstrated. Then the tongue tip floats in the mouth with a slight curl upward to ease airflow. Your tongue should lightly contact the alveolar ridge.
Manner of articulation - Lateral Approximation. Airflow is continuous and escapes around the tongue along the sides of the mouth and tongue. It is not turbulent. The sound keeps coming out as long as you have air from the lungs to continue the airflow.
Voiced or unvoiced - voiced (this means the vocal cords vibrate while producing the L-sound).
DARK L SOUND
Place of articulation - Between your tongue tip and the alveolar ridge (the ridge behind your top teeth). Your tongue should lightly contact the alveolar ridge.
Manner of articulation - Lateral Approximation. Airflow is continuous and escapes around the tongue along the sides of the mouth and tongue. It is not turbulent. The sound keeps coming out as long as you have air from the lungs to continue the airflow.
Voiced or unvoiced - voiced (this means the vocal cords vibrate while producing the L-sound).
TIPS & EXTRA CONSIDERATIONS
Why does it matter that we use 2 L-sound variations? Can’t we just use one if we know one?
Well, it can slightly change the rhythm of English and the slight pronunciation nuances will be noticed. From a ‘Does this person understand the words that are coming out of my mouth’ standpoint, you are 100% fine. But from a ‘Something is slightly different but I can’t quite put my finger on what’ standpoint, this is where the difference will be noticed.
Native Russian, Chinese and Japanese speakers for example all have their tendencies for dark L and light L which can impact their use in English.
There are lots of resources available online for distinguishing and practicing dark L versus light L. The general rule is English speakers use light L before a vowel in a syllable and dark L after a vowel in a syllable, so knowing this rule can help you figure out the rule.
Native English speakers might not even be aware of the two variations themselves because they know the rules implicitly but were never taught it explicitly.
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!
