The M Sound
Our third and final bilabial sound after the P-sound and B-sound is the M-sound.
THE SOUND
The M-sound is produced through the escape of air from the nose instead of the mouth. So, one of the key things to pay attention to is a closed mouth. When you hum, the M-sound is the ending of that sound - hummmmmmm.
THE SOUND IN DIFFERENT POSITIONS.
Here's the sound in different positions of a word.
BEGINNING OF THE WORD - make, move, meat, meteorite, major
MIDDLE OF THE WORD - remember, remove, whimper
END OF THE WORD - tomb, some, boredom, dream, tomb, bomb, comb, autumn, column
(some of these words have letters come AFTER the M-letter but remember, we’re paying attention to the final sound, not final letter. In those situations, those following letters are silent).
SITUATIONS THAT SEEM LIKE THE SOUND BUT AREN'T
mnemonic - the M-letter is silent when it comes before an N. ‘mn’ makes an N-sound. This only matters when it is the beginning of a syllable. For example, in the word, damnation, you DO pronounce the M-sound.
WHY IT MAY BE HARD
It can be hard to know WHEN to pronounce the M-sound and when not to. The M-sound is a fairly easy sound to produce and is actually typically one of the first sounds children learn how to make.
WHAT TO DO
So let's say you do have trouble with your M-sound. What can you do about it.
Well here are the features of the M-sound.
Place of articulation - lips (so pay attention to your upper and lower lips. The lips should be touching. Your tongue can rest neutral in the mouth.
Manner of articulation - nasal (air is allowed to escape through the nose and if you concentrate, you may feel this airflow through the nostrils)
Voiced or unvoiced - voiced (this means the vocal cords vibrate while producing the M-sound)
The vocal cords vibrate so when you feel your neck while you make the M-sound, it will buzz.
TIPS & EXTRA CONSIDERATIONS
If it is hard to produce the sound in speech, try building the skill from humming first.
HMMMMMMM
HMMMMMMM
HMMMMMMM
Lots of singers may use humming as a warm-up exercise because it is actually a very relaxed sound that can reset and relax your voice box similar to how focusing on your breathing in meditation can be a relaxing and resetting behavior.
If you can hum well, but still have trouble with the M-sound in speech, add M-words into the end of your hum.
HMMMMMM + May = HMMMMMMay
HMMMMMM + Me = HMMMMMMMe
HMMMMMM + My = HMMMMMMMy
HMMMMMM + Moe = HMMMMMMMoe
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!
