Thin or Thing? Sin or Sing? American English Pronunciation

Learn the difference between the / n / and / ŋ / consonant sounds.
Practice pronunciation of the / n / and / ŋ / with minimal pairs exercises using words like "ran" and "rang," "ton" and "tongue," or "lawn" and "long."
Improve your American accent with essential pronunciation exercises recorded by a professional speech therapist.

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Quick Links:
• Intro: 00:00
• How to recognize the /n/ and /ŋ/, cheat sheet: 00:58
• Key distinction b/w the /n/ and /ŋ/: 02:58
• Quiz: can you hear the difference b/w the /n/ and the /ŋ/: 01:34
• Pronunciation exercise: 04:06

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #MinimalPairs
► Consonant Sound /n/ as in "nice": https://goo.gl/jNjfsr
► Consonant Sound /ŋ/ (NG) as in "thing": https://goo.gl/X14U5c
► Pronunciation of Consonant Sounds (playlist): https://goo.gl/dQrWy2

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, AND PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the Sounds American channel!
In this video, we'll compare two consonant sounds: /n/ and /ŋ/,
as in the words "thin" and "thing."

In our previous videos, we learned how to make them. Remember the videos for the /n/ sound, as in the word "nice" and the /ŋ/ sound, as in the word "thing"?
This time we'll focus on the differences between these two sounds.

Many non-native English speakers have difficulty differentiating between the /n/ and the /ŋ/ sounds.
Yes, these two can be quite confusing.
Here's how you can recognize these sounds in written words.
• If you see a word that ends with 'ng,' you have the /ŋ/ sound
• If you see the letters 'ng' in the middle of a word, pronounce the 'n' as /ŋ/.
• If you see the letter 'n' before the letters 'k' or 'c,' pronounce the 'n' as /ŋ/.
• In all other cases, pronounce the letter 'n' as the /n/ sound.
That was about spelling.

Now let's check how well you can differentiate between the /n/ and the /ŋ/ when you hear them.
Here's a quick test.
[QUIZ]
You'll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced. For example, "thing."
Can you guess what word you heard?
Let's try a few more word pairs.

How did you do? Don't worry if you didn't get all the words right. You'll improve after doing some pronunciation exercises in a just minute.

The /n/ and the /ŋ/ are both nasal consonants, which means that you should pass the air through your nose when you pronounce them.
Here's the key distinction between the /n/ and the /ŋ/:
Look at the position of the tongue.
• For the /n/ sound, the tip of the tongue is placed on the alveolar ridge behind your upper front teeth.
• For the /ŋ/ sound the tongue is pulled far back to the throat.
Listen and compare: "thin" - "thing."
Let's pronounce these sounds one after the other:
/n/ - /ŋ/, /n/ - /ŋ/, /n/ - /ŋ/

[Pronunciation exercise]
Now that you've reviewed how to make these consonants, let's practice pronouncing these sounds in some words. This is the most important part of your training, so try to go through as many words as possible.
You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. After that you'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. Repeat each word after the speaker, the first word will have the /n/ consonant sound, and the second will have the /ŋ/ consonant sound.
Let's begin!

• ban - bang
• band - banged
• banned - banged
• clan - clang
• done - dung
• fan - fang
• gone - gong
• kin - king
• lawn - long
• pan - pang
• pin - ping
• ran - rang
• sin - sing
• son - sung
• stun - stung
• sun - sung
• tan - tang
• thin - thing
• tin - ting
• ton - tongue
• win - wing
• wind - winged

You're done! Congratulations!

To check how much you've improved, you can do the word pairs test again. Click this link to go back and compare the results.

Did you like this exercise? Let us know in the comments what other sounds you would like to practice. We like your suggestions!

Thanks for watching! Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the Sounds American channel!