English How to Pronounce L consonant American Accent
The L consonant sound. This sound is especially
difficult for people who don’t have it in
their native language. This might be because
there’s actually two parts to it. It can be
either a light L or a dark L. However, in
the International Phonetic Alphabet, there
is only one symbol that represents this sound,
either a light L or a dark L. The L is light
if it comes before the vowel or diphthong
in the syllable. If it comes after the vowel
or diphthong in a syllable, it is a dark L.
First, the light L. To make this sound, the
tip of the tongue reaches up, ll, ll, and
touches the roof of the mouth just behind
the front teeth, ll, ll, as the vocal cords
are making sound. I’ve also noticed, as I’ve
studied my own speech in slow motion, that
sometimes I make this sound by bringing the
tip of the tongue through the teeth, ll, ll,
similar to the position for th, th, the TH
sounds. Either position is fine, ll, like,
touching the roof of the mouth, Ll, like,
coming through the teeth, like the TH. Both
make the same sound. That is the light L.
And now the dark L. As I said, an L is a dark
L if it comes after the vowel or diphthong
in a syllable, like in the word real. Dark
L’s have two parts, The first is a vowel-like
sound that is not written in IPA, but is certainly
there. And the second is simply the same position
as the light L. Lets go back to the example
word, real, to talk about this. In IPA it
is written with three symbols: the R, the
ee vowel, and the L. But as I say it slowly,
notice that there are actually four sounds.
There is a sound between the ee and th ll.
Rrrreeeaaalllll. It’s this third sound, this
vowel-like sound that comes before the L but
is not represented by a symbol in IPA. So
the dark L is made up of two parts: this vowel-like
sound and then the L. What is the vowel-like
sound? It’s very similar to the ‘uh’ as in
‘pull’ sound. So, the tip of the tongue has
pulled back a little bit, it’s not touching
anything. The tongue is raised somewhat towards
the middle, and the lips round a little bit
before the tip of the tongue moves up to make
the L sound. So if you’re saying a word like
real or pool, where the tip of the tongue
is forward for the vowel, real, it has to
pull back, ri-, uh, ul, to make that dark
L sound. If you leave it out, real, real,
it does not sound correct. And let’s look
at the word pool. The ‘oo’ as in ‘boo’ vowel
has the tongue tip forward. Pool. So the tongue
has to pull back a little bit, the tip doesn’t
touch anything, before the tip moves up to
make the L sound. Pool. So the light L: one
sound, ll. The dark L, two sounds, ul. First
a vowel sound like the ‘uh’ as in ‘pull’,
then the L sound. In the light L, ll, it’s
just the tip of the tongue that’s either raising
or coming through the teeth. So the sound
will feel very far forward. In the dark L,
the middle part of the tongue is raising a
bit in that vowel-like sound. So since the
middle part of the tongue is doing some work,
ul, ul, the sound will feel more in the middle
of the mouth, further back than the light
L. This is a photo of four different mouth
positions for the L sound. As you can see
in the first two, the tongue actually comes
through the teeth. Number 1 is the L on the
word last, and number 2 on the word flew.
In number 3 you can see that the tongue is
not coming through the teeth. This is on the
word flight. In this word, the tip of the
tongue is touching the roof of the mouth,
and the teeth are closed before it opens into
the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong. And in number
4 you see the position of the L in the word
fall. Here the L comes at the end of the syllable,
so it is a dark L. So it has this vowel-like
sound that comes before it and you see this
mouth shape, where the lips come in a little
bit at the corners, making the uh sound as
part of the dark L. Here we see a photo of
the mouth at rest on the left compared with
the light L sound on the right. Here some
of the parts of the mouth are drawn in. You
can see that the soft palate is raised on
this sound. As you know from these forward-facing
photos, the tongue can sometimes come through
the teeth, but not always. Here, this would
show where the tongue does not come through
the teeth, but rather, where it touches the
roof of the mouth just where it meets the
teeth. The tongue tip stretches up for this.
But in some of those forward-facing photos,
you saw the tongue come through the teeth.
For that the tongue reaches forward and touches
just below the bottom of the top tooth, showing
some of the tongue. Here are both of those
tongue positions. Here we see a different
comparison. Rather than comparing the mouth
at rest, this photo compares both parts of
the dark L sound. On the left, you see the
vowel-like sound that comes before the L,
and on the right you see the L. In the vowel-like
sound, the tongue fattens up towards the middle
and raises slightly as the lips round a bit.
In the second half of the dark L sound the
tongue moves forward. In fact, this vowel-like
sound happens as the tongue is moving forward
into the final position of the dark L. Sample
words for the light L: lap, fly, relief. Sample
words for the dark L: fill, tool, cuddle.
Sample sentence: Last fall we got a good deal
on last minute flights when we flew to California.
Now you’ll see this sentence in up close and
in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle,
so you can really study how the mouth moves
when making this sound. The first word, last,
begins with an L. It comes through the teeth.
Fall, the second word, has a dark L. The bottom
lip comes up to make the F sound. The ‘aw’
as in ‘law’ and the dark L. Note the shape
of the lips. And there the tongue goes up
to the roof of the mouth to finish the L sound.
We got, tongue comes up to make the T. A good
deal, this has the dark L. You see the tongue
come up there. On last minute flights. You
see the tongue was up at the teeth and then
came down for the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong.
When we flew. Now here you can’t really see
the tongue because the next sound is the ‘oo’
as in ‘boo’ and the lips are too tight to
see. California. I bring the tongue through
the teeth to make this L. The bottom lip comes
up for the F, -ornia. The tongue comes up
to make the N and pulls down. And now from
an angle. Last fall. Lip comes up to make
the F. The ‘aw’ as in ‘law’ and the dark L,
watch the tongue come up here to finish the
dark L sound. We got, tongue taps up there
to make the T, a good deal, another dark L,
you can see the tongue come up here to make
the end part of the L. On last minute flights,
you can see the tongue come down quickly from
having been behind the teeth. When we flew,
again, there’s an L in this word but you can’t
see it because the lips are so tight on the
‘oo’ as in ‘boo’. To Cal-, tongue makes the
L, California. Tongue comes up, this time
it’s making the N in California. That’s it,
and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.