How to Pronounce the Letter "K" and "C"

Although the letter "k" and the letter "c" are two different letters, when it comes to the way they sound, they actually make the same sound. That's why when you look into the transcription, or the way the sound of a word is represented in symbols, you will find the letter "k" to represent the letter "c". So, I will be referring to the sound of the letter "c" and "k" as the sound of the letter "k".

The letter "k" sound  is a voiceless sound. The sound is created by a sudden explosive breath of air and without the use of the throat area or the larynx. You should not feel a vibration in your throat when making the letter "k" sound.

 In making the letter "k" sound we actually us the back of our tongue to cover the opening from our throat. We trap the air in our throat and then suddenly release the air and the sound by dropping our tongue. If you will take a look at the posts on how to pronounce the letters "p" and "t", you will see we are using different parts of your mouth to trap the air for different sounds. We use our lips to trap the air in order to make the letter "p" sound, while with the letter "t" sound we use our tongue against the roof our mouth to trap the air. This time we trap the air right at the opening of out throat. 

Things to remember:

1) The letter "k" or "c" sound is a voiceless sound so we use air to make the sound.

2) You should not feel your throat area vibrating when making the letter "k" sound.

3) Use the back of your tongue to block the opening from your throat to block the air.

4) Build air pressure in your throat.

5) Make the letter "k" sound with a sudden explosive breath by releasing your tongue.

Here are words you can practice with.

can	class	call	cultural	critical	claim
come	control	close	contain	corner	cry
could	care	current	control	concerned	critic
call	carry	certainly	camera	concept	comment
keep	center	color	candidate	client	coffee
country	couple	common	conference	conduct	cross
case	court	concern	cause	conversation	commit
company	cost	career	commercial	completely	construction
kind	cover	central	cancer	conflict	kind
car	clear	cup	coach	camp	cook
city	certain	crime	collection	crisis	connection
continue	catch	compare	civil	complete	context
community	computer	clearly	kitchen	communication	committee
kid	cause	claim	consumer	club	clothes
create	century	close	capital	contract	complete
consider	culture	cold	citizen	crowd	combine
cut	course	card	key	contribute	cool
college	condition	cell	customer	collect	category
course	Congress	care	cost	count	key
kill	campaign	close	credit	competition	classroom

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.