How to Pronounce the Letter "G"

The letter "g" sound is voiced version of the letter "k" sound. The sound is made by vibrating your throat or larynx while covering the opening from your throat and making an explosive sound.

You can compare the letter "g" sound with the letters "b" and "d" sounds. The letter "b" is a voiced sound created by keeping your lips together to build pressure. The letter "d" is a voiced sound made by pushing with your tongue against the area where your upper teeth and the roof of your mouth meet to trap the air and vibrations. This time, you cover the opening from your throat with the back of your tongue to trap the vibrations. With a sudden release of the the tongue, you release the vibrations and the sound of the letter "g".

Things to remember:

1) The letter "g" sound is a voiced sound, so you should feel a vibration in your throat area when making the letter "g" sound.

2) Use the back of your throat to cover the opening from your throat and trap the vibrations and air in your throat.

3) Make the letter "g" sound with an explosive release of air and vibrations from the throat by dropping your tongue.

Here are words you can practice with.

go	garden	gate	galaxy	grateful	grin
get	global	grass	given	grace	goat
give	gain	guilty	guideline	glance	grandparent
good	gold	graduate	glove	grip	globe
great	guard	gap	girlfriend	govern
group	guest	green	God	guidance
government	gather	gain	garage	garbage
game	gift	grand	grain	gravity
grow	growing	good	gifted	gathering
girl	grade	glad	grant	Greek
guy	grab	glance	ghost	gasoline
ground	greatest	grandmother	grocery	grief
goal	guide	gear	gaze	glory
growth	golf	graduate	gallery	grin
graduation	governor	gang	grave	grasp
glass	golden	guarantee	greatly	gut
gun	grant	grandfather	greet	grandchild
guess	gray	garlic	guilt	gross
green	grape	gradually	guitar	gaze
gas	guarantee	guide	guard	glimpse

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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

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How to Pronounce the Letter "D"

The letter "d" sound is the voiced counterpart of the letter "t". You will need to use the same tongue and roof of mouth formation, and you also use an explosive breath to make the sound. The main difference is that the letter "d" sound is a voiced sound so you need to feel a vibration in your throat area. You need to use your larynx or vocal chords to vibrate your throat and make the sound.

To make the letter "d" sound, you have to feel your tongue pushing against the area where your upper teeth and the roof of your mouth meet. You need to push hard enough so that no air can get out of your mouth. Then, vibrate your vocal chords or throat area. This will build pressure inside your mouth. Finally, make the letter "d" sound by suddenly releasing your tongue so that it touches the back of your lower teeth. This will make the explosive and vibrating "d" sound.

Things to remember:

1) Push your tongue against the area where your upper teeth meet with the roof of your mouth.

2) Make a seal with your tongue so that no air can escape.

3) Feel a vibration in your throat area as you start to make the letter "d" sound.

4) Make the explosive and voiced "d" sound by suddenly releasing your tongue with a downward motion until it touches the back of your lower teeth.

5) The letter "d" sound is a voiced sound so you need to feel a vibration in your throat area.

Here are some words you can practice with.

do	difficult	discover	document	dance	definition
day	daughter	deep	deny	difficulty	dramatic
down	defense	dream	destroy	deep	deeply
during	deal	detail	dress	declare	drag
different	drop	down	drive	dress	diet
door	dead	discussion	demand	defend	dark
die	decade	dinner	dangerous	duty	description
death	despite	debate	depend	due	display
development	dog	directly	direct	dad	desert
decide	determine	dozen	daily	division	double
drug	disease	department	democracy	debt	deserve
decision	degree	date	device	doubt	discovery
develop	deal	define	damage	dish	dust
drive	design	driver	danger	divide	discipline
difference	discuss	drink	domestic	dance	dominate
director	democratic	distance	desire	definitely	disaster
data	dark	district	direct	decline	digital
describe	design	demand	dry	drink	disorder
doctor	Democrat	deliver	disappear	display	distribution
draw	direction	demonstrate	desk	depression	deficit

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.