I’m Doctor Don here to give you some more tips and exercises to use to improve your
English pronunciation skills.
Remember that pronunciation is a physical skill using the muscles of your mouth and
tongue.
When speaking a foreign language you need to practice making unusual sounds to get better
at it – like practicing shooting a basketball or swinging a golf club.
You need to get your body used to making the same movements to make the sounds you want
to make.
I’m going to do a series of pronunciation videos on INITIAL CONSONANT CLUSTERS – which
means a group of consonants that appear at the beginning of a word.
These are common in English and can be difficult sometimes for non-native speakers.
I’m going to do a series of 5 videos introducing you to all the major initial consonant clusters
and show you how to make the sounds and give you some exercises to practice making them
yourself.
So, watch these videos, practice, and you will get better.
In English the initial consonant clusters involve a consonant sound like B or K or G
plus the L, R, or S sounds.
In this video I’m going to look at the clusters that use the L sound.
BL to make this sound put your lips together to make B and go into the L. Say the word
“bull.”
Then shorten it until you’re only saying the BL part.
At the end of that word your tongue should be where it needs to be to make this cluster
sound.
BLACK, BLIP, BLOW, BLUE (say slowly then quickly) Try repeating those words slowly and then
quickly.
(do it this way)
CL to make this sound open your mouth to make a hard K sound then put your tongue forward
quickly to get to the L sound.
Say the word “cull” then shorten to just the CL part.
CLEAR, CLAW, CLUSTER, CLUE.
FL to make this sound, put your bottom lip under your teeth to make the F sound then
bring your tongue forward to make the L sound.
Say the word “full” then shorten to just the
FL part.
FLOW, FLAW, FLIP, FLU
GL to make this sound, put your mouth open to make the G sound then bring your tongue
up quickly to make the L sound.
Say the word “gull” then shorten to just the GL part.
GLAD, GLIB, GLOW, GLUE.
PL to make this sound put your lips together to make the P sound and bring your tongue
up into the L sound.
Say the word “pull” then shorten to just the PL part.
PLAN, PLOW, PLINK, PLUNK
SL to make this sound open your lips but keep your teeth together to make the S sound and
bring your tongue up into the L sound.
Say the syllable “sull” then shorten to just the SL part.
SLAP, SLOW, SLING, SLEEP.
Here’s a challenge for you, say these 6 sentences quickly
Bleed black blood, clip clangers cleanly, flip flowers flat, gladden glowers glibly,
plan plumbers plainly, sling sleep slowly
Now you try
Practice those clusters and I’ll be back later to show you the second set.