This week we’re looking at another voiceless/ voiced consonant sound pair, /k/ and /g/. As with most consonant sounds, you’ll find this most difficult if you don’t have these sounds in your first language. However, even if you do, you may still find that you make them ever so slightly differently, that you find them trickier in certain combinations with other sounds, or – as we’ve found before – that you devoice the /g/ especially towards the ends of words.
Let’s firstly talk about making the sounds. Both sounds are made in the same place, they’re made by touching the tongue to the palate at the top of the mouth and then releasing. Exactly where you may do this seems to differ from speaker to speaker: the sounds are described as velar, which means you touch the back of the tongue to the soft palate, but I find that for me this isn’t too far back, and that the middle of my tongue also usually contacts the back of the hard palate. Listen to the difference in my mouth between the hard and soft palate, and play with yours. The vocal cords are vibrated for the voiced /g/ and not for the voiceless /k/.
At advanced levels, though, it’s interesting to learn about one other thing, which is aspiration. If I put my hand close to my lips as I say the words “got” and “cot”, I feel a puff of air as I say the /k/ in “cot”, but not for the /g/ in “got”. This is a pretty complicated area of pronunciation but basically is all to do with the time (and we’re talking milliseconds here) in between making the voiceless consonant sound and turning on the vocal cords for the vowel sound. In “cot”, there is a small gap between finishing that consonant sound and turning on the voice for the vowel. This applies at the beginnings of words, and also in stressed syllables, is most noticeable before a vowel sound, and is true for the three voiceless ‘stop’ syllables, ‘k’, ‘t’ and ‘p’. This time, try the difference between “company” and “welcome”. In “company” you should feel the puff of air, but in “welcome” you shouldn’t, as the syllable isn’t stressed. You may also notice a difference between the sounds, and in certain combinations what you may think of as a voiceless sound may be indistinguishable from a voiced sound. If you’re struggling to get that pause between the sounds, it can be helpful to think of throwing a ‘h’ sound in there: “c-h-ompany”.
This is a small thing, but turning on your vocal cords earlier – which would be natural in many languages - can give the effect of a voiced consonant. I find it fascinating that this is something many learners pick up subconsciously, and my mind was blown when I realised that I’ve been successfully producing unaspirated consonants in French and Spanish for years. It doesn’t come naturally to everybody, though.
Ok, let’s practise by looking at some common words with /k/, and we’ll use with those where the /k/ is at the beginning of words or stressed syllables so you can think about that aspiration.
1. because
2. café
3. cake
4. carry
5. cat
6. cook
7. correct
8. customer
9. mechanic
10. vacation
The mechanic’s on vacation.Can you carry the cake to the café?
And now some common words with /g/
1. august
2. begin
3. dog
4. game
5. garden
6. give
7. good
8. green
9. guitar
10. negative
And now a sentence with these words:
The dog began a good game in the garden.Now let’s move on to some minimal pairs. This time, we’ll look at /k/ and /g/ at different position in the words. We’ll start with /k/ and /g/ at the beginning of the word. As usual, we get into some higher-level vocabulary here, so dictionaries and podcast script at the ready if you need them. There are so many to choose from this week, I’ll put some more in the transcript.
For the first five, we’ll read both forms. Listen and repeat.
1. came – game
2. cap – gap
3. card – guard
4. cave – gave
5. class -glass
For the next five, I’ll read the /k/ word, can you repeat and add the /g/ word? We’ll do the first one together as an example.
1. coat
So, you should have read:
1. coat – goat, or if you read goat – coat, also fine.
Let’s continue with the next four.
2. cold
3. coast
4. cot
5. could
Now listen to both forms, repeat, and see how you did.
1. coat - goat
2. cold – gold
3. coast – ghost
4. cot – got
5. could – good
For the final five, I’ll read the /g/ word, can you repeat and add the /k/ word? We’ll do the first one together as an example.
1. grab
So, you should have said:
1. grab - crab
Let’s do the next four:
2. graze
3. grime
4. girly
5. gut
Now listen to both forms, repeat, and see how you did:
1. grab - crab
2. graze - craze
3. grime - crime
4. girly - curly
5. gut - cut
Now let’s try a sentence with some of those words:
The crab grabbed the cold gold from the ghost on the coast.
The guards came to the card game.
Now let’s move on to some minimal pairs with /k/ and /g/ at the ends of words. As we’ve seen before with voiceless and voiced pairs, you will notice that the vowel sound is longer before the voiced sound. Try to ensure that you are holding it that extra beat, too. Also, you will notice some devoicing of the final voiced consonant sound as I turn my vocal cords off at the end of the word, but do make sure you aren’t devoicing that final sound completely.
For the first five, we’ll say both words. Listen and repeat.
1. back – bag
2. block – blog
3. dock – dog
4. duck – dug
5. flock – flog
For the next five, I’ll read the /k/ word, can you read the /g/ word? We’ll do the first one together as an example.
1. frock
So, you should have read:
1. frock – frog
Let’s do the next four:
2. hack
3. knack
4. leek
5. muck
Now listen to both, repeat, and check how you did:
1. frock - frog
2. hack – hag
3. knack – nag
4. leek – league
5. muck – mug
And finally, for the last group, I’ll read the /g/ words, can you read the /k/ words? We’ll do the first one together as an example.
1. plug
So, you should have read:
1. plug - pluck.
Let’s do the next four:
2. rag
3. sag
4. snag
5. wig
Now listen to both forms, repeat and see how you did.
1. plug - pluck
2. rag - rack
3. sag - sack
4. snag - snack
5. wig - wick
Now let’s try a couple of sentences with some of these words:
The dog and the duck dug in the dock.
This rack is for rags, saggy sacks and mucky mugs.
And finally, a couple of sentences mixing the sounds in both positions.
He grabbed the black bag but gave it back.
The good class could snag the good snacks.
Here’s a longer list of minimal pairs:
1. call – gall
2. came – game
3. cap – gap
4. card – guard
5. cave – gave
6. clam – glam
7. clamour – glamour
8. class -glass
9. clean – glean
10. coat – goat
11. cod – god
12. cold – gold
13. come – gun
14. con – gone
15. cool – ghoul
16. cost – ghost
17. cot – got
18. could – good
19. crab – grab
20. crass – grass
21. crate – grate
22. craze – graze
23. crease – grease
24. creek – Greek
25. crime – grime
26. crow – grow
27. curly – girly
28. cut – gut
29. kale – gale
30. kill – gill