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    The /l/ sound: l as in light

    • Consonant
    • Voiced
    • High priority for IELTS

    Hear it

    in light

    Lips
    Relaxed
    Tongue
    Tip on the ridge behind the top teeth
    Voice
    On: feel your throat buzz
    Air
    Flows round the sides of the tongue

    The sound on its own: recording by Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. Credits

    How to make /l/

    1. 1

      Touch your tongue tip firmly to the ridge behind your top teeth.

    2. 2

      Let the air flow around the sides of the tongue with your voice on.

    3. 3

      At the ends of words the back of the tongue also rises (dark l): feel, will.

    /l/ vs /r/: light vs right

    Every pair

    For /l/ the tongue tip firmly TOUCHES the ridge behind your teeth; for /r/ it curls up and touches NOTHING while the lips round slightly. Touch vs no-touch is the whole difference.

    1 / 8

    Which word do you hear?

    How /l/ is spelled

    • l
    • ll

    The usual mistake

    Confusing it with /r/ ('light' → 'right', a very high-impact contrast for Japanese and Korean speakers) or turning final l into a w sound ('feel' → 'fee-oo').

    Hardest for speakers of

    Words to practise

    Say it and get scored

    Read light, feeling, feel, believe, usually aloud. Free, no account.

    Check my /l/

    Questions

    How do you pronounce the /l/ sound?
    Touch your tongue tip firmly to the ridge behind your top teeth. Let the air flow around the sides of the tongue with your voice on. At the ends of words the back of the tongue also rises (dark l): feel, will.
    What is the most common mistake with /l/?
    Confusing it with /r/ ('light' → 'right', a very high-impact contrast for Japanese and Korean speakers) or turning final l into a w sound ('feel' → 'fee-oo').
    Which spellings make the /l/ sound?
    Common spellings include “l”, “ll”, as in light /laɪt/, feeling /ˈfiːlɪŋ/, feel /fiːl/.
    Does /l/ matter for IELTS?
    Yes. This is a high-priority sound. Errors here frequently change one word into another, which examiners hear as reduced clarity (the exact Band 6 wording is “mispronunciation … reduces clarity at times”).