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    ŋ

    The /ŋ/ sound: ng as in sing

    • Consonant
    • Voiced
    • High priority for IELTS

    Hear it

    in sing

    Lips
    Relaxed
    Tongue
    Back of the tongue up to the soft palate
    Voice
    On: feel your throat buzz
    Air
    Through the nose

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

    How to make /ŋ/

    1. 1

      Raise the back of your tongue to the soft palate, the /k/ /ɡ/ position.

    2. 2

      Let the sound come through your nose.

    3. 3

      Do NOT release into a g or k afterwards: 'sing', not 'sing-guh'.

    Sounds like
    the hum at the end of 'song', made at the back of the mouth

    /n/ vs /ŋ/: thin vs thing

    Every pair

    For /n/ the tongue TIP touches behind the teeth; for /ŋ/ the BACK of the tongue rises to the /k/-position and the tip stays down. And never release a hard g after /ŋ/: 'sing', not 'sing-guh'.

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    Which word do you hear?

    How /ŋ/ is spelled

    • ng
    • n + k
    • n + g

    The usual mistake

    Adding a hard g or k after it ('singer' → 'sin-ger', 'thing' → 'think') or fronting it to /n/ ('working' → 'workin'). It never starts an English word.

    Hardest for speakers of

    Words to practise

    Say it and get scored

    Read sing, thinking, long, language, something aloud. Free, no account.

    Check my /ŋ/

    Questions

    How do you pronounce the /ŋ/ sound?
    Raise the back of your tongue to the soft palate, the /k/ /ɡ/ position. Let the sound come through your nose. Do NOT release into a g or k afterwards: 'sing', not 'sing-guh'.
    What is the most common mistake with /ŋ/?
    Adding a hard g or k after it ('singer' → 'sin-ger', 'thing' → 'think') or fronting it to /n/ ('working' → 'workin'). It never starts an English word.
    Which spellings make the /ŋ/ sound?
    Common spellings include “ng”, “n(k)”, “n(g)”, as in sing /sɪŋ/, thinking /ˈθɪŋkɪŋ/, long /lɒŋ/.
    Does /ŋ/ 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”).