How to pronounce the L sound /l/
/l/ is a voiced consonant made at ridge behind the teeth (alveolar). Press the tongue tip on the ridge behind your top teeth and keep it there. Let the sides of the tongue fall away so the voice escapes over them.
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How to make it
- 1Press the tongue tip on the ridge behind your top teeth and keep it there.
- 2Let the sides of the tongue fall away so the voice escapes over them.
- 3Turn the voice on and hold the sound — you should feel air moving past the sides, not the tip.
- 4At the end of a word ('full', 'ball') the back of the tongue also lifts, which gives the darker English L.
- Lips
- Neutral.
- Tongue
- Tip firmly on the ridge; the sides drop so the voice flows around them.
- Jaw
- Slightly open.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
The little yellow ball rolled along the wall.
Please leave the last letter in the hall.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have a clear l in every position, so a final English L can sound too light where English uses the darker one.
- Tamil
Tamil has three l sounds at different places, so the English one has to be aimed at the ridge rather than the palate.
- Mandarin
Mandarin has l only at the start of a syllable, so a final L in 'well' is often dropped or replaced by a vowel.
- Cantonese
Cantonese has l at the start of a syllable but not at the end, so 'ball' and 'school' lose the L or turn it into a vowel.
- Japanese
Japanese has one liquid, a quick tap, that sits between English L and R, so the two English sounds land on it and 'light' and 'right' merge.
- Korean
Korean has one liquid too — a tap between vowels, an l at the end of a syllable — so the L/R contrast has to be built from scratch.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has no final l, so 'school' tends to lose its ending.
- Thai
Thai has l at the start of a syllable, but a final l becomes n, so 'ball' can end like 'bahn'.
- Portuguese
In Brazilian Portuguese a final l becomes a w, so 'ball' comes out as 'bow' and 'well' as 'wew'.
- French
French l is clear everywhere, so the dark English L at the end of 'full' sounds foreign to the ear and is often replaced by the clear one.
- German
German l is clear in every position too, so the dark final L of English is the part that needs building.
- Russian
Russian has a hard and a soft l, and the hard one is darker than the English L at the start of a word, so 'light' can sound heavy.
Straight answers
Is /l/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. Every English vowel is voiced too, so the buzz never stops between this sound and the vowel next to it.
What words start with the L sound?
Common ones include light, look, letter. In the middle of a word you get yellow, follow, believe, and at the end ball, well, school. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /l/ spelled in English?
It is written "l", "ll", "le", "el". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /l/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a clear l in every position, so a final English L can sound too light where English uses the darker one.
Record the L sound and see if it landed
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