How to pronounce the M sound /m/
/m/ is a voiced consonant made with both lips (bilabial). Close your lips gently — no pressure. Turn the voice on and let the sound go out through your nose.
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How to make it
- 1Close your lips gently — no pressure.
- 2Turn the voice on and let the sound go out through your nose.
- 3Hold it: M can be stretched as long as your breath, which is how you know the nose is open.
- 4Open the lips to move into the vowel; the hum does not stop, it changes.
- Lips
- Closed and relaxed.
- Tongue
- Low and free.
- Jaw
- Nearly closed.
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
My mother remembered the summer room in the morning.
Tom made him some warm milk at home.
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 m, so the sound is secure; the difficulty is silent-letter spellings like 'comb' and 'autumn'.
- Mandarin
Mandarin has no final m, so 'time' and 'room' tend to end in n instead.
- Cantonese
Cantonese does have final m, so the sound is secure; it is one of the few cases where the transfer helps.
- Japanese
Japanese has one nasal at the end of a syllable whose shape follows the next sound, so a final M can drift toward N or ng.
- Korean
Korean allows final m, so it is available, but it is unreleased and English listeners expect the lips to open audibly.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has final m, and after a rounded vowel it can close the lips early, shortening the vowel in 'room'.
- Thai
Thai has final m, so it is available, though it is unreleased and can sound clipped.
- Spanish
Spanish has no word-final m, so it usually becomes n and 'room' ends like 'roon'.
- Portuguese
In Portuguese a final m nasalises the vowel instead of closing the lips, so 'time' can end as a nasal vowel with no M.
- French
French m at the end of a syllable often nasalises the vowel rather than closing the lips, so 'him' can lose its M.
- Arabic
Arabic has m in every position, so it transfers cleanly.
- Turkish
Turkish has m in every position too, so it transfers cleanly; the only catch is English silent-b spellings.
Straight answers
Is /m/ 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 M sound?
Common ones include moon, make, money. In the middle of a word you get summer, family, remember, and at the end time, him, room. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /m/ spelled in English?
It is written "m", "mm", "mb", "mn", "lm". 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 /m/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have m, so the sound is secure; the difficulty is silent-letter spellings like 'comb' and 'autumn'.
Record the M sound and see if it landed
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