IPA phoneme /l/

l

look /lʊk/

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /l/ (lowercase L) corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "look" and "last" and the final one in "school" and "girl".

When /l/ occurs at the end of a syllable or before a consonant, the tongue usually comes towards the back of the mouth. Some speech pronunciation coaches call it a "dark L".

In Estuary English /l/ in final position is a vowel. For example milk is pronounced [mɪok] and middle is [ˈmɪdo].

Common words

Initial pronunciation of /l/:

• large - last - late - leave - let - life - like - little - live - long - look - lot - love

Medial pronunciation of /l/:

• As "l": also - child - clear - help - include - old - only - place - problem - world
• As "ll": actually - allow - challenge - college - dollar - follow - really - village

Final pronunciation of /l/:

• As "l": control - deal - feel - level - school - several - social - total - travel - until
• As "ll": all - call - cell - fall - full - kill - sell - skill - small - still - tell - wall - well - will
• With magic e: file - mile - module - role - rule - sale - smile - style - while - whole
• With silent e: able - available - couple - example - little - people - possible - table

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

See also

• IPA phonetic symbol [l̩] (syllabic /l/)
• Lesson:L vs R
• Decoding the letter L

External links

• British Library: Learning - Sounds Familiar?