Completely problematic - clusters with /l/

Welcome to season 5 of English Sound Building! Today, reviewing a lot of sounds in tricky clusters with /l/.

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Transcript

Today will be a very similar ride to last week: we’re looking at more tricky clusters, but this time with /l/. This is of course going to be great practice with the /l/ sound, which we’ve only spoken about in detail once before, in Episode 22 “A Little Chill”.  There, you may remember, we found that there are two ‘l’ sounds in English, light ‘l’, which is pronounced with the tongue making contact with the alveolar ridge and then being released, as we hear before vowel sounds, for example listen, and then dark ‘l’, where the back of the tongue raises towards the palate to make the sound we hear in will. Now, today we’re looking at clusters where the second letter is /l/. Here, we’ll get clear /l/, rather than dark /l/. That doesn’t mean that dark /l/ doesn’t appear in clusters: it does, and there are plenty, for example adult, cold, difficult, else,  film, helpful, milk, salt, walk, welcome. There’ll be more of these next week, too. 

As last week, you’ll also find this a great review of the other consonant sounds which /l/ clusters with, notably /b/, /k/, /f/, /g/, /p/, and /s/. And, even if you’re confident with all these clusters, there will of course be plenty of different vowel sounds involved, as well. As last week, if and where you’re finding these clusters tricky, my best tip is to slow right down – really exaggerate it – and practise transitioning between the two sounds.

First of all, clusters with /bl/. We met /b/ just last season, in Episode 37 “Buy Pies” and again in Episode 38 “My Best Vest”. 

Listen, and repeat: black, blank, blog, blonde, blood, blow, blue, problem, 

And now a sentence with some of those words: The problem blow left the boxer black, blue and bloodied. Black and blue is an idiom for heavily bruised, by the way.

/kl/ - we met /k/ back in Episode 29 “Cold Gold”. 

Listen, and repeat: classical, clear, clever, climate, climb, clock, close (prep.), close (vb.), clothes, cloud, club, include. 

And now for a sentence with some of those words: The clever climber climbed close to the classical climbing club.

Now to /fl/. To review /f/, go back to Episode 23 “Fewer Viewers”.

Listen and repeat: flash, flat, flight, float, flood, floor, flow, flower, fly, 

And a sentence with some of those words: The flight flew flat over the flash floods.

Now on to /gl/. To review /g/, it’s the same episode as /k/, Episode 29 “Cold Gold”.

Listen, and repeat: glad, glance, glamour, glass, glitter, global, gloss, glove, glue, 

And a sentence: I gladly glanced at her glamourous gloves, gloss and glitter. 

Now moving to /pl/ clusters. We met /p/ back with /b/ in Episode 37 “Buy Pies”. 

Listen, and repeat: complain, completely, employer, place, plan, plane, plant, plastic, plate, platform, play, please, supply, 

And a sentence: The place supplied completely plastic plants and plates. 

/sl/ clusters

asleep, slang, sleep, slice, slide, slightly, slip, slippers, slow, slowly,  

And a sentence: He slowly slid off his slippers and slipped into a deep sleep.

Now on to a triple cluster: /spl/. As in other /sp/ clusters, the /p/ here is indistinguishable from /b/.

Listen, and repeat: explain, explode, display, splash, splendid, splinter, split, splutter, 

And a sentence: They explained that the display had exploded into splendid splinters.

A few notes to end on.

We also find plenty of /l/ clusters with the suffixes -ly and -less, and these may involve different consonants to those we’ve discussed today, for example certainly, differently, exactly, friendly, loudly, or sadly. As last week, we also find the cluster /nl/ in a few words starting with the prefix -un, for example unlike, unlit, or unloved.  And, of course there’s the prefix on, and one of our most commonly used words now: online.