English Pronunciation: -ING & -INK word endings

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I'm Gill from at engVid, and we have a lesson today on pronunciation of two sounds, which

are similar, but different: "ing", which comes at the end of a lot of verbs: "walking", "talking",

"cooking", "cleaning", that sort of thing; the present participle.

And another one: "ink", which also has a sort of "in" sound in it as well, so they are...

They have a similarity, but there's also a difference.

So, I find that with some of my students, they don't quite get the pronunciations right,

and some students with "ing" do a sort of hard "g" sound at the end, like: "ing", "ing",

but you don't need to do that.

You can stop before that hard "g" sound.

It looks, from the spelling, as if it's needed, but it's not, so it's just: "ing", "ing",

"ing", and it's sort of in the throat, and you don't have to do a "ga", "ga" in...

In your mouth, the sound in the mouth with it.

So: "ing".

And then with "ink", there's still a "in" sound in it, but it ends with a "k".

And I find also some of my students, maybe from Eastern Europe in particular, say "ink"

when they're really trying to say "ing", so they might say: "singingk", "lookingk", "cleaningk",

and that also is wrong.

So, no hard "g" and no "k" for the "ings".

So, I thought what we could do is look at some words that are real words in both...

Under both headings.

So, we've got: "sing" and "sink", so it helps you to practice the slight difference between

So, also hopefully there may be some new vocabulary here for you, so you can learn some new words

at the same time.

So, let's have a look.

Let's go through the "ings" first, so: "sing", and we can also...

With some of these, if they're a verb, we can say: "singing", "singing", so both of

those sounds; that sound comes twice.

So, don't make the "ga" or "ka" sound with it.

"Thing", "thing".

"Ring", so you could have: "ringing", "ringing", and it's just "na", "na", "na" in your throat,

"Ringing", "ringing".

"Ping", "pinging", "pinging".

So, "ping"...

"Ping" is a funny word.

It sort of suggests a sound, like a little ringing sound: "Ping, ping, ping", if something

makes that sort of sound.

And also it's used in computing, if you ping someone to see how long it takes for a message

Or some people just say: "I'll ping that across to you", meaning: I will email it across to you.

They use "ping" to mean send, as well as the more technical meaning of seeing how long

it takes for a message to reach somewhere.

So: "ping" and "pinging".

"Bring", I'm sure you know that word.

"Bring", to bring something with you.

I...

"Will you bring a bottle to the party?"

Something like that.

"Wing" on a bird, the...

The bird flies with the wings.

"Ming" has a capital "M" because it's the Ming dynasty in China, so you get very valuable

pieces of pottery or porcelain.

A vase - you could have a Ming vase, for example; very valuable, very old.

"King", I'm sure you know the word "king".

The king and the queen in countries where they have royalty.

Ah, now this is a funny one.

"Bling" is a little bit sort of an informal, slang word.

It refers to people who like to wear a lot of jewellery, lots of very noticeable, thick...

A thick, gold necklace, lots of rings, big rings on their hands, on their fingers.

Just to show how much money they have, they buy lots of jewellery, and it's big and shiny,

and that's called "bling".

A lot of very noticeable jewellery is... is called "bling", to show off how much money

you have to spend on things like that.

So, that's quite a funny word.

So, just to go on to the "ink", so: "sink".

So, you still get the "in" sound in it, but you can then put the "k" on.

So, you might have: "sinking"; you might actually add "ing" to it.

A lot of these, you could add "ing".

So, you can practice both in...

In one word: "sink" and "sink"... "sinking", "sinking", so that's a good one for practicing

both in one word.

And: "thinking", "thinking".

"Sink", when you go under water, you sink; or if you throw a stone into the water, it's

heavy so it sinks; it goes down to the bottom.

A "rink" is where people skate on the ice; an ice rink.

Ice-skating rink.

Which is either circular or square, where you can go skating.

"Pink" - the colour.

I've got pink on; that's a nice coincidence.

"Brink" means the edge of something.

If you're on the edge of a... a pond or something, you're on the brink of the pond; the edge.

"Wink" - when you close one eye like this, which is supposed to mean something to somebody.

If you're sharing a joke with somebody or a secret, you might wink at them.

So, "winking", "winking".

You can practice both in one word, there.

"Mink" is a fur; very expensive fur.

So, you might have a fur coat, and the mink is a little animal which is bred specially

But it's not very acceptable nowadays; people don't like to see people wearing fur coats

which are animal... real animal furs, because... because of the way the animals are treated,

just to produce fur for somebody to wear an expensive coat.

A lot of people don't really approve of that now.

So, anyway, a mink coat is very expensive because of the...

The cost of producing it.

"Kink"... a "kink" is if you've got maybe a piece of...

A piece of wood or a piece of metal, but it's not straight; it has a kink in it.

It's got something, a little bend in it or something.

And you may also have heard of a pop group from the 1960s called "The Kinks" with a capital

"K".

The Kinks, who were very popular, and they're still...

Their music is still popular now, really, with a lot of people.

So, there's also the adjective: "kinky", which has a slightly different meaning.

You can have kinky boots, for example.

If you have boots to wear which maybe are leather, they might be...

Come up to your thighs, they look very interesting, interesting style - they're called "kinky

And then "blink", it's like "wink", only usually you close both eyes and open them again - that's

So, you can say: "blinking", "blinking" like that, and practice both in one word.

Okay, so I hope that's helpful.

I know it's quite difficult to... to get used to the... producing the sound; you have to

practice it, really, until you've got it.

So, it helps to have these words written down and have a list at home where you can just

go through it and read them off maybe once a day or something just to get used to the

So, just to recap: "sing", "ing", "ing", it's like that in the throat.

"Sing", "singing", "singing".

So, don't make a "ga" or a "ka" at the end for that.

And then these also have the "in" in them, but with a "k" sound.

"Sink", "sink".

And also there's the...

The stuff that you write with: "ink" that you put in your pen or that's already in the

pen; the ink, ink.

So, it's "in" in your throat with a "k" added, but no "k" for this one.

Okay, so maybe just to finish, I will read through these quickly without too much emphasis

so that you can hear them in a sort of normal...

At a normal speed.

Right, so here we go: "sing", "singing", "thing", "ring", "ringing", "ping", "pinging", "bring",

"bringing", "wing", "Ming", "king", "bling".

"Sink", "sinking", "think", "thinking", "rink", "pink", "brink", "wink", "winking", "mink",

"kink", "blink", "blinking".

Okay, so I hope that's helpful.

So, please go to the website, www.engvid.com where there will be a quiz.

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And hope to see you again soon.

Thanks for watching.