Today’s question comes from a website visitor from Russia:
“I’d like you to add some examples with some gerunds. I’ve got some problems with the double “ng”:
– Singing, hanging, etc.
I can’t understand whether you (the Americans) pronounce the sound “g” after the first “ng” (I’m sorry that I can’t picture some sounds):
1. Sing – [ s i NG ].
– Singing – [ ‘ s i NG i NG ] or [ ‘ s i NG g i NG ].
2. Hang – [ h ae NG ].
– Hanging – [ ‘ h ae NG i NG ] or [ ‘ h ae NG g i NG ].
Last variants in the examples look like the word “angry” with “g” after “ng” – [ ‘ ae NG g r i ].
Thank you, Jennifer.
Best wishes”
Wow…what a question!
First, NG is one sound. N and G are also separate sounds.
The answer to this question depends on where (i.e. the region of the US) an American speaker lives.
Where I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, we make a hard G, then add the NG. In fact, our NG is not one sound, but two: N+G. (SIN+G+IN+G)
In the south, people would say the first NG then would drop the G at the end (singin)
“Standard” (i.e. TV English) would pronounce both NG’s as one sound: (Si+ng+i+ng)
My suggestion is to focus on the NG at the end of a word. When the NG is in the middle of the word, then it doesn’t matter as much. You can say N+G or NG. If you drop the extra G ) like in [ ‘ ae NG g r i ] it won’t impact your clarity.
My rule of thumb is to be clear and effective in communication Don’t worry about being perfect. Even us native speakers have variations and make mistakes.
Good luck!