English pronounciation help?

Question

I heard when you speak "n" in a word, you always touch the roof of your mouth, such as taNks, weNt, aNswer etc.
But what about "ng", I heard we don't need to touch the roof for it?

So words like runnING, swimmING, chaNGe, raNGe, you don't touch the roof for N? But for the rest, I must. Am I right?

Answer 1

For the 'ing' bits, you touch the soft palate with the back of the tongue. Also in 'tanks' because of the [k] sound. In 'change' and 'range' you use a normal 'n' as in 'answer'.

Answer 2

First, the sound in "change" and "running" isn't the same, though it's spelled the same.

Then NG or engma (runniNG) is a velar, so the tongue is in the back of the mouth. That's why when the G is "dropped", what happens is the velar is palatalized and the NG becomes a plain N.

However, the N-GE is not a single consonant. It's two: N + DZH or DJ, and the E signals this. Change is pronounced (somewhat) like "chain-dzh".

Answer 3

You still have to touch the roof of your mouth but you do it further back closer to your throat. It should sound like it is nasal.

Answer 4

well i think you find that in certain words your tong touches the roof at different times depending on the world said...but yes you are right about the words you say...lol