British English accent training from Pronuntia: Some free advice

Some free tips on English pronunciation

Final Consonants

In English, words may end in up to four consonants, as in 'twelfths'. More commonly, they end in one, two or three consonants, as in

Win
Wind
Winds

Not all languages allow for so many consonants at the end of words. Therefore some learners of English 'drop' word-final consonants. They are simply not used to stringing so many consonants together.

However, it is vitally important that we pronounce all consonants at the ends of words. If we drop the last consonant of a word we may inadvertently end up saying a different word. For example,

Mine instead of 'mind'
May instead of 'make'
Lie instead of 'light'

Our Tip

• Be careful to pronounce all consonants at the ends of words.
• Be sure to make them audible to your listeners – don't swallow them.
• If they are 'stop' consonants, such as [k], [p] or [t], try to release them with a little explosion of air, to ensure your listeners can hear them.