/ŋ/

Raise the back of your tongue up to touch your soft palate - that's the fleshy area at the very back of the roof of your mouth. Keep your lips slightly open and relaxed. Now hum: let air flow out through your nose while your vocal cords vibrate. Your tongue tip should hang loose near your lower teeth, doing nothing. You should feel vibration in your nose and a resonance at the back of your throat.

Think of it as humming "ng" - the sound at the end of "sing" held continuously.

Here's a tricky part: sometimes the spelling "ng" is just /ŋ/ alone, and sometimes it's /ŋg/ (with an audible /g/ following).

The rule: If you can remove the suffix (-er, -ing, -ed) and still have a word, it's /ŋ/ alone. If not, pronounce /ŋg/.

• "singer" = /sɪŋər/ (sing + er = /ŋ/ only)
• "finger" = /fɪŋgər/ (fing is not a word = /ŋg/)
• "ringing" = /rɪŋɪŋ/ (ring + ing = /ŋ/ only)
• "anger" = /æŋgər/ (ang is not a word = /ŋg/)

Comparatives add /g/ back: "long" is /lɔŋ/, but "longer" is /lɔŋgər/. Same for "stronger" and "younger."

When you see "nk" (as in "think," "bank," "drink"), your tongue naturally shifts from /n/ to /ŋ/ because /k/ is made in the same back position. So "think" is actually /θɪŋk/, not /θɪnk/. This happens automatically - just let it flow.

The key difference: /n/ uses your tongue tip at the ridge behind your upper teeth, while /ŋ/ uses your tongue back at the soft palate. Compare "sin" vs "sing" - feel how the closure point moves from front to back.

Try holding your tongue tip down with your finger while making the sound. If you can still produce a nasal hum, you're using the back of your tongue correctly.