Natural speed, plain American accent please. Please don't speak the words in the [brackets], those are instructions for how to pronounce the symbol. For /m/ say the sound it makes "muh" and /n/ "nuh"
In contrast to a vowel, consonants are sounds of speech that are made by constricting the vocal tract. There are many types of consonants.
Some are made by use of the tongue such as while others are with the lips, and others a combination of both. A few completely block off the flow of air from the mouth, forcing it through the nose. Some are constant while others are made by rapid bursts of air in the vocal tract.
Some are voiced, meaning a sound is made in the vocal chords in addition to the passage of air, while others are unvoiced.
There are 24 different types of consonants in the English language. This is a quite a bit to process so we will break this down into groups.
Let’s Start with Nasal consonants.
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your mouth and let the air pass through your nose. Hence, the term nasal.
There are three nasal consonants in English.
/m/ such as in the words “my” …. “clam”…. “some” …. the oral passage is blocked by closing the lips ( we call this bilabial).
/n/ such as in the words “nine”…. "no” …. “under" - the oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the hard ridge just behind your teeth.
[make the sound “nya” like in the following words or Spanish ñ]
/ŋ/ - "going" and “canyon”- the oral passage is blocked by pressing the the back of your tongue against the soft palate (this is what we refer to as “velar").
