English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 6
Category:
Spelling-to-sound
Author: JAM
In the middle of a word, the combination of letters <ng> can be pronounced in different ways. In words like anger, finger, hunger, linger, where the <-er> ending is not a suffix (a finger is not someone who fings!) the combination is pronounced /Ng/. In words where the ending is a suffix, such as singer, singing, strongly, the combination is pronounced /N/.
As you might expect, there are some exceptions. The most important of these involves the comparative ("more") and superlative ("most") forms of the adjectives long, strong and young. Because the endings are suffixes, you would expect the /N/ pronunciation, but what you get is the /Ng/ pronunciation:
| Comparative | Superlative | |
| long | /lQNg@/ | /lQNgIst/ |
| strong | /strQNg@/ | /strQNgIst/ |
| young | /jVNg@/ | /jVNgIst/ |
Finally, there are words like danger and ginger, where the <ng> combination is pronounced /ndZ/.