In this episode of Embarrassing English Errors Ep02 I teach you the subtle difference in pronunciation of the words ankle & uncle.

Download the full PDF transcript here.

Embarrassing English Errors Ep02 – Ankle & Uncle

G’day guys, and welcome to episode two of Embarrassing English Errors. Today I’m going to run you through the difference between the pronunciation of the words “ankle” and “uncle”. “Ankle” and “uncle”.

So, these are two different nouns, and obviously “ankle” is part of your foot, where your foot meets your leg. That’s your ankle. And “uncle” is one of your parents’ brothers. So, it could be your mother’s brother, it could be your father’s brother, and that person is called your uncle. And he will quite often be married to your aunt.

Anyway, so, obviously you can confuse these two nouns and if you’re talking about your “ankle”, the part of your foot, but you’re mispronouncing it “uncle” you’re going to confuse people. And if you’re talking about your “uncle” and aunt, but you’re pronouncing “uncle”, “ankle”, you’re going to also confuse a few people.

So, what are some other words that sound like “ankle”?

Angst

Anvil

Anguish

Angle

Anger

Angler

Anglo

Angers

Angered

And what are some other words that sound like “uncle”?

Unclad

Unclasp

Unclean

Unclear

Uncool

Unclog

Unclench

Uncurl

So, let’s practice the pronunciation of “ang” vs “ung”, and I’ll repeat this five times.

Ang – Ung x 5

So, now we’ll go through some real and fake words to practice the pronunciation of these two vowel sounds after certain consonants. So, don’t worry too much about these words, more use them for a way of practicing these two different vowel sounds “ang” and “ung”.

Bang – Bung

Strangle – Strungle

Flangle – Flangle

Thrang – Thrung

Mangle – Mungle

Stang – Stung

Blang – Blung

Rang – Rung

Pang – Pung

Kang – Kung

And now we can just go over “ankle” and “uncle”, the two different words, ten times.

Ankle – Uncle x 10

So, that’s the difference between the two words “ankle” and “uncle” guys. I hope this episode has helped. Um… practice it multiple times if you need to keep practicing your pronunciation. And if you have any other words or sounds that you’re finding difficult to pronounce in Australian English or English in general then please let me know on Facebook. Send me a message or comment on something and I’ll do an episode on it as soon as I can.

Have a good one guys!