Frank's Pink Ink: An NK Tongue Twister

Frank thinks the thick pink ink stinks ends five words on the same NK sound, so your tongue keeps having to finish on a hard K.

Frank thinks the thick pink ink stinks.

Five of the seven words end in NK or NKS. The hum before the K is easy to lose, and thick sits in the middle with a K but no hum at all.

👅 Sounds to Practise

NK /ŋk/, as in Frank, pink and ink. The sound before the K is the NG sound, made at the back of the mouth, with a gentle hum.
NKS /ŋks/, as in thinks and stinks. The same sound, with an S on the end.
TH /θ/, as in thinks and thick. Put the tip of your tongue between your teeth and blow.
TH /ð/, as in the. The same tongue position, with a buzz in your throat.

Quick test: say sing, then sink. Keep the same hum and add the K.

Say each chunk slowly. Let the hum come before the K.

Frank thinks
the thick pink
ink stinks.

Say it at a natural pace, with the stressed syllables in capitals:

FRANK THINKS the THICK PINK INK STINKS.

Say it three times in a row, as fast as you can:

Frank thinks the thick pink ink stinks.

If thinks turns into thicks, or pink turns into pick, slow down and let the hum come before the K.

The same ending, five times. NK or NKS finishes Frank, thinks, pink, ink and stinks, so your tongue never gets a break.
The hum or the K disappears. Say it fast and pink can turn into pick or ping, because one of the two sounds gets dropped.
Thick has a K but no hum. Thinks and thick start the same way, but only one has the NG hum, so you have to switch between them in a split second.
Three TH sounds in a row. Thinks, the and thick use the tongue between the teeth, and the middle one is buzzy while the other two are not.

Bonus round: try this one:

Hank thanked the bank for a thick pink drink.

In think and pink, the N is not a normal N. Before a K, it turns into the NG sound, even though there is no G in the spelling.