The king's long song brings strong young singers along.
This tongue twister trains the NG sound at the end of words. Say it too far and a hard g pops out, so sing turns into sing-g. Say it too short and it becomes sin, which is a different word.
👅 Sounds to Practise
- NG /ŋ/, as in king, long, song and young. The back of your tongue touches the soft part at the top of your mouth, and the air leaves through your nose. It is like n, but further back. The g is not a separate sound, so the tongue just stays and lets go.
- The ending to avoid: do not add a hard g at the end. Sing is not sing-guh.
Quick test: say sing and hold the end. Your tongue stays still, and you can feel a buzz in your nose. If you close your nose, the sound stops.
🐢 Start Slow
Say each chunk slowly.
The king's long song
brings strong young singers
along.
🚶 Normal Speed
Say it at a natural pace, with the stressed syllables in capitals:
The KINGS LONG SONG BRINGS STRONG YOUNG SING-ers a-LONG.
🚀 Tongue-Twister Mode
Say it three times in a row, as fast as you can:
The king's long song brings strong young singers along.
If it falls apart, that is normal. Slow down and try again. Keep each ng soft and short, and leave the hard g out.
🤯 Why Is This So Difficult?
The NG sound happens at the back of the mouth, and you repeat it eight times in one line.
- The tongue stays back. Words like king, long and song end with the tongue still touching the roof of the mouth. The next word must start from there.
- Hard to end. Many learners add a g or drop to an n. Both give the wrong word.
- A few have extra sounds. King's ends with ng + z, so you must move straight from the back of the mouth to a hissing sound.
- The last word starts with a vowel. Along begins with uh, so the end of singers has to join smoothly to it.
👀 Words to Notice
Say these pairs slowly. The ending decides which word you say:
- sing / sin
- song / son
- sung / sun
- wing / win
- thing / thin
- rang / ran
Put your fingers lightly on your nose. For the first word in each pair, you should feel a buzz.
🏆 OddLingo Challenge
- Round 1: say it slowly, one chunk at a time, with no hard g.
- Round 2: say the whole twister once at normal speed.
- Round 3: say it three times fast without stopping.
Bonus round: if you survived all three, try this one:
Strong young kings sing long songs.
🧐 Did You Know?
The letters ng do not always say the same thing. At the end of a word like sing, you say the plain NG with no hard g. But in a word like finger or angry, you say NG and then a hard g.
Words like longer, stronger and younger also add the hard g: LONG-ger. But singer keeps the plain sound: SING-er.
🔗 Related Practice
- A Skunk on a Stump: another twister with a hard back-of-the-mouth ending.
- Six Shy Sheep: a different pair of sounds made at the front of the mouth.