IPA phoneme /g/



In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /g/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "get" and the final one in "bag" and "egg".

/g/ is a voiced consonant; its unvoiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /k/.

In strict IPA this symbol is what is called "script lowercase G" or "open tail g" (Unicode+0261), as opposed to "loop tail g": g. The normal "g" (Unicode+0067) has a loop tail only in fonts with serifs; in sans serif fonts the normal g is open tailed and Unicode+0067 and Unicode+0261 look identical. However, if you search in your browser for the sequence "g" you will not find the letter in the boxes with title "Strict IPA".

There is no risk of confusion if g is used, and the IPA has ruled that this symbol is also acceptable.

Common words
Initial pronunciation of /g/: Final pronunciation of /g/: Mid -word pronunciation of /g/:
 * game - garden - gave - gear - get - ghost - girl - give - go - good - got - grant - grass - gray - great - green - grey - group - guess - guitar
 * bag - big - bug - dialog - dialogue - dog - drag - drug - egg - flag - fog - leg - log - pig
 * with "g": again - ago - agree - begin - figure - luggage - organisation - organization - program - programme - regard - struggle - target - together
 * with "x": auxiliary /ɔːɡˈzɪliːəriː/ - exam /ɪɡˈzæm/ - example  - exhibit  exhilarating  exit

Assimilation
/sg/ may be pronounced /sk/ in some words: the /g/ is devoiced because /s/ is unvoiced. Alternatively, the /s/ may become voiced, giving /zg/.
 * disgusting /dɪsˈgʌstɪŋ, dɪˈskʌstɪŋ, dɪzˈgʌstɪŋ/
 * disguise /dɪsˈgaɪz, dɪˈskaɪz, dɪzˈgaɪz/
 * disgrace /dɪsˈɡreɪs, dɪˈskreɪs /

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
Spanish speakers tend not to have any problems with /g/ as an initial or mid-position consonant. However, as a final consonant, there's a very definite tendency to pronounce it as [x], a sound which corresponds to the letter "j" in Spanish,. Alternatively it may be pronounced as [ɣ]. I.e. instead of [ɛg] or [eg] for "egg", it'll more likely than not come out as [ex] or [eɣ].

Likewise, as a final consonant there's a difficulty in noticing the difference between /g/ and /k/, i.e. many people need practice in differentiating words like "bag" and "back".

And, of course, at the back of every native Spanish speaker's mind is that nagging doubt as to whether to pronounce any "ge" or "gi" sequence they see as /dʒ/, as in age...