The L at the beginning is sometimes called "light L," and the L and the end is called "dark L." Use the videos below to hear the difference and practice words with American L.
like, lead, list
When L comes at the end of the word, you still need to lift the front of your tongue behind your teeth, but the back of your tongue stays down. Use a schwa sound before the L to get this dark L sound.
call, feel, little
Be careful not to use the light L from the start of words when the L is at the end.
In words like these, the letter L is a syllabic L. A syllable is usually made up of a vowel sound with or without a consonant sound before or after or both. For syllabic L, the consonant is the whole syllable.
it sounds like "uh-L". If you think of it as starting on vowel schwa, uh, and moving quickly to the final L sound, you’ll get it. uh-L, L Sometimes this is called a dark L.
Be careful to make this L different from the L at the start of words. You can learn more about initial and Final L in the first video in this post.
Syllabic /ḷ/ is usually an unstressed syllable after a consonant sound at the end of the word. Let’s try saying a few.
able
animal
people
little
beautiful
possible
bottle
Seattle
simple
special