Lessons Unit 4, lesson 2
Endings that stack: hand, lamp, milk
Two consonants at the end of a word. Research says final clusters are the easier kind — the vowel is already done, so the consonants just close the door one after the other. Don't add a vowel between them: hand, not hand-uh.
What do the marks mean?
Want the full walkthrough? Read the map explains every mark, with practice.
Now say it yourself
Read each word from its sheet, out loud, three times. Where there's a play button, listen first and copy what you hear. Slow is fine — speaking clearly matters more than speaking fast. Tap a word's microphone to record yourself and see which sounds landed.
Check your pronunciation, on this device. The first use downloads a small AI listener (about 40 MB, one time, then it's cached). Your voice is analyzed here in your browser — it never leaves your device.
Why endings that stack feel new
Hand, lamp, milk — here two consonants close the word back to back with nothing between them. English does this constantly, and it's actually the friendlier direction for learners: the vowel is already finished, so your mouth just closes one gate after another, n then d, m then p, l then k. Once you can hear that two-step closing, whole sentences full of these words stop feeling rushed.
The trap to avoid
The mistake is sneaking a vowel in between: hand becomes hand-uh, milk becomes milk-uh. Say the final two sounds as one quick step, with no breath and no extra vowel in the middle. Practise by whispering just the ending — nd, mp, lk — before you attach it to the rest of the word, then say the full word without slowing back down.
Listen for the two-step ending each time: n…d, m…p, l…k. Two sounds, no vowel between.