SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /m/: the m sound in man

Close both lips and hum through your nose for /m/. Finish home and time with your lips together, and avoid changing final /m/ into /n/.

/m/

American English: /m/ · nasal · bilabial · voiced
British English: /m/ · nasal · bilabial · voiced

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Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

My mum makes warm milk.

Mouth & tongue

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Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

Both lips close, as for /b/, but the soft palate lowers so air escapes through the nose. The vocal folds vibrate throughout. You can hold it like a hum.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

At the end of a word, the lips must actually close. Pinch your nose while holding /m/: the sound stops, which shows that air is passing through the nose.

Mandarin syllables do not end in m, and very few Spanish words do, so both groups should really close the lips at the end of home.

Build the sound, step by step

Close your lips softly and hum, feeling vibration around your nose.
Open into a vowel to say man, with no burst at the lips.
Say home and time, and hold the closed lips for a moment at the end.

What to watch for

Leaving the lips open at the end makes /n/ or /ŋ/: some and sun can merge.
Do not add a vowel after final /m/: time has one syllable.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Alternate some and sun, then time and tine. Keep the vowel steady. For /m/, finish with both lips closed; for /n/, keep the lips apart and the tongue on the ridge.

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026