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According to Wiktionary "string" is pronounced as /stɹɪŋ/. However, all of my acquaintances have split opinions about the 'g' at the end. I'm of a mind that the 'g' is pronounced, e.g. two strings, not two strinns.

I'm interested in which is the correct form and whether it's based on the language region, context, or perhaps something completely different.

Vidak
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    Possible duplicate of The NG sound in casual American speech – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '16 at 12:32
  • The standard Midwest US pronunciation is slightly heaver on the "G" sound than the audio clip in that link. There are people who pronounce it "strin", but I can't characterize where they're from. – Hot Licks Jan 26 '16 at 13:46
  • The general phenomenon is called 'g-dropping', which name is an unfortunate artifact of spelling, but really is a change from the dental-nasal/velar-stop explicit pair /ng/ to the velar-nasal single phoneme /ŋ/. – Mitch Jan 26 '16 at 14:25
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    I can't imagine any variety of English that does not pronounce 'string' as /stɹɪŋ/, even in those that do g-dropping for multisyllabic words. – Mitch Jan 26 '16 at 14:26

1 Answers1

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In the North-west and North-west Midlands of England, the /g/ is regularly pronounced in words like 'sing' and 'string'. As far as I know, everywhere else in the Anglosphere it is not pronounced separately, and the final sound is /ŋ/.

Colin Fine
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  • In New York City, some people pronounce the /g/ if the next word begins with a vowel. Consider the stereotypical pronunciation of Long Island as Long Guyland. – Peter Shor Apr 22 '16 at 03:18