I good like a cup of tea. /w/ vs. /ɡ/

Lizz: What would you like to drink?

Miguel: I good like a cup of tea.

Lizz: Hmmm...

Just a quickie before breakfast. The phonemes /w/ and /ɡ/ are both made using the back of the tongue and the velum. If you're not sure what that is, put your tongue tip on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Then, keeping contact, draw it back in your mouth at far as you can manage - you should hopefully end up at a fleshy bit without bone, this is your velum. 

For a /w/, the back of the tongue moves close to the velum but does not touch it. For a /ɡ/, on the other hand, the back of the tongue does make contact with the velum. Now, controlling the back of your tongue is not an easy thing; poor Miguel won't take kindly to you shouting 'Stop touching your velum!' Let's face it, like most of us, he probably won't know what it is either. Luckily there's a quick fix. Here's how:

1. Try producing a /uː/, how does it feel? Bit like a /w/ probably. These two phonemes are very similar, both involve lip protrusion (love that word!) and the back of the tongue moving towards the velum.

2. Ask Miguel to produce an /uː/. Now tell him to replace the /w/ in 'would' with an /uː/ he'll hopefully give you something like /uːwʊd/. Practice a few more times and remind him of this after every 'good' you hear. 

3. Ta da!!!!! Phonetics = magic. Fact.