Phonetics hell

Just a little bit about what I'm dealing with this semester, here's an "announcement" that was posted to my online class review board this morning: 

I hope this clears up some confusion about some words on quiz 1... We will discuss them again in the next Live Review  if you want to.

Bring /br8a/  4 sounds

Finger /f8ag5/  5 sounds

Cure /kyu5/  or  /kyur/  4 sounds

When we produce the ‘ng’ sound, our tongue goes to the back of our throat. However, we don’t release our tongue with a hard stop as you would when you say the ‘g’ sound.. Try it yourself.. just the ‘ng’ sound. When you are finished saying the sound, your tongue gradually lowers; it does not allow pressure to build up behind it and then released abruptly as you do when you produce the ‘g’. 

‘bring’ has only the 4 sounds. The word ends with the ‘ng’i sound, and the ‘ng’ is considered only one sound. Try saying ‘ bring’ with an additional ‘g’ sound and listen to yourself. If you say it in a sentence, it’s more obvious that there is no ‘g’. Try saying, ‘Bring me some water.’ with a ‘g’ at the end of the word ‘ bring’… It might sound like an Italian accent, ‘Bring-ga me some water.’  Does this make sense?

‘finger’ does have the ‘g’ next to the ‘ng’ . Therefore, there are 5 sounds in it. The second syllable ‘ger’ starts with the ‘g’ sound. Try saying ‘finger’ without the ‘g’ – /f8a 5/… That doesn’t sound right.

Hope this doesn’t ‘confuse’ you, but ‘singer’ does NOT thave the ‘g’ sound like you would think. It is transcribed as /s8a5/. If you need more ‘proof’, try saying it with a ‘g’ …

‘cure’ has the ‘y’ (as in ‘yes’, ‘yak’, ‘yellow’). I think most people don’t realize this sound is here since you are used to saying ‘u’ as if it’s only one sound.
Remember, when you are talking about the vowel ‘u’, and you say the vowel ‘u’, you are actually producing two sounds, not one. If I say ‘you’, which is how you pronounce this vowel when you are saying its vowel name, you are actually saying two sounds/yu/ in which the ‘j’ is the phonetic symbol for the ‘y’f sound. However, the SOUND of this vowel is only /u/.

*** If you have called or emailed me, or posted a question, have I responded, or has it been answered? If not, please ask me again!!

It is definitely going to be a LOOOOOONG semester! Here's to making it to December alive in one piece!