In American English pronunciation, the symbol /ə/ preceding the consonant /m/, /n/, /ng/and /l/ does not itself represent a sound. It signifies instead that the following consonant (“m”, “ṇ”, “ɪŋ” and “ḷ”) is syllabic that is the consonant itself forms the nucleus of a syllable that does not contain a vowel. When the "–ING" suffix is added to a verb with a syllabic consonant, the syllabic consonant may either be retained as such or it simply becomes the initial consonant of the extra syllable.